Things are Mushrooming in Pinney Hall

I know many of my students were concerned at the end of last week when one of the dormitories on the WCSU campus went on lockdown after a student became the victim of an armed robbery. As the Danbury News-Times has reported, the student, Austin Fry, was also found with a small quantity of hallucinogenic mushrooms and arrested. Subsequent to this arrest, President Schmotter sent out an email to the university community that detailed that in addition to Mr. Fry's potential criminal prosecution, the university would consider its own punishments for him, including potentially expulsion. The News-Times article also quotes Sharon Guck, the coordinator of WestConn's Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programs, as commenting that immediate suspension would be an appropriate sanction for Mr. Fry.

Undoubtedly both Dr. Schmotter and Sharon Guck are correct in their interpretation of Mr. Fry's potential punishments. Hallucinogenic drugs can be uniquely dangerous in a university community, and those taking them can be a danger to themselves and others. I do wonder, however, why no one expressed their concern or condolences to either Mr. Fry or his roommate. Regardless of whether Mr. Fry enjoys shrooms, he was, in fact, indisputably a victim: a victim of a frightening armed robbery. So was his apparently totally innocent roommate. So were the residents of Pinney Hall who were interrupted from studying for finals in a most disturbing way.

Yet rather than being ready to apologize to these students for the lapses in security that caused the robbery in the first place, it seems that the university's main response had to do with scapegoating a student who was a victim of their incompetence for his drug use. This seems both unfair and mean. Certainly it may have been the case--though I have nowhere as yet seen it alleged--that there may have been a connection between the two. But this is beside the point: just because a student may be engaging in activity that is illegal or violates school policy does not mean that he, his roommates, and the other students in his dormitory do not have the right to expect the university to have safeguards in place to protect them from armed robberies. It is very disappointing to me that the university has shirked responsibility in this way, particularly by passing the buck onto a student who was a victim of the attack.

The President and the Registrar: A Study in Contrasts

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending WestConn's opening faculty meeting. At this meeting, we heard both the bad news of the ongoing budget crisis in the state of Connecticut and its persistent negative impact on universities in the state and the good news about the innovative things that WestConn is doing to ensure that our students will not be negatively affected by this crisis. Among other things, Dr. Schmotter encouraged faculty to emulate MacGyver, the astronauts of Apollo 13, and the "foxes" as opposed to the hedgehogs. Out of these analogies, the MacGyver simile spoke to me the clearest--I understand now that when the copy machines are down (which seems a daily occurrence now) I am supposed to fix them with some bubble gum, scotch tape, and an owner's manual for a 1935 Smith-Corona.

I know many, but probably not all, faculty members feel the way I do about this advice: if that's what Dr. Schmotter asks, that's what I will do. This is because I feel that Dr. Schmotter and really most of the upper administration of the school has earned this respect through years of putting the proof in the pudding. They have attended our faculty meetings, spoken to students, heard our concerns, grown the campus, and engaged with both faculty and students as collaborators. This is not to say that everything WestConn's administration has done has always been perfect over the last five years. But it is to say that the faculty and students have felt like partners in the decision making process. I have always felt a part of this community. And so if it is the case, at least for a little while, that I have to wait for a computer upgrade, or my job description will include mopping bathroom floors while the janitorial staff is short of members, I will do so willingly and with enthusiasm.

Such loyalty and understanding of policies is built through years of establishing trust with faculty and students. I really believe that the President, the Provost, and many of the Vice-Presidents and Deans have done this, because especially in comparison to other university WestConn is outstandingly run.

I cannot say the same thing about the way that the Registrar's office has been run recently. Do not misunderstand me: I believe that the staff of the registrar's office is nothing short of excellent, and that they consistently provide an excellent level of service while seemingly being perpetually understaffed. I also believe that it is good that our relatively new registrar, Lourdes Cruz, has implemented a number of changes to streamline what was sometimes a chaotic registration system in the past.

