For the third time in a row, Watkins College of Art and Design is considering dropping a well qualified teacher because "it isn't in the budget" to keep said teacher. However, this latest managerial mistake overshadows the previous in many ways.
Currently, Watkins is trying to become a SAC accredited college. This means the school has to jump through several hoops, most of which require having a teacher with a certain level of education in eachdepartment . The Graphic Design department's chair lacked the qualifications, but gained the needed degree recently. This would normally mean that she is more qualified, and as such is worth more to the school. And because she got the degree needed to keep the school in the running for SACs, a raise would be the best thing to give her. After all, you don't pay your most qualified worker the same salary as the janitors. That's just bad business sense, as it makes your employees unhappy. Especially when there are other places that they could go to that would offer more money for their work.
Well, apparently, that is what is happening now. The school is claiming that there is nothing in the budget to keep this teacher around. They want to keep her, but they will end up paying her less than what she makes already. I repeat, paying her less than what she makes already after getting the needed degree to help Watkins get SAC accredited. A teacher that is responsible for putting the Graphic Design department on the map as the most successful undergrad program in the nation according to the
National Addy Awards.
This is only one side of the story. This has been the case we always seem to get. We only hear it from the one side that tells us anything: the teacher. The administration, once again, is not communicating with the student body as to why this is happening. Noexplanation is being offered short of "it's not in the budget." Well, what is in the budget? I don't know. The person that told me the above doesn't know. The only ones that do know are in administration, but they are not telling us just how much of our tuition is going towards what in the school.
We are not stupid. We know that you have to pay employees, surprise maintenance repairs, water and electric bills, and even things like food for openings and important meetings. How much is being spent and how much is being put away as profit is not being told outside of the few that know.
To further add salt to the wounds, whenever someone asks a question that involves information that the students generally don't already know, be it about the budget or something else, they are never given a straight answer about it!
I don't know how other colleges work, but I would assume there is some form of student-administration communication if not a kind of notice as to why certain executive decisions are made. Why wouldn't there be?
Because they want to control us. If they can control us, it makes them look good. We make them look good, they get the benefits in life we only dream about. It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but in a college where the students have little to no say in these kind of matters? Well, let's just say democracy doesn't exist here. At least not any more.
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