Cause for Concern

So Tuesday we had a long and arduous faculty meeting. There was much debate--not really at each other--about the changing face of the university and the seemingly endless amount of "action step" coming from the administration without resources or support. We were invited by the administration to "begin a conversation" related to teaching and research. There are certain goals the admins would like to see put in place, but we are left to our own devices and our own budgets to figure out how to accomplish these goals. Now on the surface, it sounds really nice what they are asking us to aim for; however, there are significant pedagogical and research implications given the massive amounts of majors in our department. While some departments will be able to adopt this change quickly, a change for us means that we take a hit in some other area.

Now, as per usual, I don't say anything in these meetings. Rarely. Although I feel my voice is valued, I often feel I lack the institutional and departmental history needed to say something significant. Ordinarily, Chair seems okay with this. But tonight I and two of the newest faculty members received a note from Chair that indicated we might want to speak up on this because we actually had more to lose on this issue than some of the senior faculty. I suddenly felt like I missed something. I'm absolutely unclear how this carries more weight for us. I'm going to have to talk to the other new faculty members--hopefully they can clue me in before I speak with Chair.