Saturday Night: We Took that Holy Ride Ourselves to Know

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WVU Slashed: "we will be a husk"

WVU Professors Get Their Layoff Notices  

Amid the sweeping elimination of degree offerings and faculty members’ jobs at West Virginia University, professors are left with possibly hopeless appeals. 

By Ryan Quinn (Inside Higher Ed) 

Reed

It’s been a month since West Virginia University’s Board of Governors rebuffed students’ and faculty members’ pleas not to slash academic programs and positions. 

Last week, Provost Maryanne Reed told the Faculty Senate that the 143 positions the board approved axing would only result in 69 people receiving layoff notices. But, she said, that’s because “there were a significant number of faculty that voluntarily retired or resigned.” 

“I realize that is of little solace for those faculty members who will be losing their positions,” Reed said. “I recognize this is going to be very difficult on those individuals and their families. I think we all know people who will be impacted.” 

WVU’s enrollment has dropped 10 percent since 2015, far worse than the national average and unusual particularly for a flagship university. University officials, projecting a further plunge over the coming decade, said they might need to cut $75 million from the budget and targeted low-enrollment majors, alongside pursuing reductions outside the faculty ranks. 

But the 28 eliminated academic programs included, among other things, all foreign language degrees and the only math graduate degrees at the institution, which is classified as an R-1 (“very high research activity”) institution and offered the poor state’s only math Ph.D. program. 

Reed gave her remarks as WVU was sending layoff notices to individual professors, making the universitywide number of terminations even more personal. April Kaull, a WVU spokeswoman, said the notification process continues this week. 

WVU’s timeline for the layoffs, posted online, said the notifications would be sent to individual faculty members “by Oct. 16 (week of).” But a termination notice provided to one faculty member says these “notifications began on Sept. 18, 2023, and last through Oct. 31, 2023, with the vast majority of individuals being informed by or before Oct. 16, 2023, that their position is being eliminated.” 

After the board’s vote, faculty members learned that eight additional untenured colleagues in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics wouldn’t have their contracts renewed after May—cuts that go beyond the 143 that the university and national media fixated on....

Kaull

It is unclear when West Virginia’s cuts will end. “While WVU always must look for ways to ensure we are operating as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, there are no plans for any additional large-scale reductions beyond fall 2023,” says an online FAQ that Kaull pointed to. Inside Higher Ed requested an interview Monday, but Kaull instead provided emailed information. 

Professors have been sharing details about the layoff notices individually on X, mirroring how they broke the news in early August of just how many positions and degree offerings the university was planning to eliminate. 

“WVU math faced a tough day yesterday as we learned of 16 people being cut as part of ‘Academic Transformation,’” Ela Celikbas, an assistant math professor, posted Oct. 11. “Out of these, 10 faculty are ‘volunteered’ to leave, and six were riffed,” meaning laid off as part of a reduction in force.

Celikbas, who didn’t return requests for comment Monday, wrote, “We don’t know if there will be more cuts. I didn’t receive an email—so I guess I’m not riffed. Yet, my feelings are far from cheerful. It was a sleepless night, contemplating the unfortunate loss. One of the tenure-track faculty who will be riffed was in their fifth year—just like me—with hopes of going to tenure next year. I had the privilege of being part of the hiring process of some of the newer faculty members who volunteered to leave WVU.” 

Rose Casey, an assistant English professor, posted Oct. 3 on X, “Update: my job is safe, and I’m relieved. But that’s only because *eight* people in English have retired or resigned early. Eight. I grieve, genuinely, over losing these colleagues. And as our chair has told our dean, many of those who remain are on the market. We will be a husk.”…. . CONTINUED

Further decline in ACT scores

Inside Higher Ed 

ACT Scores Drop for Sixth Year in a Row 

By Jessica Blake 

The national average ACT composite score dropped to 19.5 out of a maximum score of 36 for the Class of 2023, according to data released by the testing organization. 

Although the decline is not as significant as it was in 2022, when the average score dipped below 20 for the first time since 1991, this is the sixth consecutive year of a decline. 

What’s more, the proportion of students in the Class of 2023 that didn’t meet any of the ACT’s college-readiness benchmarks is higher than ever before. Only 21 percent of all students met every benchmark, in math, science, reading and English, while 43 percent met none of the benchmarks, according to the data. 

