I am lucky. Let me start out with that. My university, while cutting positions and sabbaticals, not replacing retirees, and dumping all sorts of budgetary stuff (travel to conferences is half what it was, teams/sports are getting eliminated, subscriptions for journals are getting cut, etc.) is in decent shape, I think. For starters, we didn't start with lots of perks. And we never had a lot of administrators relative to others our size. And heaven knows, we are lowly paid according to the national averages for our type of university and size. But we can make do. And the students are good. We hold onto that.
It is dispiriting, however, that we are continually being asked to do more with less. Usually it is not a problem, and this semester I have worked out a visiting lecture exchange with someone teaching elsewhere in the state -- she came and lectured here and I will be going to lecture at her university in a couple of weeks. She stayed with me, and gave her talk, this week. The next morning she sat in on some run-throughs of student papers (our student research conference is this coming week). Then she went back home to her university. I hope she enjoyed the visit as much as we enjoyed having her. And I hope I can do as well with their students as she did with mine.
We have a really good major, although it is small (small numbers of students, essentially two main faculty, with two others teaching courses in support). And although someone is retiring who was officially a participant in the major, he was largely (by his choice) involved in other aspects of university instruction. So we have a major with two major faculty. We have been working together for fifteen years, and know each other and our strengths and weaknesses, and our students have had us for up to four years by the time they are doing their senior theses. That is okay. I have been really happy at what we have managed to accomplish with our students and the feedback we have gotten from employers and grad schools about our students after graduation. We have worked out teaching rotation of courses and things are okay. We can make do. Other departments (and programs in my own department) are in worse shape.
But suddenly having a new voice, someone who would say something new when hearing the student presentation runthroughs (and in some instances the same thing in a different way), was such a revelation to me. Not because what she said was the revelation itself, but my reaction to having a third voice in the room. I miss having another colleague. My particular program will not ever be large, but having a new voice suddenly was lovely and exciting. I would love to have a third teacher. The students would have 50% more knowledge, access to 50% more feedback, and it would be so much better for them. I had not realized what that would be like. I know it won't happen any time soon, but it surprised me that I suddenly was realizing it would make a difference.
And that is what I think the cuts have done to me. I am in such a coping mode and trying to keep the opportunities as generous as possible for my students that I have forgotten what a more desirable situation might be like. Is this a good thing? I don't know. Generally I am happy and satisfied with what we manage, and I know that our students are benefitting greatly from what we provide to them. But this week I realized how much they are missing. I am not sure what to do about this on a regular basis. A visiting speaker on occasion is a good temporary treat, but what can I do that will fix the situation?
And it was, honestly, not just for the students that this was a good visit. It was great personally to have someone who does research in the same area and with some of the same questions and methodologies that I use. I am lucky that there are some people here usually who at least have excavated at one point in their lives, but to have a long conversation with someone who deals with archaeology in the region I work in, was great. I felt invigorated in my own work. While I have colleagues and students who are enthusiastic about my work, there was something quite different in talking about what I do with someone who does the same thing (at least essentially). It was very different from going to conferences. Again, this is something I need to think through. My reaction surprised me, and I need to work through this.
How have cuts affected your teaching? Where is the breaking point? When (and how much) does it affect what is going into the classroom and the experiences you can offer your students? As I said, here it isn't too much so far. But it is depressing and that came home in a rather unexpected moment this week. I am interested in your comments about your own experiences.