Belts are a lot tighter this academic year, and faculty have widely ranging diagnoses and cures for the crisis.
Historiann (a.k.a Ann M. Little, historian at Colorada State) discusses the offer of UNC emeritus faculty to teach for free during the budget crisis, and the administration’s refusal. There’s a lively but polite debate in the comments here about whether this is insulting to the retired faculty or protective of the value of academic labor.
Dance, an anonymous humanities professor at a public university, points out that it’s not really faculty salaries that are driving the budget crisis anyway.
This is why so many faculty turn their frustration on administrators. Ari Kelman, historian at UC Davis, is particularly annoyed at UC President Mark Yudof and his interview in the New York Times.
Claire Potter of Wesleyan, writing as Tenured Radical, takes a more sympathetic stance towards university administrators and the cuts they have to make.
The ever-moderate Timothy Burke of Swarthmore offers a framework for thinking through these debates – how can we fairly weigh the value of different academic courses and departments?
Finally, the pseudonymous Shakespearean Bardiac encourages faculty to use the crisis as a way to re-imagine the future of their disciplines and universities.
Is impact of the recession on your institution something that you’re responding to together, as an institution, or department by department? What cuts to your library budget have faculty noticed, and how have they responded?
PS – For fun, check out Crooked Timber’s list of classics re-titled as contemporary best-sellers. The hilarity continues in the comments.
