The quality of any institution is born out of two products that it creates: the quality of the research produced by the faculty and the success of the students after they venture out into the world. While there are an uncountable number of factors involved in both, the most inescapable factor is the require­ment of a top-notch faculty who have the tools and resources they need to create the knowledge and the people who will shape the future of the nation and the world.
What concerns me about the Faculty Senate’s survey is the theme of an unhappy faculty. Aside from my own anecdotal experience with professors, I don’t have any direct, concrete knowledge on the feelings of the faculty. I have heard a common complaint reiterated time and time again by faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students, in the unified repulsion to the package of graduate tuition and funding changes that have gone into effect over the last two years.
Created in a time when there was abuse of graduate students by a few members of the faculty, the effects of the policy are only now being fully realized as the newest group of graduate students enters RPI, and the existing ones graduate. To combat the problems of professors stipending multiple TA positions with fractional funding yet still requiring full or close to full time work, and the zero-credit hour near indentured servitude in a few doctoral programs, this new policy, while effectively quashing these problems, has forced the students and faculty into a difficult position.
Graduate students have come to me talking about how they are paying their own full tuition because their departments are unable to fund them, and how they are no longer able to TA because of the limitations on the number of semesters they can do so. Undergraduates have come to me complaining of classes where recitations are being cancelled and homework is no longer corrected, due to a simple lack of manpower.
It is becoming apparent to me that the graduate tuition policy, while conceived in the purest of intentions, has had unforeseen and unintended negative consequences.
What I have not seen is the fundamental mismanagement of RPI that the Faculty Senate’s survey would imply. I have seen nothing short of exemplary management and leadership that has exceeded my expectations, even for an institution of RPI’s caliber.
My perceptions are admittedly based mainly on administrators’ interaction with students and student programs; I can say that in this area I have seen a singular dedication to the student body that extends even to those who have very limited contact with individual students.
In regards to the survey, I feel that the complaints against Dr. Jackson in particular are incorrect. Those of you who know me personally know that I did not enter this office with any level of respect for Dr. Jackson beyond that which is afforded by her position. I have never been a person to defer my opinions to someone in a position of authority simply for the sake that they hold that position. I often find myself questioning anyone in a position to make decisions that affect me. I need more than a simple title.
I have developed a rather profound respect for a woman who is personable, charismatic, and one of the most intelligent people I have had the experience to interact with. She has a driving sense of direction, yet is not above changing her plans when presented with new ideas, regardless of the source. Her personality is probably best explained by relating one of the largest feelings I feel when presenting the views of the students and the programs of the Student Union to her. Quite honestly I am somewhat intimidated by who I am speaking to, not because of the fact that she is the President of the Institute, but rather by the realization I have had about how closely she listens and how carefully she takes in all of the information given to her.
I have always wanted more students to get an informal opportunity to meet with Dr. Jackson, a sentiment echoed by the Student Senate. This is why we are sponsoring “Pizza with the President.” It is an opportunity to have lunch with the President, to talk with her about whatever is on your mind, and to meet the person who so impressed me in the past. This will begin next week, on the first of the month, and continue from time to time throughout the semester.
There may be friction between the faculty, students, and administration on issues like the graduate tuition policy, and on the implementation of grade modifiers, but be assured that we do not have an out of touch authoritarian at the helm of RPI; we have a caring, listening leader.
