Dear Colleagues,
Considering all that has transpired since September 29 and the first market crash, institutions, families, and individuals have been pondering the personal and professional implications of the severe downturn in the economy. I am curious about what your questions and concerns might be, and how I might be of help. Bill
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I don't know that I've got a question relevant to your topic, but let me be the first to say welcome to the blogosphere! I went and added your feed to my RSS reader, so I'll get quick notification every time you post. I imagine most of us aren't using RSS, though, so you'd probably do well to send out a reminder email every now and then, like when you initiate a new post, or the initial flood of readers you'll get will dry up pretty quickly. I tried to start something like this for the English Department last fall, and that was its fate after a promising first two weeks or so. Nonetheless, we regularly lament how little we really get to talk to each other and collaborate, and I think these web 2.0 technologies could hold a lot of promise.
May your own blogging experiment turn out to teach you as much as mine has (and to be as much fun)--I started my personal blog last summer to document the road trip I took with my boys, and I haven't looked back. (You should be able to link to it by clicking on my name at the start of this comment.)
Thinking in terms of energy use/cost, I'm wondering what the comparison is between cooling our entire campus for three weeks in August (the hottest month of the year) VS cooling our campus the last two weeks in May + first week of June. When I came to Westminster (32 years ago) classes started the Tuesday after Labor Day and the school year ended the first full week of June. Is ending our school year before Memorial Day a "sacred cow" or would a change in the start/end dates of our school year make sense in terms of energy usage/$cost?
I have also wondered about the high cost of cooling the buildings in August versus May/June.
Another thing I ponder is why there is always either cold or hot air being pumped into the buildings. In Atlanta it seems that a number of days of the year we could be opening the windows and enjoying the air from the outside, at least part of the day.
I think this blog is a great idea! In terms of the energy questions raised above, I'm told that we actually have more students on campus participating in summer programs than we do during the school year. That said, I'd prefer the calendar suggestions mcc52 made, but I'm not sure of the savings.
Welcome to the blogosphere! I've been blogging (both personally and for the CFL) for over a year now and really think it's useful as a way to keep in touch and have conversations that the busyness of "real life" can prevent.
I hate to be repetitive, but I, too, have wondered at the cost of cooling the school during August.
One thing that I would hate to see changed is that fact that lunch is included as a faculty perk. Not worrying about having to pack my lunch or pay for it is a huge benefit! (I'm a simple creature, I guess). More thoughts will probably come, and I will reply again if they do.
Thanks for initiating this.
More thoughts, of both personal and professional natures.
1) Earlier this year my husband and I (he's in education as well) reacted with vehement "DON'T DO IT!"'s to my young cousin's announcement that she wanted to be a teacher. Though I hate to turn bright, interested young people away from the education field, I feel compelled to do so... unless he/she is independently wealthy or has a partner who makes a lot of money (that certainly narrows the applicant field). The sad fact is that education is just not a field that pays. One of the factors that always swung our family planning discussions towards "no kids" was financial. Now that Liam is here, we of course wouldn't change that, but paying just short of $900/mo. for daycare is hard. I would like to have a second child, but there is just no way that we can afford $1800./mo. for daycare. Waiting until Liam starts school is not really an option both because we (most likely) will have school tuition to pay-- we live in a horrible school district and can't afford a house in a good one-- and I will be almost 40 years old. So, should only the wealthy have children? My husband and I were both relieved when that same cousin announced at Thanksgiving that we'd changed her mind, and that she was going into medicine instead. It's a definite loss for education, but a gain for her.
2) Do I regret pursuing a career in education? No and yes. I love what I do and thoroughly enjoy the environment in which I work, so no. However, yes, because now it's not just myself that I have to worry about. I stay awake at night wondering how I'm going to provide my child with all of what he needs and some of what he wants, including a college education. I can't help but wonder if I had taken my particular skill set (excellent people skills, creativity, enthusiasm, ability to quickly learn new things) and gone into marketing or pharmaceutical sales, if my child would have a more secure future. Would I be happier in either of those fields? Most definitely not, but happiness doesn't pay the mortgage... or college tuition. It's a tough call. I want to be able to tell Liam to follow his passion and pursue what interests him... but I know from firsthand experience that if one's dreams barely keep a roof over one's head, the passion for them diminishes.
We may be in an economic downturn, but the school is still in an enviable position in terms of its endowment, its land ownership, and its local and national connections.
I would hope that the school will help its employees by continuing to look after them properly. Good healthcare, good life insurance (this was just cut -- right?), good pension assistance.
I think as a school we should think seriously about whether the 401(k) or 403(b) is a viable instrument anymore. Only this morning NPR interviewed a recent retiree who simply and plainly advised younger people not to put all their retirement money in the stock market and 401ks. If not there, then where? The 401k is a recent instrument and it has CLEARLY FAILED. I don't have family money, and I don't have a high-earning spouse. I am worried for the future, and I am even more worried for those about to retire, or for those who have had to postpone retirement because of these Reagan-era instruments. Westminster should take the lead and return to traditional pension plans.
Dr. C, thanks for opening up this forum. I hope that you're getting some useful feedback.
Obviously, in light of the crisis, our best path is to exercise prudence in the extreme. Hopefully we will come out of this better than when we went in.
My main, and (perhaps I'm naive) only concern is the value of our 403b. Most of us have taken a 20-40% hit in the value of our TIAA-CREF accounts. I'm young, so my main reaction is frustration rather than terror, but for those closer to retirement this will be a life-altering experience.
In addition to my 403b, I invest in common stock on a regular basis. My stock portfolio has only dropped an average of 14%. And I only made one change to my portfolio between May 08 and Oct 08. We can go into the reasons why my stocks fared well compared to these mutual funds, but the essence is that diversification is not an absolute good and actively managed funds are sometimes an absolute scourge. Compound this with the fact that there are only a whopping dozen or so funds for us to choose from. They don't even offer an index fund for those who want very little activity in their accounts.
However, even if my stock holdings had suffered 30% losses, those losses would only be realized if I sold the stock. You try telling a mutual fund manager not to sell stocks in a down-cycle! He's got a reputation, a gain/loss report, and ultimately a job to look out for. And the minute he sells good stocks to cover losses on his bad calls, he has effectively realized my loss.
So my question is this. Might the board consider offering an alternative to TIAA-CREF? Something in which we have the option of purchasing stocks and bonds directly? I don't care who it's managed by and I don't even care about the fees they charge (ok, I care about the fees). But it infuriates me to think that we are paying someone to daily realize massive losses, all in the name of "diversification."
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