Budget priorities task force report and process
Last week, the administration distributed the budget priorities task force report to all chairs. On Friday, I posted that report here, and after discussion with a chair, I have substituted this brief entry for the moment.
The chair told me that the administration did not give chairs and directors the opportunity to respond to the tentative judgment of individual departments/units before distributing it to all chairs. In every case that I can imagine with an external review, the draft review is circulated to the units and faculty involved, with an opportunity for a response. In this case, the task force subcommittees had only a spare set of data provided by the administration and a narrative supplied on short notice by the chair or director of each reviewed department/unit. Those reviewing other colleges were working out of their fields, with data from a national report that I am not sure was ever intended for this type of summative judgment, and in at least one case the subcommittee made clear that it was uncomfortable with making the type of summative judgments that it was asked to, given that lack of data.
The additional information about the lack of an opportunity to respond makes me concerned about the process that is being followed, and it would be inconsistent with those concerns for me to keep the report available.
