Today the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, being led by the nose by President Eli Capilouto, finalized the dissolution of the University Senate, putting the final nail in the coffin of shared governance.
I feel the need for collective mourning, but we do not have funerals for institutions or ideas. Perhaps we should, but we're all gassed out from fighting this attack and losing.
Within minutes of the vote, we had emails inviting us faculty to serve on some kind of temporary committee while they figure out the new structure.
Those faculty will get paid $6000 😔 overload for one semester of the same time commitment we faculty Senate leaders were previously making for free.
It's literally even the same meeting schedule as the University Senate leadership council that just got dissolved. It's like some grotesque masquerade.
Our college offered about this money for some mentoring job but with rules and when I sent an email about how the pay added up to $18/hour and stop spamming us with this the director of HR emailed me back saying I hurt someone's feelings.
Also, they sent the facility people to the senate council office within a couple of hours of the vote to take the name plate off the door and lock the place up. HR swooped in to give staff options going forward
Just terrible. We're back to questions like, "What is a university?" And, "What is a university for?"
Apparently, a public university is something a tiny group of people can capture and re-shape to serve their own interests.
It's so wrong. 😔
😑
Now coming soon to all KY campuses I’m sure. The way our admin botched this year’s raises, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first agenda item in the fall to curb our fac senate (not that fs has real shared governance at msu).
The statements and written rationales about this have more than a whiff of the Oceania government about them to my ear now. I'm really sorry and sad for all the great people who still work there, and sad on behalf of the students this will affect.
!! Oh gosh. That's bad. Even Gee didn't do that here (although he definitely made it possible for many other presidents, like Capilouto, to confidently make huge cuts).
Sad thing is that there was never any intent to honestly consider feedback or work collaboratively towards solutions, just Eli imposing his will while pretending to be reasonable. Glad I'm gone, because with an admin appointment I would have been expected to support the scheme (or be fired).
It was a good run while it lasted, though. So many great colleagues and opportunities. I’d like to think I left Kentucky, UK, and KGS at least a little better for my having been there.