My concern is not about the myriad changes in policy from the registrar's office, or even about the enforcement of policies that previously went unenforced. It is about the perception, apparently widespread among WestConn faculty, that these changes are being pronounced from above with very poor communication about these changes to faculty or students. We are bereft of any information about why these changes are being pursued or why they are for the best.

Just two examples will suffice. The first is the enforcement of a policy that incomplete grades need to be turned in in written, rather than email, form and that they need to be handed in personally by the instructor to the registrar, rather than going through campus mail or handed to a student. There may be good reasons for this policy, though I doubt the benefits outweigh the inconveniences caused by it. But the bigger issue is how faculty came to know that the policy was being enforced. Chiefly, we came to know there was a problem weeks or months later when students would come to us announcing that there was an issue with the resolution of their incomplete grade--even though the form had been submitted long before. We would then have to contact the registrar to learn that there had been a problem with our procedure. Increasingly, processes that were done very efficiently via email in the past seem to be slipping through the cracks under the new policy, resulting in students getting erroneous failing grades on their transcripts and other problems.

Perhaps there are good reasons for this change. But to impose it on faculty without discussion or announcement is going to cause the faculty to resent the registrar.

A second example is the increasing demand, emerging I presume from the registrar's office (although it might also be from the provost) for faculty to set their schedules for teaching years ahead of time. I recently received a notice that I am to detail me schedule of courses, dates, and times through the summer 2011 semester. Again, perhaps there are good reasons for this. But without having an opportunity to know what they are, this requirement seems both unreasonable and detrimental to our students, since we cannot possibly estimate accurately now what the needs of our student population will be two years from now. That being said, I would be happy to accede to this demand if it were only explained to me by a person in authority. Why is it necessary for faculty to schedule courses two years in advance? What are the benefits? How do these benefits outweigh the opposing concerns that we will be scheduling courses that are neither timely or appropriate for the now-unknown needs of our future students?

All of this could be easily explained, I think, if the originator of these policies, whether it is Ms. Cruz or someone else, would simply come to faculty meetings to explain the changes at the registrar's office. Alternatively, emails could be written explaining these changes in detail. As it is now, many faculty don't feel included as partners in these decisions in the same way that we very much do feel included in conversations about the university's direction. This problem should be addressed.

The Ever-Expanding Syllabus

Welcome to another year at WestConn! As I peruse the halls here and meet with students and colleagues, one aspect of the new semester appears to be changing very rapidly: the syllabus. This ever-important document, which I remember as a general outline and description of a course, seems to be ballooning--both in its size and its importance. Once a brief synopsis, today's syllabi are bloated contracts filled with boilerplate language from the banal to the alarming--where to find student help, where the medical services are, whether it's a crime to chew gum in class. The syllabus, it seems, has eclipsed the function of the campus code of conduct. It is becoming less a description of academic activity and more a code of rules and regulations. Students: don't come to class with your hats on! Don't leave to go to the bathroom! Turn off your ipods! No computers in class!

As professors and students, I think we should vehemently protest the scourge of the bloated syllabus. Grafting more and more regulations on the syllabus just means that students will pay attention to the syllabus less and less. Our syllabi become akin to the legalistic disclaimers that one finds on the back of bank statements--the more the fine print, the less people will read it, much less take it seriously.

And is it really necessary to inform students of every kind of conduct that is appropriate or forbidden? It seems to me that if we treat our students as if they were in high school, then that's precisely what we will get--a class full of high school students. Furthermore, when we make such restrictions, our primary concern should be whether it facilitates student learning. Certainly, the fact that some people might use facebook on their laptops is not a sufficient reason to ban laptops from the classroom, as many more students--both those with disabilities and those without them--may have legitimate reasons to believe that taking notes on computers is more effective than taking notes on paper. This restriction on teacher's syllabi really grates at me the most since I think it detracts from the ability of many students to learn.

I think we should return to the simple syllabus that describes the learning that goes on in the class. Professors are much better as teachers and mentors then they are as police officers.