Changes are Inevitable: Faculty Involvement in Campus Life
Changes are inevitable. In my 38 years on the UCDavis faculty I have observed changes in the behavior of this collegial unit. It appears to me that “loyalty” to the institution has been weakened due to a number of structural and philosophical changes.
In the past, faculty members were often hired to address research missions, teaching and training. These functions were supported to a large extent by the institution. In recent years due to funding cuts in state support and increase in costs of doing research this loyalty has been diluted. Much more of the funding comes from national organizations in which the research agenda is set by national needs and not the mission of the state educational unit.
This has affected both the direction of research and the hiring of faculty. Too often a faculty member is hired for their ability to obtain competitive grants from national organizations and not from local institutions. This results in a faculty, by necessity, focused on where the next grant is coming from and not the mission of their institution.
The statement has been made that a faculty position at UCDavis is a professional appointment with a hunting license. The behavior of a collegial unit reflects this change in a number of ways. The social interaction is reduced. The Faculty (University) Club was closed, primarily due to lower utilization and a reduction in support from the Campus. As a result faculty functions such as Goose Stew, Crab Feed, Wine Festival, and Steak Bake are no longer available for faculty to promote social interaction. This in turn appears to reduce interaction across disciplines and administrative units. Only recently, however, the Emeriti/Retiree Associations sponsored a Steak Bake which was well received and supported. The intent is to open this up to the general faculty.
The attendance at Academic Senate meetings has dwindled. We as a faculty have contributed to the changes. The need to obtain funding focuses our attention and energy on non campus activities. We have reduced our effort in self governance and participatory democracy leading to more of the governance done by the administration. This may partially reflect the effect of a rapid increase in student numbers; however, it appears to have led to a faculty loyal to external forces and has reduced our commitment to the institution. I find this situation less collegial and potentially destructive of the role of an institution of higher learning.
I have to provide a caveat. Personally I have had a very satisfactory and rewarding career at UCDavis. The students were highly motivated, teaching was very satisfying, research was stimulating and exciting and I have made life-long friends within the faculty and staff of this institution. As a faculty member I feel I was treated fairly and rewarded for my efforts.
We commonly reflect on the “good old days”. In this case, however, I am convinced that the changes in the last forty years are not necessarily the best for our institution. Maybe this is what change is all about; make room for the individuals who have to make their way in the environment that has evolved from past efforts.
Go Ags
Bill Rains
Categories: Faculty Involvement in Campus Life
Discussion: currently open
Bill, thank you for sharing your insight and experience over the last 38 plus years.
The feeling of “Aggie Family” is one of the attributes I feel sets the Davis experience apart from peer insitutions. I know the campus has seen this demostrated in polling of alumni and donors.
In the shared-governance system, I’m not sure where the responsibility officially lies, but the Chancellor and Academic Senate should recognized the important role faculty members play in campus esprit de corps and make such involvement part of the hiring and tenure review process. The Teaching Prize is only one element of encouraging faculty commitment to the University’s core principle of “teaching”.
I’ll close with a story of my own that I think highlights the unfortunate attitude of some of our administrators. During my junior and senior years at Davis (1998 & 1999) I travelled throughout the state as a student representative for Decision UC Davis - a series of regionally based presentations for incoming students and their parents that was meant to help market UC Davis to potential students. Oftentimes, these were students who had been accepted to the Univerisity, but who had not signed their Statement of Intent to Register.
At one of these meetings, a senior administrator in the College of Ag & Environmetal Sciences pulled me aside before my presentation and told me to explicitly tell the audience that the idea of “en loco parentis” was “dead”. I refused.
I still firmly believe now, as I did then, that the idea of the University being a safe place to explore and open one’s mind is critical to the success of its academic mission, and to the fostering of the campus’ feeling of “Aggie Family”.
Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind that a few dollars, hours, etc. on the front end will pay off tremendously in the long-run.
It is extremely rare for me to find someone who has attened UC Davis and left with a negatiove experience, so in many respects we are doing a good job of fostering this family feeling, but as the changes that you describe begin to seed their long term impact, I fear we will have erroded our capacity to generate the feeling of “Aggie Family”. Alumni, emeriti faculty and the Administration must be vigilant in addressing systemic pressures that affect faculty involvement in student and campus community life.