The application window is also pretty short: August 15- Sept 23, 2010.
The University can reject VSP applications, and VSP applicants can't bail out of their Fall teaching; the earliest separation date will be December. Who is the target demographic for the VSP?
Doug Slack, a wildlife fisheries science professor, said he will apply for the program. He said he's had his dream job for 37 years teaching students at Texas AM and serving the state, but it's time to move on. Though nearing retirement anyway, he said, he wouldn't have decided to apply now if it weren't for the incentive.Slack chaired a search committee whose recommendations were rejected by the Regents, and was critical of the process. Vision 1920 sees the VSP as a great way to encourage senior faculty who have been around long enough so they are no longer
"The program enables the university to spend a little money on the front end and save a lot on the back end," said Slack, 67. "It will help with the remaining faculty members, and help our department meet some of its needs."
Those who should apply will not. Those who will apply are those who should not. The VSP is designed to retain the myopic unvisonary money-grubbing overhead-chasing corporate university puppets while trimming away those who have obtained the wisdom of experience and vison that needs protection of tenure.
ReplyDeleteAll eligible faculty should apply as a group since there is a fail safe provision if for nothing else to test whether one's individual application will be approved. This should shed light on who Vision 1920 sees as most valuable and most dispensable.
BTW, who will be making the decision of who is approved and who is disapproved? The program seems a nice mechanism for the University's most valuable, independent and experienced faculty to pick up a year or two salary while they carry out their creative activities elsewhere.
Lecturing for Phoenix University and help their unthankful University go the way of the dinosaurs? Harvey