As a UMass Faculty Senator who voted in favor of the motion, I would like to add that many, if not most, of the Senators voting against it were deans and other higher-level administrators who were Senators ex officio but had voting rights because they also held academic appointments.
dmf: The motion was non-binding because the Faculty Senate’s role in shared governance is limited to academic affairs. It doesn’t have the right to dictate policy about athletics, but it can express its opinion.
Brian, what FS have realized that if their admins are borrowing money for supposedly non-academic functions, then it’s going to hit academics. UMASS, from what I’ve read, borrowed a heaping bunch for athletic build-outs. No matter what ADs nor their satraps will claim, there is no way that ain’t hitting the academic side of the institution. The UC faculty asked why, if tuition has risen so dramatically the past decade, it wasn’t manifesting in the classroom. This is what they found out:
They Pledge Your Tuition: The Council of UC Faculty Association
cucfa.org/news/tuition_bonds.php
When any uni takes on debt for recreation centers, luxury dorms or stadiums, the student loans become the collateral. That money is earmarked for the debt service and very little will be left for anything else. What’s taking place at the UCs is the same mechanism used throughout the country….
August 13th, 2016 at 1:30PM
As a UMass Faculty Senator who voted in favor of the motion, I would like to add that many, if not most, of the Senators voting against it were deans and other higher-level administrators who were Senators ex officio but had voting rights because they also held academic appointments.
August 13th, 2016 at 2:47PM
a nonbinding motion? sigh…
August 13th, 2016 at 2:50PM
Brian: Yup.
August 13th, 2016 at 6:29PM
dmf: The motion was non-binding because the Faculty Senate’s role in shared governance is limited to academic affairs. It doesn’t have the right to dictate policy about athletics, but it can express its opinion.
August 14th, 2016 at 11:27AM
Brian, what FS have realized that if their admins are borrowing money for supposedly non-academic functions, then it’s going to hit academics. UMASS, from what I’ve read, borrowed a heaping bunch for athletic build-outs. No matter what ADs nor their satraps will claim, there is no way that ain’t hitting the academic side of the institution. The UC faculty asked why, if tuition has risen so dramatically the past decade, it wasn’t manifesting in the classroom. This is what they found out:
They Pledge Your Tuition: The Council of UC Faculty Association
cucfa.org/news/tuition_bonds.php
When any uni takes on debt for recreation centers, luxury dorms or stadiums, the student loans become the collateral. That money is earmarked for the debt service and very little will be left for anything else. What’s taking place at the UCs is the same mechanism used throughout the country….