Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Friends of the Fiction Writing Department,
First of all, I want to thank all of you who supported the Fiction Writing Department last year through a challenging prioritization process at Columbia College Chicago. To those of you who wrote testimonials on behalf of me as chair and on behalf of the department that we have all grown to love—especially those faculty who began the albersforchair.org site and those students, faculty, alumni, parents, and friends who signed petitions, wrote emails, and exchanged messages on Facebook—I can’t begin to express my gratitude for your support…
Friday afternoon, I arrive at a Columbia College Chicago building on South Michigan Avenue to talk with Fiction Writing Department Chair Dr. Randall Albers. Dressed elegantly in jeans and a French blue shirt with black stripes covered with a brown corduroy blazer, Albers’ height and distinguished presence make him slightly intimidating. Yet he smiles and greets me warmly, ushering me into his spacious office with a killer twelfth-floor view of the lake, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Although he’s technically on sabbatical, Albers frequents the department often to attend to students. We have about an hour to chat before his meeting with…
Hello friends and supporters,
Yesterday afternoon, faculty and staff at Columbia College received the following via email from Louise Love, Provost:
To the faculty and staff: I have been paying close attention to the messages that were sent at last week’s Listening Forum, in conversations, in e-mail messages, and in a meeting with members of the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate. I understand that the campus community is concerned that steps are being taken towards implementation before decisions are made through the prioritization process. I want to affirm, therefore, that nothing has been decided and that any initiatives on my…
Liz Baudler wishes it were fiction.
But Columbia College Chicago’s proposal to combine its fiction writing department with parts of the English department, one of several efforts to improve efficiency and save money at the artsy institution, is all too real.
With enrollment shrinking, Columbia administrators undertook a “prioritization” campaign that, if adopted, would expand some departments while condensing, consolidating or eliminating others. Many of the changes are in the arts and culture fields for which the college is known.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/06/restructuring-proposal-columbia-chicago-prompts-criticism#ixzz1oMLCJHXT
Inside Higher Ed
Two prominent Chicago musical institutions — the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and the Center for Black Music Research — should be shut down, according to a preliminary recommendation from the Office of the Provost/Academic Affairs at Columbia College Chicago, where the organizations are based.
CEDAR FALLS — University of Northern Iowa professors called and backed a rare no-confidence vote in the school’s leadership on Friday, signaling their strong opposition to a rapid series of cuts to academic programs and demanding they be consulted before such decisions are made.
During an all-faculty meeting, professors voted overwhelmingly for resolutions saying they had no confidence in the leadership of President Ben Allen and Provost Gloria Gibson and urging administrators to reconsider plans expected to be released next week to eliminate and merge several academic disciplines. Their call was backed by a national group, the American Association of…
Until now, as the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education has questioned how well colleges teach their students and blasted the higher education accreditation system, college professors have largely remained off the radar, at least of the panel’s public deliberations.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/06/costs#.T1OiDGrtwl8.twitter#ixzz1oAgXyy6q
Inside Higher Ed
WILLIAMSBURG, VA. — To judge by the screams of bloody murder that arise whenever colleges eliminate academic programs (as in recent examples here and here and here), there are certainly people in the academy who don’t believe that most institutions have too many programs and can’t afford to sustain them all.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/11/priorities#ixzz1o7AGkQQh
Inside Higher Ed