Disqus - Latest Comments for brianalanlane

Re: Daily 49er - Letter to the Editor-Long Beach administration violates furlough agreement

brianalanlane — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:54:28 -0000

We must all take simultaneous organized furlough days as a show of strength. We are trying to organize those dates now with CFA and others. If managers balk, we can all file thousands of grievances and force this entire issue into the press and the legal system, which will finally resolve it. More than 2800 CFA members did not vote in this matter. Of the 5900 who did vote, if 350 changed their votes from yes to no, the measure would have failed. The furloughs were sold to us on false pretenses and during the Summer when no public dialogue could be had. We gave away our only card by voting for furloughs. Too many of the people who voted for this -- lecturers -- will now lose their jobs because of it. Watch what happens in the next three weeks as classes are cancelled and re-assigned. We need to call for a re-vote. And we need to organize for real as rank and file, not sit home and let our "leaders" do our jobs in protecting our jobs, because, as you can see, they don't.

Re: Daily 49er - Professors: The budget could have been balanced without direct cuts to education

brianalanlane — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:38:00 -0000

Everyone needs to be Ghandi. Every student and every parent and every teacher. Everyone needs to protest against greed and arrogance and entitlement and absurdity. The first step is to become informed. Everyone should read the articles and the commentaries, but then they should read the budgets themselves. Most of the information is available on-line. More than enough information is available on-line to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that taxpayer money is being mismanaged and wasted, that not enough of each dollar reaches the classroom, and that higher student fees undercut the mission of the CSU. All of my students work to pay their fees. Their job shifts have been cut back or switched around. They can't afford to go to school and they can't work out class schedules that don't conflict with work schedules. I have to assign course texts based on cost rather than content. I have to excuse student absences and repeat lectures by phone or e-mail. This is not an education in anything other than life, it's a curriculum in survival rather than knowledge. Our graduates are being prepared to become followers rather than leaders, workers rather than innovators. And that's not what a University education was supposed to be about. Step two -- let's take action. Our "blue flu" furlough strike plan is a way to take back the power and get press attention that might finally embarrass the politicians into doing something. The only time anything good happens around here is when administrators worry about bad press and publicized lawsuits. Let's make 'em start to sweat. They've earned it. Anyone else have any ideas for plans of action?

Re: Daily 49er - Our View- Administration-faculty spat shy of playground brawl

brianalanlane — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:27:14 -0000

In a negotiation, there is what is said and what is left unsaid. There is always an opportunity to speak but better a time to listen. Dr. Pounds and I were always well aware of the "peculiar" bookkeeping used by CSULB (and other Universities) which are designed to hide administrative costs by mixing them with classroom costs. Many commentators and auditors have noted this, private and State -- we are hardly the first. We -- and they -- are also aware of millions of dollars of funds hidden in the budget each year, simultaneously listed as revenue and expenses without actually being paid out -- money saved by the institution in this instance to maintain its administrative costs even as it cuts teaching. But we could not get the administration to face up to this without using their numbers AS THEY STATED THEM to create conclusions that made the administration want to talk publicly about this. So, there were no "errors" on our part -- we used the numbers the school provided. As a result of the meeting with Stephens, we were able to get answers as to what the actual reality was underneath those compilations of numbers. And our worst fears were realized. We stand by our conclusions. This University protects its administrators and administrative costs as a priority over its mission of teaching. Administrators come before teachers and students. Because they run the place, the administrators feel that the place cannot run without them, better to cut the ranks of teachers and students than administrators. So, as teachers are furloughed and fired, new administrators are being hired and others are being re-upped to multi-year deals at high salaries, benefits, and perquisites. It is a sad situation. But then, greed, entitlement, and arrogance are never pretty when viewed from the ground up.

Re: Daily 49er - Administrative costs misread, misrepresented by CSULB professors

brianalanlane — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:19:13 -0000

VP Stephens neglects to mention that, prior to the publication of her Op-Ed, President Alexander suggested a meeting between Pounds, Lane, and Stephens be scheduled, and this meeting has been set for this coming Friday August 7, in order to compare numbers and analysis in a setting of mutual respect while attempting to hash out a consensus. Indeed, President Alexander criticized Pounds and Lane for drafting their report prior to meeting with the administration. For the record, Pounds and Lane stand by their numbers -- now more than ever -- believing Stephens to be "spinning and scaring" rather than responding, and are amazed to see VP Stephens making a public filing prior to the August 7 meeting. Pounds and Lane look forward to the meeting on August 7, expect to prove their points, and have requested and been promised the following information from the administration: a sitemap/masthead of all administrators with titles of Director or greater; plus job descriptions and specific job duties for those personnel, in order to define overlaps, redundancy, benefits, perks, and multiple sources of funding which disguise whether these folks are directly and necessarily involved in instruction as opposed to administration for the sake of administration. Reporters for the Daily 49er and others have been invited by Pounds and Lane to the August 7 meeting, VP Stephens had previously added in administrative representatives from Academic Affairs. Stay tuned.