And what are the faculty malcontents going to do when Sexton and the board simply ignore your vote? It's not binding on anything or anyone. They have no real power. If they really want to express their "outrage", they should simply quit, and find a job at a college whose policies match their politics.
NYU, on it's part should simply eliminate tenure in its entirety.
@bbmwI recall you writing the very same thing, in response to a Villager article about NYU 2031 some months back. You, my friend, have a most promising and possibly lucrative future in the Sexton administration. You and our university president are exactly on the same page! Do away with tenure (something that Sexton would do in an instant, if only he could, so as to silence those "malcontents") and you do away with academic freedom. Voila! The freedom of faculty to actually speak their mind, to question, to do precisely what we are finally doing now: assembling, discussing, debating and, yes, voting. Since you are repeating your same old argument about the powerlessness of the faculty and the futility of any democratic debate and collective action, I will respond yet again. Maybe -- almost certainly -- you'll still disagree with me. But, who knows, maybe you'll at least understand our faculty position at least a little better.
Yes, a great many members of the faculty WILL leave NYU for its rival institutions if NYU 2031 becomes reality. "Let 'em go, who needs 'em?" you're probably thinking. They're all replaceable. Kind of like spare auto parts. Both distinguished older faculty and those starting not only their careers at NYU but also their families in the Village, many of them accepting their posts in the first place in large part thanks to the green space and playgrounds of the two Super Blocks that they now call home, will defect to other universities that both value and uphold faculty governance and care about the quality of life of their employees. NYU also will be raided for its top talent faster than you can blink. That will be the sad state of affairs for faculty retention. I may very well be one of the faculty to depart for another university. Again, I doubt that someone like you, who seems to believe that faculty are no more than droids and are there to simply do what they're told, to be the big cash earners for the administration but not to be heard, would be all that troubled. I would, in fact, very much like to hear from you who you think it might be who are doing all the teaching, the mentoring and the reference letter-writing for the 45,000 students and growing at NYU -- and what the role, if any, the faculty actually might be fulfilling in giving these students and their parents their "money's worth"? Now, as for faculty recruitment, to replace the dozens of exceptional faculty who will invariably depart? Best of luck to the current administration in convincing the most promising candidates -- in many cases holding offers from our other competitors -- to relocate their families to an ear-splitting, rat-infested twenty-year construction zone that, when actually completed, will more closely resemble Midtown than the Village that we all know and cherish ... and that has inspired faculty and students alike to travel oceans to join. And so, in the end, what quality of education will our students be receiving for their $55,000+ of tuition per year, to say nothing of the years of student debt (currently averaging $41,000 per student with loans to replay, more than $15,000 the national average)? Are you fine, then, with having more and more classes taught by cheap labor (adjuncts, graduate students, other contract faculty)? If so, good luck attracting any smart, motivated, high-achieving students, as opposed to a bunch of rich kids, arriving for the brand and little else. There are plenty of excellent institutions, here in NY alone, who would provide a superior destination for the former. Just like in any other endeavor, it's called competition.
Ultimately, however, it
is not me or my fellow faculty that should be expected to leave. Not after
working tirelessly, in many cases for decades, in elevating NYU to the
reputation that the university and its alumni has enjoyed up to now. We are
anything but resigned that this ill-conceived, academically unjustified, financially ruinous
expansion is a done deal. Yesterday's victory at the court hearing, regarding disclosure of parkland-related documents (and the NYU administration's obstructionism), proves just that. Make no mistake, we're not going to stop fighting until all the fighting's done. The faculty isn't to blame for this entire sorry mess. And we're not going to allow Sexton and his minions to drive the university -- our university -- off a cliff. It is instead someone altogether different who
should be doing the resigning. And, believe me, whatever you might think of the faculty's ability to make a difference in shaping the direction that our university takes, there is someone getting awfully nervous about his job on the 12th floor of Bobst.
The outcome of your insignificant little vote is a foregone conclusion. Only the faculty members who are against this will bother to participate. But in the end it doesn't matter. It, and you, will simply be ignored.
That being the case, you have three options. Quit your position, keep beating your head against the wall to no effect, or just shut up and teach your classes. Either way, the administration will run NYU the way it sees fit, and there's really nothing you can do to change that.
