So work finally interviewed a bunch of people, picked one, indicated to the guy that we'd like to hire him and could he please come in the next day and
sign some forms so we could get the paperwork started...
And later that day the administration announced a mandatory campus-wide hiring freeze, effective immediately and lasting until July 1, 2009, when it
would be reviewed and hopefully lifted. Now I could say a lot about our Kaiser-Provost (like Kaiser-Ghidorah, but... well, the Provost instead of a
three-headed kaiju) and his Moses on the mountain style of management--but I'd be mixing metaphors like a drunken, mixing monkey after a nine hour
"Will It Blend?" marathon. And I'd probably never get around to telling the rest of the story.
Yeah, there's more.
We asked for an exemption to the policy, request denied, no surprise there. But they're going to go ahead and remodel and move our faculty into the new
(well, less old) building, AND go ahead with the first building rollout for their 'Next Generation Network' for which we will be the lab rats. So I get
to do a complete reconfig on our labs and tutoring center. Again. (5th time in 8 years.) Into a smaller space. And we're going to do it mid-semester. And
simultaneously migrate to a new network architecture. But obviously, we can't hire someone. That would be irresponsible.
If you thought you caught the brimstone stench of university politics in that statement, you were not mistaken. The College has its own aggressively expanding
IT shop that considers us to be an unruly "satellite" they'd like to bring firmly under their control. The Schools of Engineering and Business,
meanwhile, want to take our undergraduate math-for-engineers/business courses (and millions of dollars in tuition annually) for themselves--my position/budget
and our tutoring center is an almost incidental fraction of that money, but a substantial part of the case for math being taught by the Mathematics Department.
And who makes these decisions? Kaiser-Provost, formerly the Dean of Engineering and driving force behind the last unsuccessful attempt to steal those
classes... and the College Dean, the Provost's under-qualified creature, appointed primarily for his ability to Know His Place. Which is at the side of his
dark master.
We aren't just caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock and the hard place are conspiring against us.
This would be the point where, if we were having this conversation face to face, you would ask me why I'm smiling. Imagine it's an evil grin, if you
will. Sanguine. Like Dr. Horrible, I need to work on my evil laugh.
I have another job offer. Not right away, the position won't open up for a few months, and the benefits aren't as nice, but hey, it's a way out if
things do go south. I'm not DOOMED. And meanwhile... if I quit, they couldn't even hire my replacement and they know it. Suddenly, my schedule is
flexible again and I'm no longer expected to work so much overtime. Not being taken for granted so much now. It takes some of the edge off the stress. And
the College tech who has been assigned to help us seems to know his stuff.
Side effect of all this; I hope to be around a bit more.
sign some forms so we could get the paperwork started...
And later that day the administration announced a mandatory campus-wide hiring freeze, effective immediately and lasting until July 1, 2009, when it
would be reviewed and hopefully lifted. Now I could say a lot about our Kaiser-Provost (like Kaiser-Ghidorah, but... well, the Provost instead of a
three-headed kaiju) and his Moses on the mountain style of management--but I'd be mixing metaphors like a drunken, mixing monkey after a nine hour
"Will It Blend?" marathon. And I'd probably never get around to telling the rest of the story.
Yeah, there's more.
We asked for an exemption to the policy, request denied, no surprise there. But they're going to go ahead and remodel and move our faculty into the new
(well, less old) building, AND go ahead with the first building rollout for their 'Next Generation Network' for which we will be the lab rats. So I get
to do a complete reconfig on our labs and tutoring center. Again. (5th time in 8 years.) Into a smaller space. And we're going to do it mid-semester. And
simultaneously migrate to a new network architecture. But obviously, we can't hire someone. That would be irresponsible.
If you thought you caught the brimstone stench of university politics in that statement, you were not mistaken. The College has its own aggressively expanding
IT shop that considers us to be an unruly "satellite" they'd like to bring firmly under their control. The Schools of Engineering and Business,
meanwhile, want to take our undergraduate math-for-engineers/business courses (and millions of dollars in tuition annually) for themselves--my position/budget
and our tutoring center is an almost incidental fraction of that money, but a substantial part of the case for math being taught by the Mathematics Department.
And who makes these decisions? Kaiser-Provost, formerly the Dean of Engineering and driving force behind the last unsuccessful attempt to steal those
classes... and the College Dean, the Provost's under-qualified creature, appointed primarily for his ability to Know His Place. Which is at the side of his
dark master.
We aren't just caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock and the hard place are conspiring against us.
This would be the point where, if we were having this conversation face to face, you would ask me why I'm smiling. Imagine it's an evil grin, if you
will. Sanguine. Like Dr. Horrible, I need to work on my evil laugh.
I have another job offer. Not right away, the position won't open up for a few months, and the benefits aren't as nice, but hey, it's a way out if
things do go south. I'm not DOOMED. And meanwhile... if I quit, they couldn't even hire my replacement and they know it. Suddenly, my schedule is
flexible again and I'm no longer expected to work so much overtime. Not being taken for granted so much now. It takes some of the edge off the stress. And
the College tech who has been assigned to help us seems to know his stuff.
Side effect of all this; I hope to be around a bit more.