“Even as student GPAs continue to rise and students report that they feel prepared to be successful in college, the hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said. “These systemic problems require sustained action and support at the policy level. This is not up to teachers and principals alone—it is a shared national priority and imperative.” 

The 0.3-point score decline from 2022 to 2023 was slightly smaller than the 0.5-point drop from 2021 to 2022. Roughly 1.4 million high school seniors took the ACT test in 2023, an increase of about 40,000 over the 2022 graduating class, but still down from about 1.7 million in 2020. 

The scores have become less influential as opposition to and criticism of the ACT and other standardized tests has increased. The tests have been blamed for reinforcing racial inequities in college admissions, and widespread problems at testing centers administering the exam during the pandemic further prompted a majority of colleges to institute test-optional admissions policies. Research has also consistently shown that high school GPA is a better indicator of college success than standardized tests.

From Wikipedia: "The ACT has seen a gradual increase in the number of test takers since its inception, and in 2012 the ACT surpassed the SAT for the first time in total test takers; that year, 1,666,017 students took the ACT and 1,664,479 students took the SAT."

"Beautiful" results

This morning, my oncologist informed me that Wednesday's all-important PET scan yielded "beautiful" results. The upshot: I have no cancer and am not likely to see a recurrence.

My blood numbers, though improving, are not yet normal, and so I'll receive treatment for that (e.g., I received an RBC booster this morning). The doctor seems to assume that that effort will be successful in short order.

I'll be monitored for the presence of cancer for five years. Still, at this point, it is very unlikely that the cancer will return.

This tense chapter of my life—which commenced perhaps a year ago—is now over. I still feel weak and mildly shitty, but that will pass as the chemo works its way out of my system. It's time to feel good again. 

The next chapter is largely unwritten, undetermined, a daunting freedom. A voice says, "don't screw it up." And there are so many ways to do that.

I am already moving in a particular direction. May it take clearer form and make some kind of sense. 

* * *

As if right on cue, Ancestry just emailed me an update on my ancestry—something people commonly if absurdly regard as part of who one is—and, as before, I find that I am largely (40%) Germanic with various eastern (e.g., Russian) and western (e.g., French and British) forebears. (Also: 3% Jewish.)

My mom is responsible for the eastern and northeastern stuff: she hailed from pre-war Prussia and Pommern. She made us listen to German march band music when I was a kid, but it sounded to me like merry-go-round music. As she listened, my mom imagined marching German soldiers; I imagined goofy unaffiliated horses and other creatures bobbing up and down absurdly and relentlessly and in a circle.

My dad was likely responsible for the western and northwestern contributions to my ancestry. He was from Southern Germany and Swabia (Swaben) in particular. 

Swabians are some peculiar people, man.

To get a sense of Swabians, consider the "Swabian salute," which is the expression Leck mich am Arsch. I recall my sweet cousin Tina (she spoke only German) using the expression a lot when she visited back in 1974. (She also freely used the somewhat affectionate phrase "Arsch mit Ohren," a term for a stupid person, which literally means "ass with ears.") She didn't seem to regard such terms as offensive. They seemed playful.

According to Wikipedia, 

The term Swabian salute (German: schwäbischer Gruß) is a partly humorous, partly euphemistic reference to the expression Leck mich am Arsch (akin to expression "kiss my arse", but literally "lick me on the arse") which is a common profanity. ... Although very common in most German-speaking areas with the possible exception of the extreme north of Germany [my mom was horrified by such vulgarities], the Swabian salute is used for a whole number of purposes [my emphasis] among the people of Swabia, Baden, parts of Bavaria and Austria, while in most other regions it is regarded as a rather vulgar insult only.

According to ... a German court, the [salute] can serve the purpose of "picking up an earlier conversation, continuing a stagnating conversation, giving new impulses to a conversation, ultimately end a conversation". Writer Thaddäus Troll ... added more reasons: "to express surprise, to express joy about unexpectedly meeting a fellow Swabian, to turn down a request regarded unacceptable". Naturally, the salute is also used as an insult.... 

I love it that saying "lick my ass," at least among German speakers, can be so subtle and versatile in conversation. Plus it retains its power as a flat-out insult, a kind of "fuck you." Very impressive. 

How the Censorship Industrial Complex Destroyed Free Internet (w/ Max Blumenthal)