Wednesday, May 6, 2009

definitely an alarmist

or am i?

We received a letter yesterday from our illustrious president saying, after a board of governor meeting, that HUC is fully committed to both "financial sustainability" and maintaining their presence in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, New York. But they are still looking for radical, structural changes to be made to the college's operation in order to maintain the high quality of education to which we are accustomed to receive. It's a relief, although the final plan will be voted on in late June. 

So, basically this means, reading between the lines, that for me, I'll spend my next two years in LA and then graduate. For my current students, who knows. They'll probably have a few years at their respective campuses, and then maybe relocate, or not. Whatever plan happens may not affect their course of study. What still makes me uneasy is the looming potential for layoffs: staff, custodial and administrative, and faculty (probably the non-tenured ones). That's worrisome and hopefully nothing will be done hastily and without great kavanah (intention)...

A visiting faculty member, who's a congregational clergy in LA, thinks that the LA property is definitely going to be sold to USC and perhaps some of the land in NY and Cincy as well. But we'll see. 

In other words... I'm an alarmist. 

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