#workingclassproblems

January 22, 2014

http://chancellor.syr.edu/messages/m/discovering-syracuse.html

Dear Chancellor Kent,

I'm glad you've gotten a chance to explore and "discover" some parts of Syracuse. Sounds like you had another good day. I wanted to invite you into my life. I would compare myself to America, I guess. I mean, I know what my life is like. And I bet other "support staff" do too. But for famous people like you, it's still something to discover.

I got up at 5:30 in my house in Cortland. We always get tons more snow than Syracuse. So I started the kids' breakfast. Ironed my own clothes, #WhoHasMoneyForDryCleaning?, and then the kids were up. I say kids, but one of them is already 16. He is eating me out of house and home and growing so fast, I might need a raise to keep buying his food. #Hint. Pack my own lunch, leftovers from two nights ago. #ICantAffordToEatOutEveryday

Then I go out and shovel my car out. Because we don't have a garage and my husband hurt his back working at the Carrier plant before it shut down, so he can't lift a shovel to save his life. #WorkingClassIssues #EverHearOfThem? I'm on the road by 7:00 because traffic and snow and you never know. Plus I can only afford the real far parking. So you bundle up, walk past 3 hospitals and that Dome, while frost forms on my hair, by the time I get to my building.

Opening up the [redacted] department office by 8:00. Someone's gotta put the coffee on for those poor professors. Then you know one of them, or those pesky grad students, messed up the copier, AGAIN. I have been on the phone with Bill, over at the Xerox Corp so long, you'd think we were best friends. He keeps telling me to pull drawer 2 and lift lever B but that rarely works. After an hour wrestling with the damn thing, I finally get it to work. #OfficeSpace

And I gotta refill the printer paper. And why do people keep printing stuff and then not pick it up? You know if you need it, that's one thing. But otherwise you're just making more work for me. 

Then I gotta spend 20 minutes inputting a 25-digit code into the fax machine because Dr. Famous needs to fax something to his lab in London, and I swear, I think international phone calls didn't take this long anymore. 

Oh, and don't forget, I'm answering the phone every 10 minutes with some ridiculous question that if people just READ OUR DARNED WEBSITE, they would know the answer. And helping that poor freshman who's lost look for the English Department. I try telling him he's on the wrong side of campus altogether, but he's got his iPod and who knows if he hears me. 

Now you know Prof. Emeritus Bob is such a sweetie, but the poor guy can't use a copier to save his life. And he wants to make them on a computer, he says. So I get to scanning and copying for him. I tell him to check his email, but I'm not sure he knows how to use it. That's why he gets the paper copies too. 

And then by around 10 all the professors are coming in, small talking and chit-chatting me. But they don't really know me. Because when they invite me to their end of the year party or whatever, do they know, I gotta drive up all the way from Cortland. On the WEEKEND! My weekends are mine, okay. Who's gonna pay my gas for another day's commute on a Saturday.

Anyway, I could go on. Paperwork. Paperwork. Paperwork. The Registrar's office messed up Dr. K's intro class and so I gotta fix that. And then some grad student is trying to ask me what to do about cheating? Who's she supposed to tell, b/c Dr. S isn't responding? And also, can I help her figure out when her stipend is arriving? I wish I could, honey.

So emails, emails. Copies, copies. Faxes, faxes. Phone calls, phone calls. Quick bathroom break. Explaining copier/fax machine/scanner to at least one person per day. (And these people have PhDs!) Answering student emails. Fixing student problems. Cleaning the kitchenette because NO ONE follows the sign to "clean up your own mess". Cleaning out the microwave that Dr. W infected with his fish something or other. Making sure library books get picked up and delivered. Oh man, and then the mail. I just tell people, it'd be easier if you walked it across campus yourself. I don't trust it, that's for sure. And no, I do not know when your newsletter will be delivered, Dr. D. At least it's not "Scholarly Association that all faculty belong to Journal Delivery Day." I gotta carry that stuff all the way from the 5th floor to here. I am pushing 55, okay? And not a single person tries to help me carry that boatload of journals. 

Anyway, my lunch hour is over, and I gotta go repeat all the things I just told you about. And drive home. And great, it's starting to snow again. And so I'll have to shovel out my car here too b/c like I said, I'm in the poor people no roof garage. 

So I'm glad you had fun at your lava throw or something. Sounds like something from out of the 70's to me, but whatever.

Just wanted to let you know, some of us don't have time for that. And going to all the "fun" stuff Syracuse has to "offer". Because we got a one hour commute home, and no free time, and a school to run--helping all those professors and students do their teaching and learning. 

So, I know you want to "keep this community thriving" but darnit, WHOSE community are you talking about? I heard from Paula over in the [redacted] department that you hired #Bain to find ways to cut staff. Like they did at the UC schools. My nephew goes to school there. He said that Bain recommends firing staff like us to cut costs. But then Bain hires us back. And you hire us through Bain. Except for even crappier wages. #Meritocracy!! #Capitalism!! Pretty genius, actually. Cut costs. Shoot, cut the bloated number of assistant and associate deans! High level administrators who do not teach, do not research, do not contribute to the hum drum of daily life here - seriously do they not teach you how to use a copier in PhD school?? Or clean the microwave? Shucks, I'm not sure what they do. Do you? (that was rhetorical)

But seriously. You're right. Professor Doerr is an engaging professor (though didn't you think it was odd she was teaching math in an auditorium? I remember booking that room for her a few years ago, thinking, "What's with THAT??" I guess math is best taught with 100+ students in the room - but what do I know???). Professor Doerr's a great researcher, too. Making great contributions to the field of math education. But she's a dying breed. I see adjuncts running in and out of here, teaching 3, sometimes 4 courses. For what? $12,000? No health benefits? No time to develop their own research projects? Forced to make time for their 60 advisees? And I can't even give them the copier code. Or an office. 

You're looking for a vision. That's what these emails are about. I get it. Appeal to the common folk. Pretend to listen. Then "develop" a strategy already defined by Bain. I mean, super. Fabulous. You know what? I know your vision isn't about hiring more Professor Doerrs. I do know that. Nor is it about helping us "support staff" get better pay or benefits. I'm sure the flowers on secretaries' day are all we work for. I know my bank always loves it when I try to deposit them.

Alright. I'd love to tell you more. I have a lot on my mind. You probably stopped reading. And Mary just handed me a stack of job apps to fill out. You know, in case you eliminate our jobs (you will). And crap, I just realized St. Patrick's day is coming up. Gotta change the office decorations, AGAIN.

Best,

Joan K.

Administrative Assistant