Small committes, big effect

I thought that I had finished work for the day, having reached 9 hours at task. But, I stayed online with email open past the dinner hour. My mistake. Faculty often return for a post-perennial top-off-the day session of a little more work. So, I was in for another half hour of e-problem solving.

The issue was curriculum revision. Although we have not yet had the first meeting of this academic year, I am the default chair of the division curriculum committee. Default because I have served as the chair for the past several years. Default because no one else wants to add committee work to their late evening task list.  Default because I tend to get things done.

In preparation for our first meeting of the academic year, I went through emails saved in my "curriculum" mailbox.  I was searching for items for the agenda that I vaguely remembered being sent to me over the past couple of months. Our "satellite" and local online certificate programs each have a minor revision. Those got added to the agenda and documents posted online for the committee to see. Then I found the biggie. Biggie in the sense of not being clear cut, being somewhere between minor and not minor, involving an ardent emailer.

The particulars are not the issue. The issue is that none of the fussing, the paperwork, the ethereally supported consensus building gets seen or noticed until it shows up on a list of courses that are required for a degree. So very few ever ask why or how we come up with that list of courses.  The list everyone notices and abides by. But no one really notices the committee, unless it is not meeting and getting work done or is holding up proposals that need to move along from division to school to campus curriculum committees.

It occurs to me that the work of this committee, the group of 3 or 4 or 5 of us that meet once a month, is oddly the very core of academia.  Smart people trying to create, maintain, evolve a curriculum for an unpredictable future of individuals we do not yet know. It's worked in the past. We assume that what we create will work in the future. But, this seemingly obscure little committee actually determines the character of the degrees and certificates offered by our division. We, as a faculty self-governance committee, influence the reputation of the school and thus the school's financial health.

Classes and Students

The 10th day of the semester gives the magic number: how many students we actually have registered. But, half way through this second week, I'd say we have a lot. The classrooms look full, with laptops half hiding faces, table tops covered with paper, and the faint hint of body heat seeping in to the hallways.

By the second class (for those of us doing once a week seminar class), we have a sense of the students siting around the table. With years of experience, we can make educated guesses about who has the most to learn, who will contribute, who we need to watch or manage. It's our work. Naturally, there can be surprises, hopefully good ones.

I'm starting the semester on a relative calm. The major projects from the summer are finished: the consultancy with the Chilean Ministry of Health, the class in Chile, the summer conferences, the manuscript revisions, and fall semester course preparation. And, the big anxiety generator has shifted to simply being work ~ the AHRQ conference has people registered. Whew! 

I know that this calm streak will not last long, so I'm going to enjoy it, spread some relaxation, and give support to my stressed out colleagues.

Disaster in Progress

It's mind boggling. The Illinois state budget deficit even warranted an article in the Wall Street Journal. The economics aside, my concern naturally is for the health of the people of the state. In my work with the local health departments, they are saying that county budgets have been hard hit because the state has not paid for services rendered. No one feels confident that the state will pay its bills, for services given in the past fiscal year, not to mention the current fiscal year.

From the point of view of public health, it feels like an economic disaster for which no preparedness training could help. Many county governments are making some really deep cuts into programs and services most of us have taken for granted for decades. The state funds support mostly health promotion programs and screenings for early detection and prevention. In contrast, federal dollars generally support direct clinical services, like primary care. At least in Illinois, most local health departments have gotten out of the business of providing primary care. Instead, they focus on the health promotion, disease prevention for which reimbursement does not exist.

As the programs are cut because there is no money to pay staff to do the programs, questions arise. What will happen to the health statistics for conditions like sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), breast and cervical cancer, and child abuse? How will health departments reconfigure and reconceptualize themselves in this new economic landscape? What new or old skills are needed by the remaining workforce to actualize this new reality?

I don't worry about those few organizations that are trendsetters, enlightened, prospectors (in the language of Miles and Snow) that can turn this crisis into an opportunity. But, not all organizations have that ability. Those that can't survive or adapt or morph, what will happen to the health of the people they once served?

The New Students

We use room 932 for the presentations of graduating students and faculty meetings. Today the room was filled with incoming MPH students who will be in the Community Health Sciences Division. And, the room was really filled, with eager, if not slightly apprehensive, faces. There were not enough chairs for the faculty to sit at the long parallel tables. So, we stood around the walls in the back of the room, looking a bit awkward.

Each of the 60 or so students gave a name, where they were from and something interesting about themselves. The Midwest states were very well represented, but students also came from both coasts. I don't recall any international students. (The decline in the number of international students corresponds directly with the tightening of granting student visa since 9/11.) Several students are training for marathons. Several like dancing or play a musical instrument. A few were funny. We have identical twin brothers. Some of the students will be taking all of their courses online, making this their only in-person appearance. Most of the students have some international experience either volunteering or studying abroad. Overall, wow, what a group.

For us as faculty, this first in-person introduction to the new students brings a certain satisfaction. We did good to have so many good applicants who want to come to UIC. We feel a renewed optimism about what they can do and how we can work with them. We feel anticipation for their learning curves and we feel confident in our ability to keep the curve at just the right slope. Then, we scurry back to our offices to finish our syllabi.

The Academic Year Begins

At my university, the contracts for faculty begin on August 16. Yep, that's the official start of the academic year and nine months of teaching, research, service, online blurry vision, counseling students, writing till the tips of fingers nearly bleed, and seeing learning actually happening in real-time.

To start the semester, we had the first of our monthly faculty meetings at 9am on Monday. I was a bit surprised at how many faculty did not show up. Granted classes start next week, but our paychecks started today. It was not a particularly inspired meeting. The good news was that the State has learned its lesson that furloughs are more costly than the money saved and so no furloughs this year. The bad news is that we still have staggering State budget deficit and virtually no state money coming to the university. This has forced us  faculty to be much more entrepreneurial, which is definitely an unexpressed recessive gene for most of us.

The rest of the day was taken up with meetings. One to plan grant writing. Another faculty meeting to get synchronized for the year. One to review the changes in the online technology. And, one to go over a grant budget.  Seems like the semester has begun. Now, we just need students. They will be Friday for orientation.