I went in again Wednesday afternoon and finished emptying boxes. I got most of the files put into drawers. The biggest remaining pile is stuff I need to go through carefully, to maybe shred or maybe scan, like old committee papers. I've already dumped my recycle bin at least five times and on my way out that night I took a box full of papers to the shredding bin, so it's not like I'm keeping everything. I just need to look at things carefully first and I didn't have a chance to do that at all when we moved out last year. Keeping focused on cleaning up this mess helps to distract me from the despair and fear of the pandemic, so that's good I guess. Here's the status after Wednesday:
Yesterday afternoon was the college annual budget presentation. Like many schools, our fiscal year begins July 1. The Board of Trustees met and approved the budget yesterday morning and I do appreciate our administration keeping their word to communicate with us as soon as possible. The news, however, was grim. Perhaps the worst budget situation we've had since I joined the faculty. We've been using our savings the past three years, trying to buy time for the fundraisers and recruiters to shore up revenue, and that hasn't worked. We have a huge debt because of the building projects and steadily decreasing enrollment, and now a pandemic. The senior leadership team had already announced voluntary reductions in salary a month ago (10%, which unless they are getting paid even more outrageously than I believe, is hardly enough). No raises for anyone now (as if!). No retirement contributions. Thirty or so staff positions eliminated.
My lab manager's position was not eliminated, thank the gods! but has been reduced to 30 hours per week. As supervisor, I had to sit in on the conference call between her and the Provost this afternoon. My staff person was far stronger than I would have been in her place. I'm only grateful that I was informed by the Provost yesterday and had time to negotiate (well, beg, really), because the original plan was to put her on a 9 month contract which would mean my department would have no staff support for the summer months (summer classes, summer research, all the prep work that happens during those months like hazardous waste disposal) and I argued that we needed her too much. I suggested the 30 hour week instead, and the Provost got that approved overnight. I still don't know how we're going to function. She and I will talk on Monday and start sorting it out.
That call was difficult enough, but afterwards the Provost called me back and told me that our building assistant is one of the people whose positions were entirely eliminated. C has been our secretary forever. She has worked at the college for 42 years! She knows everybody and is beloved by all, as far as I can tell. She is the absolute best, and does so much from handling our mail to scheduling rooms to just being fun to talk to. No clue how that stuff is going to get done now. She's had a rotten time with the construction - last summer they made her move her office three times for no good reason, ending up in what was basically a biology closet - and she never got angry. She has listened to me bitch and moan about whatever I thought there was to be upset about for all these years. I cried on the phone, and the Provost cried, but what good is that? I won't even get to see her again because we aren't authorized to be on campus on the same days next week. If I were her, I'd pack my stuff and be out of there over the weekend, anyway, so I wouldn't have to cry with everyone all day. I'm looking through my FOs to find a suitable gift. I might give her my Queen Anne's Lace shawl. I think she deserves more than a pair of socks.
This day, this week, this year is fired.
No comments:
Post a Comment