Here’s some of the reasons why I am not permitting my classes to be over-enrolled.
- There are other sections taught by other instructors. I will not be taking on extra workload so that others may work less. That just isn’t fair to me. I know you wanted Wiegley. Not going to happen. And that is OK. The other instructors are good too and you will still get your grade and graduate and get excellent jobs with the skills and information taught to you by others. You’ll make so much money you’ll forget about me quickly.
- I am a contracted union employee (not by my choice). Both my workload and pay are negotiated with my employer and fixed. I do not get any significant voice in that negotiation; others decide what is right for me. Those decisions have not been good. I am not going to volunteer to do more work without being able to negotiate better compensation.
- The union is already absolutely incompetent at both limiting my workload and paying me a fair salary competitive with not only the Computer Science industry but even other university systems. If you want me to consider working more then send a letter to the California Faculty Association and ask them:
- Why has the union allowed tenure-track faculty to receive an effective pay cut of 1.4% for the 2020-2021 academic year? (inflation)
- Why has the union allowed tenure-track faculty to receive another effective pay cut of 6.1% for the 2021-2022 academic year? (inflation)
- Why do new instructors hired recently make more than a faculty member who has worked here for over twenty years?
- It is not entirely the union’s fault. Governor Newsom and the California State legislature does not support the CSU beyond lip-service. They are, in fact, abusing the CSU and its students. I’m not going to do more work for free while the state refuses to support higher education equally for all its citizens.
- State budget funding allocates approximately US$14,000/student to the UC system AND to the Community College System. But the state politicians allocate 30% LESS funding to CSU students (only US$10,000). The state politicians are actively and knowingly discriminating against you economically by abusing the CSU system and its students, faculty, and staff. That is a big part of why there aren’t enough good faculty to teach students in the CSU and why there isn’t enough course sections and seats available for you.
- To put some of that in perspective. The CSU serves twice as many students as the UC system does. We both provide the same undergraduate degrees, the same courses, and employ the same qualified people as instructors. We’re just forced to do it with 30% less state funding and half the student tuition as well.
- Write Newsome and ask him “In a year where the state budget has a US$100 BILLION budget surplus, why did he allocate an additional US$4.2Billion in funding for the high-speed rail boondoggle while refusing to fully fund the CFA contract which would have cost only 2% of what was given to a commuter train that you will never ride?”
- Of the budget surplus it would have only cost 1 PENNY per US$10 to fully fund the CFA contract. That’s how totally unimportant you and I are to Governor Newsom’s interests.
- The administration on this campus has made choices that make working here difficult. I’m not going to work more for free to make up for their poor decisions.
- We’re unable to provide online classes in any practical manner. They’re convenient for many of you. They are convenient for me. I have enjoyed teaching online courses during Covid and I think the majority of you enjoyed them too. I can’t provide them conveniently due to administrative policies. Maybe if we had more convenient and satisfying options available, I could find ways to conveniently accommodate more students. Until administration becomes less rigid and demanding in their thinking and policies, I cannot see an ethical way to increase the number of students I serve.
- Administration refuses to allocate sufficient class seat resources to the College of Engineering and Computer Science. CECS receives insufficient seats to fill the demands of its students while colleges such as Arts(+3.8%), Business(+6.9%), Health(+9.3%), Humanities(+4%), Science(+14%), and Social(+6.1%) all receive more seat resources than they have demand for. Until we faculty stop teaching students for free and sacrificing ourselves to make up that difference then administration will continue this abuse so they can afford their favorites. (Note: In fairness, this past year the allocations were much fair for CECS than they have been historically.) Write a letter and ask the campus president and provost why College of Science gets 14% more seats in Spring 2022 than it needs while CECS, and especially CS/CITE, routinely comes up short.
- It doesn’t stop at the university. The dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science has to subdivide and allocate the college resources given to CECS to five different departments. He has his favorites too. Ask him why ONLY Computer Science does not receive sufficient seat allocations for the demand of its students. For the Spring 2022 semester, Computer science needed 9.4% more seats than was allocated to it while Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, and Manufacturing ALL got more allocation than they needed. In past semesters that shortage has been as high as 30%. Again, the college administration is abusing a group of people and relying on them to sacrifice themselves to make a broken system work. It’s unethical for me to prop up their system by essentially running my own unfunded college program on the side for them. And, again, as long as faculty are willing to sacrifice themselves to keep the system designed by administration from collapsing, they will continue to build an unsustainable and abusive system.
When you are frustrated and wonder why you can’t enroll in CS/CIT classes, why all the course sections are full before your registration date even opened, or why you have to beg for permission numbers… that’s some of the reasons why.
So, I apologize. I love teaching and have been very fortunate to have the best possible students I could imagine for over twenty years. I have found Computer Science students to be incredibly professional, polite, understanding, and accommodating. You are a wonderful group to teach but I can’t teach all of you, especially with the unethical and unfair conditions imposed on CS/CIT and faculty by this state and campus administration.
There’s a TON of background data, terms, policies, and such behind these reasons that there isn’t enough room on this page to explain even a small fraction of it. If you do want to write to presidents, deans, governors, or legislators it would be helpful for you to understand those concepts more fully to help you change the system appropriately. I’m happy to explain those details to you. Just touch base with me sometime. For instance: “Seat allocations” are actually called “FTES” by administration. Which stands for “Full Time Equivalent Student.” You can see a ton of current and historical information about resource allocation at: CSUN Counts – Dashboards You would be particularly interested in “Registration Reports” if you are wondering about FTES/Seat Allocations. There are all sorts of good information available. Like why does Electrical Engineering get 50% more faculty members/student than Computer Science (FTEF Full-Time Equivalent Faculty)??? Want to know why your CS/CIT schedule is stuffed with so many “Staff” instructors?… That’s why.