Barriers to Change
Dichotomies
Recently
the faculty were required to evaluate our peers. We completed the evaluations and turned them into the
academic affairs office by a deadline set by the academic affairs office.
Just this week we receive an email that said that some of us had not yet
turned in our evaluations. This was
untrue as we had turned them into the office and they had been lost.
We were then asked to find copies and submit them to our supervisor to
replace the ones that had been "misplaced."
The
dichotomy that I see in this situation is that we are expected to adhere to a
certain standard and the office of academic affairs is not expected to adhere to
any standard. We would be
reprimanded if we did not have our evaluations in on time.
However, when these evaluations are lost by the office, the deadline date
no longer matters and there is even an attempt to shift the blame to the faculty
members.
Efficacies
Several
months ago, ASU-Newport entered the final stage in becoming a stand-alone
institution under ASU-Jonesboro. We
are breaking away from ASU-Beebe. During
that time individuals were chosen to be division chairs on our campus in order
to have administrators to take a portion of the administrative duties when the
change over was completed.
The
concepts that is held to be high is that the individuals who were to hold the
division chair positions should be selected from the individuals who were
employed at ASU-Newport. Furthermore,
it was decided that those with the most seniority were the most appropriate
choices for the positions. This is
a detriment to the institution because rather than choosing individuals who were
the best for the position and for the organization, individuals were chosen who
were not the best candidates for the position and employees are scrambling to
help those individuals complete their newly assigned tasks.
Presumptions
Just
today I was reading the results of my student, peer, and administrative
evaluations when I noticed something that is presumed to have value that I am
not sure has any value at all. On
the evaluations, we are judged on whether or not we use class time wisely.
The criteria set for how to define "wisely" was interesting to
me because I disagree with the set criteria.
The evaluation rubrics indicate that if an instructor dismisses class or
does not hold students in the classroom for the full length of time that a lower
score should be awarded. It also
indicates that if the instructor uses all the allotted time in the classroom
that a high score should be awarded.
The
presumption is that holding students in a classroom for the entire length of
time allotted for that class is the wisest use of time.
Conversely, I believe that time may be used more wisely by dismissing
class for another assignment, letting students become involved in their own
learning (independent of the instructor), or simply choosing not to require
students to stay in the classroom to take up time.
At
ASU Newport we are in the process of turning in our memos requesting merit
raises for the following school year. We
have to meet certain requirements to qualify for raises and submit a memo
explaining what we have done to merit such a raise and justify why we have been
productive enough to receive them.
The
paradox is that while we must meet certain requirements established to
discriminate between employees who go above and beyond what they are typically
expected to do and those who accomplish only enough to get through the work day
and go home, traditionally everyone had receive the same merit raise.
Administrators who are not willing to make decisions that may be
unpopular simply divide the available monies between everyone requesting the
raise making the process ineffective and unnecessary.
Expediencies
There
is probably a legitimate need to have a deadline for these evaluations because
many of our instructors would never complete the process if there was none.
However, I believe that the evaluations should be completed sometime near
mid-semester. This is so that
students have had enough time to experience the instructor and the class but not
so much time that they may penalize the instructor because of the grade they are
about to receive (as might be the case toward the end of the semester). We have to do these evaluations when we are told rather than
completing them at the appropriate time.
Prejudices
We
have a problem at ASU- Newport in that we are unable to draw minorities to work
for our institution. We have
interviewed several minority applicants and they are virtually always offered
the position. The problem is that
they never take the position. This
may be because they are in such high demand that they have other offers which
they choose to accept. It may also
be that they don't see ASU- Newport as a good fit for them.
I
see this as a possible prejudice because of the latter possibility.
Over time, it has seemed that many individuals I have been exposed to
have had a prejudice against the community surrounding ASU- Newport.
I speculate that this is because it is mostly white and the predominant
occupation is farming. Additionally,
there is a very small number of minority employees at ASU- Newport. Finally, I wonder how we are ever to change this when we
cannot get minorities to accept employment here.
Intolerances
At
ASU- Newport I have spent several years trying to convince individuals of the
benefits of using technology (specifically the Internet) to enhance their jobs
and the professional lives of those around them. It has been an uphill battle as instructors and
administrators choose to do things the same way they always have rather than
attempting to undertake change.
I
believe that most individuals on our campus are intolerant of the utilization of
the Internet to facilitate processes that they believe can be done in
traditional ways. Many individuals
are resistant to using the Internet for online classes and even oppose using the
Internet to supplement classroom instruction.
I believe that people are intolerant of the use of this new technology
because they do not understand it and fear they will be "left out" if
everyone accepts the technology. This
results in a barrier to change as individuals continue doing things in the ways
they always have.
Polarizations
We
have a problem as ASU- Newport of polarizations that take place with certain
individuals on campus. The result
is that we have a number of people who are in the "in group" and the
rest are not included in many operations, professionally and personally.
One
example of this is a party that was given by a division chair on our campus.
He invited only those people that were in "his social group"
and excluded about half the employees on our campus from his end-of-the-semester
Christmas party, which was held at his house.
Several people got their feelings hurt and vowed not to work effective
with this division chair in the future. I
believe the decision of the division chair was inappropriate because in directly
affected individuals' feelings in a negative way with regard to what their worth
was at work. I see this
polarization as a barrier to change because it forces many to work alone and
decreases the chance of dialogue and collaboration.
Faddisms
I
see a fad on our campus that deals with continuing education.
Each semester, there are several individuals who enroll in an institution
of higher learning for what appears to be an attempt at an additional degree.
The problem is that most of these individuals attend classes for one or
two semesters and drop out before completing any degree or even a significant
number of hours.
I
believe this is a fad because it seems that since we have had new administration
people are "going back to school" because it seems that is the right
(and professional) thing to do in the eyes of others who may be watching them.
I believe it is important for individuals to further their education. However, I believe that one should continue his or her
education because that is what he or she desires rather than doing it because
someone will think it is "cool".
Finally, I believe this is a barrier to change because when people
continue their education because of someone else rather than because it's what
they want to do, they are likely to quit before finishing, and therefore, no
significant change takes place.
Ironies
On
our campus there have been several changes in the administrative positions as
well as individuals filling those positions.
Several semesters ago, two division chair positions were added to our
hierarchy in order to free up some of the workload of the academic affairs
officer. We now have three
individuals working to accomplish the tasks that were once completed by one
person.
The
irony is that even though we now have three individuals working to accomplish
what it once took one person to do, each of these individuals indicates that
they don't have time to complete their workloads. One of the reasons for this is that we are now going through
the accreditation process. However,
that is one of the reasons these new positions were added and it is very ironic
to me that these three individuals cannot fulfill the workloads that seem to
have been created for them.
Transformations
On
our campus I have been having a problem with getting a significant number of
students involved with intramurals. In
the past we have had incredible numbers of students participate in these events
on campus. However, recently
there has been a decline in the number of participants.
I
believe that the decrease in the number of intramural participants is because of
the different students we now have on campus. Many students are working full-time and going to school and
some have families to spend time with. These
students want to participate but simply don't have the time.
Additionally, in the past we have had semesters in which it seemed we had
a large number of very athletic individuals who wanted to participate as much as
possible in intramural events.
I
see a transformation in that someone indicated to me that I may need to change
the way I am advertising the events to let a greater number of students know
about them. The indication was that
the decline in participation is due to the fact that students are unaware that
the events are taking place. I
believe that this is a projection and the real reason for the decline in student
participation is that we now have a group of students who are not as interested
in participating in intramural activities.