Letter to the editor: Highway to the Eighth Circle
Photo courtesy of Daniel Healy Carlin
An engraving by Gustave Doré illustrating Canto XXVI of the Divine Comedy. “The Flaming Spirits of the Evil Counsellors”.
September 2, 2021
When I attended the freshman orientation back in the Fall of 2015, Oakland University’s motto, and the principles that it entailed, were uttered by administrators and the campus community with an almost sacral tone. I remember our small group guide going to the stone seal of OU’s coat of arms in front of the Oakland Center and joking that if we walked over it, we would fail our first semester finals. Even though this was a lighthearted comment made in jest, the idea of treating the university with respect was very real. At this time, the campus community wanted to instill in the incoming freshmen a respect and a reverence towards the institution and all that it stood for. The university and its administration now seem to prioritize their personal agendas over their responsibilities to their faculty, their students, and the entire campus community. The love and pride in the university reflected in campus events and orientation seems so dim when now measured against this most recent betrayal. What this entails has already been discussed in great detail, and even though I am no expert on this economic proposal, it seems to me that the administration has no intention of negotiating in good faith for the benefit of the campus community. The university’s motto “sequir virtute e conoscenza” is taken from the Old Italian of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The scene from which our motto is borrowed, takes place in the Eighth Circle of Hell, reserved for perpetrators of Fraud. The motto is uttered by the great Ulysses, who is being punished alongside Diomedes, for being Counsellors of Fraud during the Trojan War. Ulysses tells Dante the tale of his last voyage and how he was able to inspire (or manipulate) his men to sail with him to the ends of the Earth, even though it was likely that they would never return. His rousing speech is what we borrow our motto from. Ulysses says, “Considerate la vostra semenza; fatti non foste a viver com bruti, ma per sequir virtute e conoscenza” which means, “Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to love like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge”. The irony in this statement is that Ulysses and his men abandoned their responsibilities and all that was most dear in their lives for the pursuit of personal glory. Ulysses forsakes his wife, his children, and his entire kingdom for this vain enterprise and encourages his companions to do the same. It seems as though OU administration is truly living up to its motto, but probably not in the way it intended.
Pissed-off faculty • Sep 3, 2021 at 10:30 AM
Oh, wait: wasn’t that morning communication email supposed to be in the Satire section? I must admit, there is perfection even in ludicrousness.
anonymous • Sep 3, 2021 at 8:29 AM
Good letter, Dan.
I’m going to comment on your idea of fraud, and say it not only appears in their approach to mission (as you say) but also in the dishonest communication with university community members. Around 8AM this morning (Sept 3) OU claimed that they had made a very generous offer, setting out some details, before working to turn the rest of the university community against faculty by portraying them as selfish.
I make about 74,000 dollars a year and pay about 100 dollars a month for health insurance. Under their proposal, that would increase to 200 dollars a month (1,200 dollar per year, or 1.6% a year). So over a three year contract, what happens? Basically I end up close to a zero raise over that entire period. Suddenly that 5% they offer over three years doesn’t seem so high. This is called a parlor trick, and is designed to get rid of fixed health costs in exchange for a token (same amount) raise that can then get removed in three years. Pretty retrograde, right? And, while the “negotiators” claim parity, they should be honest and add their names. Josh Merchant and Joi Cunningham don’t pay 10% of their health premiums. Have a quick look at executive “fringe” benefit package. This is a ploy designed to get other campus community members to begin resenting the faculty….remember yesterday’s email encouraging you all to “tell us to teach.” See, they are disappointed that you didn’t do that…that you supported with with lost of well wishes and LOTS of honking! This upsets Ora, in particular, because it challenges her longterm attempt to convey an image of being Mama Bear with you as her cubs. She doesn’t like that nobody cares about her out of touch videos, instead preferring to show loyalty to the faculty who actually serve them every day. She even tried to win your praise with a poorly timed million dollar donation!
They also fail to mention the proposal to gut the retirement benefit by 4%. Add that into my above stated case, and I am far worse off after three years than I am now. Package not looking so good all of a sudden. This is in the name of OU’s poverty, right? Well, there is plenty circulating on this, but I’ll just add one other piece. While faculty are getting asked to take massive cuts, the Provost (makes almost 300k and USES the tuition benefit for her own child) has added TWO additional (for total of four) Associate Provosts to her office. Those positions each get 165k You could hire me about 2.5 times over for that. Or, put another way, she has used funding that could support FULL SALARIES for about 5 faculty just to add more bloat to her office. Ask a faculty member you know how effective that office is, by the way.
Finally, on faculty tuition benefits. This is just a ridiculous argument, and punitive. The reality is that this costs the university nearly nothing (and by the way, it isn’t free, we pay a 10% administrative fee for the registrar bit)…..but the extra work this takes when a faculty member’s child/spouse is added to my class is extra work TOTALLY shouldered by ME the faculty member. It is one I am more than happy to give to my hardworking colleagues, by the way, as they would be for me. Go read Tony Guest’s letter about this……you know what, if his kid takes my class I will be thrilled to have him/her….I know Tony and he busts his butt everyday, so it’s a no-brainer. And if someone’s kid needs to retake my class, really, the only person who ends up giving more “free” labor (since the student is an extra addition to the class) is me……if anybody should get the right to kill this benefit it should be the faculty, who virtually all support it.
Finally, while we are on the subject of honest…..let’s be clear that the new tactic is yet another dirty trick of dishonesty. In addition to the poor communications (BTW the VP in charge of brand and communication….the who responsible for all these ridiculous ‘OU COmmunications’ makes close to 220K a year, and gets a 750 dollars month car lease) they have now paraded another VP, Glenn McIntosh to start peddling more admin dishonesty. For instance, he is quoted in a newspaper as saying the last strike (2009) was ended in “a day”…..that’s not close to true….it was near a week. He also claimed we simply would “meet in the middle.” He also told a reporter that he walked around the halls and the classes were all in session. hmmmmm.
This is, my friends, a very poor version of damage control. The argument for high pay for admin is that you need to attract talent. I recommend we use our grotesquely high amin pay to actually attract some, then.
Annette Gilson • Sep 2, 2021 at 11:23 PM
Thank you, Daniel! You lift us up!!
Ashleigh Dubie • Sep 2, 2021 at 10:22 PM
Wow. Just wow. What an amazingly succinct and powerful letter.