College of Education Dean Scott Dantley intends to focus on recruiting black males into teaching. Few black men teach today in the nation's public schools. Black men comprise only 2.4 percent of K-12 teachers in the U.S., 3.2 percent of Florida schoolteachers and 4.1 percent of Leon County teachers.
"The problem is trying to increase the level of interest in the profession," said Dantley. The 39-year old Dantley is a former middle school teacher who has taught chemistry and physical science.
He has submitted a proposal to John Winn, state education commissioner, to fund the new initative. The approach would be holistic and begin with better outreach to students - such as summer institutes - as early as in middle and high school, he said.
(Scott can you have DJ Sedrick hook me up with a CD?)
The education dean is making great strides in the COE at FAMU. He comes in with a great wealth of knowledge and the energy and know-how to move forward with initiatives that will benefit the students enrolled in the school. It's amazing that something as simplistic as initiating programs & grants to improve the presence of black men in the public schools had not been, to my knowledge, done prior to his coming. Which brings me to my most immedite question: what were professors doing before this man came on board, besides teaching? I mean, I know that teaching takes up a monumental portion of a professor's time, but certainly such an initiative as the one mentioned is something that could have been started before his arrival. Please correct me on this if I am uninformed. By the way, I am a university teacher--not at FAMU--so I know that professors have a lot on their academic plates all the time, and there is precious little time to engage in "extra" academic engagements in addition to teaching three and four classes and keeping administratively abreast of all the things that they must, of course, do to survive the academy.
ReplyDeleteI wish this brother well. He will do great things for the COE.
ReplyDeletego get 'em.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought that teaching 3-4 classes, plus office hours will lock up most of your day. Add to that whatever meetings one may have and possibly some grad students to advise and that'll do 'er.
It's like Cornell West said at his speech at FAMU, he will not work for an HBCU b/c they require you to teach waaaaaay too much, and as a tenured professor there are many other things he is trying to do.
Well you can't have it both ways. The reason professors are able to be released from teaching is due to grant money or large endowments that have money for faculty awards and distinguished professorships. You can never achieve that status if professors don't write grants, alumni don't give substantial dollars, and universities don't fundraise.
ReplyDeleteAlso in that scenario you have alot of graduate students teaching undergraduate and lower level classes. These people many times are teaching classes for the first time and honing their skills on people who need good teaching the most.
It is a Catch -22. If you are not committed to the well being of the student, if you are not interested in being a high energy faculty member who is expected to do it all, don't come to an hbcu.
Lastly, if you have persons who are full professors who are not doing research they are hurting the fabric of the university. We have many people who fit this category at FAMU. Professors teach fewer classes in some cases, have higher salaries and if they are not doing research and publishing, we are not getting our monies worth. In this scenario it is better to have two junior faculty who will teach several courses, who will try to establish a research program, and who make less money.
Understand why you would want to make changes in your faculty. Unfortunately at hbcus, people stay forever. Even though they are no longer productive, it is hard to move people put. When you don't have dollars to hire around them, your program suffers.
Even though several people were upset at the SBI Eight, you had some people who were long-term professors, who were not contributing to research, who could not teach the core business courses. It was better to move them out bring younger people in with better credentials, with new research ideas and more energy to move the program forward. It is unfortunate having to terminate people, bt sometimes it is necessary to move programs forward, to save money and to move programs through difficult financial periods.
Ask Pfizer who just announced a big layoff, ask Merck who laid thousands of people off last year. These companies will lay people off and the next year hire again. It's a way of getting rid of old skill sets and saving money.
It creates new positions for fresh ideas at a cheaper rate.
Some of this jibberish is laughable.
ReplyDeleteIt's not jibberish. Its a discussion that you know nothing about since you don't live in the real world. It's only jibberish when the discussion is beyond your thinking and grasp.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who is an academic and has worked in corporate America, this is the real world. FAMU is not. We are living in a tired dream with some (not all) tired faculty who are not worth the salaries they get. I reiterate, some not all because I know someone is going to try to infer that I am referring to all faculty.
Many of the programs are failing because of the lack of leadership and maintenance over the years. Everything cannot be blamed on the current president or Provost. Some of our curricula and methods are archaic. Mark my words, the accreditation will not be pretty and it will not be solely because of VH and her group. It will be bcause of the lack of progress and innovation in our programs and the lack of vision of many of our deans. FAMU cannot continue the dream of being a good black school. It needs to be a good school, period.