Dear Sir,
I have found that one cannot fight City Hall. This is not due to a blind servitude to City Hall, but simple experience. Instead, I have proffered my resignation and appreciate your regrets.
I write this to share my own regrets. I regret that your organization has become so large that decisions have to be made based on the input from people with no searchable credentials who take a six week course and define themselves as superior to true instructors. I regret that the University no longer makes a distinction between student advisors and faculty advisors, so that the integrity of the college can be preserved against frivolous complaints. Instead, in the face of dropping enrollment, the ‘advisors’ now represent both, giving heavier than deserved weight to the student. This is a typical attitude of private educational institutions – they need the student income more than the integrity. This University used to hold itself above this type of economic selfishness, but no more. I speak not only from my own experience, but from cries and complaints from other faculty of your institution, all with at least a decade of dedication to this University. Until recently, I was proud of my affiliation with the University and vocal about it.
I regret my own loss, having gotten many accolades from colleagues and students about my dedication and involvement. The peer reviews have become a nitpicking rubric written and performed by people with a degree in Education rather than in the field being taught. Nonetheless, I followed the guidelines and always got good reviews. But I can no longer work at the University. My ‘advisor’, who used to be a scheduler, will be working there forever.
Above all I regret the loss to students, not only of my instruction based on vast business experience that they apparently learned and liked. At the most recent faculty meeting, I noticed that no one else teaches the course I have been teaching for over a year. So the students will lose the chance to even study that field with an experienced instructor, if they can get the course at all. This weakens the program. And this type of mindless culling causes the student to walk away with a worthless degree, no longer held in respect by the industries.
When I graduated from XXX Institute, it was a greatly respected alma mater. When that college went public, the courses in majors got watered down and the result was a less-worthy degree. From that time on I always specified when I graduated, so that those in the know would see that I earned my degree. This is what is going to happen to your University, especially with the growing competition for online education. If the same degree can be had from another institution at a lower tuition, and the reputations are the same, why waste the money?
Thank you for taking the time and consideration to read this. I hope the same consideration will be spent to keep the University from falling through the cracks. Yes, accreditation is over, but your reputation will reach the business community much faster than the time until the next accreditation.
Very sincerely,
An Instructor
The Academic 