On Tuesday, January 24th, 2023 at 2:13 PM, [REDACTED] wrote:
Hello.
Thank you for your efforts. Before responding to your letter/email, please allow me to suggest two things. First, including a link to a survey within the email may result in more replies. Second, since many faculty and staff members have concerns related to administrative monitoring of campus email addresses, suggesting that faculty and staff may reply from personal (i.e., non-campus) email accounts may also garner more responses. Just my two cents and not criticism. I appreciate what you are doing.
Now, my responses (in order of the questions) to “We are asking the faculty body to inform and clarify its positions. We need to learn if you are confident with the direction of the College. Do you understand the institutional strategy and do you believe in the current leadership’s ability to execute on it? Is the quality of the resources, technology and equipment sufficient to support the delivery of instruction? Are you seeking employment elsewhere?” are:
- No. I am not confident with the direction of the College.
- I have a vague notion of the institutional strategy; however, it is based on information provided by the administration several months ago. I would imagine that the strategy has been updated and if so, I am ignorant of the extent to which it has changed or any specific changes.
- Regardless of the institutional strategy – i.e., whether it is what I think it may be or something other – I have no confidence in the administration to execute effectively. For quite a while, I was willing to trust that the current leadership would eventually get things right. Now, I only hope that the College is able to persist until new leadership is in place.
- In terms of resources, my department and its students largely need computing power and adequate space to work. Our computing resources are inadequate and our offices and common spaces are dilapidated. We are in [REDACTED] building that is in dire need of repair/renovation.
- I am currently in the first year of a two-year leave of absence from the College. I am teaching at another school, but my hope is that Whittier can remedy its current situation (or at least show movement in a positive direction) so that I may return to Whittier in Fall ’24. Since my leave only extends through Spring ’24 and I need to inform the school whether I will return by Jan. 15, 2024, if changes do not materialize very soon, my time as a member of the Whittier faculty will end.
Again, thank you.
[REDACTED]
Professor of [REDACTED]