"Confucius Say" Institute

Perhaps I should have titled this post 'Tempest...Chapter 4' because it is one of the fall-out events of the president-who-is-not-allowed-on-campus.  

The Chinese government has a program in which they partner with colleges outside China in establishing something called the Confucius Institutes.  They have many of these throughout the world, including the U.S.
Our little college has decided it wants to establish one.  We would provide the physical facilities and a director.  The Chinese send over visiting scholars who would teach Chinese language, history, culture, etc., to regular college classes, and/or high schoolers, community members, business people, etc. 

Investigation into the feasibility of taking part in this evidently began here many years ago, but it was the president-who-is-barred-from-campus (I'll call him Mr. P for now) who really pushed it through, with no discussion with the faculty at all.  The thing is, if these visiting scholars are to teach regular college courses, the affected departments, such as language and history, must decide if and how these are to be included in the department offerings.  All departments, and the general education committee, must consider these courses also.  Should they be included in the required courses for some majors?  Should they be an option in the general education requirements?   To consider these, we must have at least a one paragraph course description. We have no such thing.  As for Chinese history, I am wondering if they would cover all of it, or would they skip over nasty details such as the cultural revolution?  And now, our name is on the dotted line.  One of the administrators said "it's not a done deal", but of course, it is.  It would be too embarrassing to cancel the contract now.

The institute is due to begin activity one year from this fall.  The fall course offerings will be decided at the beginning of the spring semester.  We don't know who the visiting scholars will be, or what (specifically) they will be able to teach.  We don't have any plans for where the offices will be housed.  In short, we don't know what the h*** we are doing.

Yesterday, there was a meeting, open to all faculty, in which the proposed institute was finally presented in some detail.  It was clear that there would have been plenty of time to plan this properly if Mr. P had taken that course of action rather than ramrodding it through with no faculty involvement.  It was also very clear that NO specifics about just what these visiting scholars would do had been planned at all, not only for regular college courses, but for anything else.  Yesterday's meeting gave faculty a chance to ask questions, and it was clear there is more than one that is very unhappy with the situation.

The thing is, our contract with the Chinese guarentees a certain number of students they first year, more the second, etc.  Without the planning I described above, how can that happen?   This is very much the style of "leadership" that Mr. P used in a lot of areas, which is why no one is shedding tears over his absence. 

Evidently, someone from the local paper was at yesterday's meeting, and now it is a front page article. 

As for me, it was a chance for a free lunch, and a chance to enjoy a good show, complete with potato chips and cookies. 

Tempest....chapter 3

Several new things happened in the last few days in this ongoing soap opera.  New irregularities in campus records were uncovered, with details in the local paper.  The hearing date has been set--it will be in about 4 weeks.    The hearing will be public, but it will be in the state capital, which will be too far away for most of us to manage.  Too bad. 

We were all notified that all full time employees are (for all practical purposes) required to fill out a survey, which will not be anonymous, but is supposed to be confidential.  The state board seems to be as serious as it can be about going into the hearing with as much ammo as they can scrape together.

The good news is that our acting president is doing a lot to improve the atmosphere around here, and spirits are lifting. 

My spirits has been good for a while!  And little things tend to cheer me up.  I have discovered candle warmers, which allow me to enjoy the scent of a perfumed candle in my office without having an open flame.  Our department chair brings muffins to our meetings.  The weather is lovely.  My sewer is giving me no problems at all.  The lawn has been mowed, probably for the last time this season.  I just got a promotion and a small raise.  What a deal! 

Tempest in a Teapot, Chapter 2.

There was more news today about the ongoing saga of the state education officials, who want to fire our college president, and the president, who doesn't want to go, and has requested a formal hearing.

We do now have an "acting president," so the University business can proceed in a more-or-less normal manner.  Our official president is still barred from setting foot on University property.

Previous "word" had been that the hearing would be held in mid-September.  Not so.  The newspaper says that the state education board has hired two additional "outside" attorneys for the upcoming fight, not only for the hearing, but for any forthcoming lawsuits. The judge to preside over the hearing has been chosen.  The university staff and faculty got another email about several ongoing audits on campus, urging us to cooperate.  Now, the word is the hearing will be perhaps in mid-October, but the date has still not be set. 

I have a feeling that when the hearing finally occurs, the fireworks will be visible for several miles. 
I just keep humming that old Roy Clark song, "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone."

Why I worry.

I am very concerned about how computing interacts with the world at large.  Many people are not, but perhaps if I relate some experiences from my life, it will help explain my concerns.

When I was an undergraduate, I had a part-time job working in my school's computing facility.  I had a much more responsible position than I should have had given my youth and inexperience, simply because as a student I worked for minimum wage, and my boss wanted to take advantage of my cheap labor. 

It is incredible to me now, but the fact is that I re-wrote the payroll system and tested with live data.  I would NEVER trust an undergraduate with either of these.  A payroll is a fairly sophisticated system, but I was trusted to get it right.  Part of this trust was inspired by the fact that I ran my system parallel to the then-current system for a period of time, and matched every figure dollar for dollar.   How did I know that?  In fact, I had access to every salary and every bonus for every campus employee up to and including the college president. 

What would have prevented me from doing what I shouldn't have with this kind of access, both to the data and to the software?  Only my own personal compass of right and wrong.  There is no professional association for computer people that has any kind of policing function on professional ethics, as exists for the medical or law professions.  My boss paid no attention to my activities, my programs, or my testing. 

I also wrote programs for the student academic system, and helped to run the end of semester grade reports.  I had access to every grade for every student.  At the time, the grades were on punched cards, and so all the grades were in big trays of cards that were fed into the computer.  One evening as I was preparing to help with a "run", a student friend of mine came in and just HAD to find out his grade in so-and-so class, so I found the appropriate card and showed it to him.  But, the silly boy spilled the beans on me, and I was reprimanded for this.  I didn't argue the case, but the fact is, that grade was to be printed and mailed to him that very evening, so why was telling him his grade a few hours early such a problem?  He could have easily found out his grade from his professor, except the professor was not in his office. 

The real problem here was not that my friend found out his grade.  The real problem here is that some undergraduate (me) had access to everyone's grade every semester.  I could get all grades, all salaries, all accounting numbers from the general accounting system, in fact,  almost all sensitive data for the entire university at any time I wished.  No professional organization to know or care.  No boss or any other university employee to know or care.  Nothing. 

This was the start of my concerns in this area.  Lots and lots of people in computer related jobs have this kind of access. Data can be used.  Software can be altered in subtle ways for unscrupulous ends.   What's keeping them honest?  Nothing.

That's why I worry.

Adventures in Robotics?

Our little college will be hosting an event for high schools to build little robots and compete with them.  The competition will be later this fall.  Today, the teams came to learn about the competition and pick up the kits for building the robots, and I volunteered to assist with registration and other mundane tasks.  But the day started off anything but mundane.  We were using the auditorium that is used for theater productions, concerts, and such.  It is old, but nice.  I arrived at 8:30 (the kids were due to show up at 9:00).  One of the other faculty volunteers heard water rushing and found something of a waterfall coming down backstage.  At about 8:55, the fire alarm sounded, and strobe lights flashed, and we all left the building.  The appropriate people came, and found that the theater department's costume area had a washing machine that some pea-brained person had installed on the top floor of the building, and it had been stuck on the "fill" cycle for something like 12 hours.  The water eventually shorted out some alarm system, hence the fire alarm.  They did manage to shut off the alarm, but the strobe lights flashed till about 12:00 noon. I don't know what will be done about the water. 

The good news is that we were able to complete the planned events with no problem.