RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?

" .....the overwhelming majority of the association's branches are not unionized
and thus do not engage in any form of collective bargaining."

Some US institutions have tried to discourage unionisation. These often pay the lowest
salaries. Recently, graduate students at the University of Connecticut joined the ranks of
the unionized. They complained that they did a lot of teaching and were not adequately
compensated. Unionisation is actually spreading at various levels.
http://foxct.com/2014/04/18/uconn-grad-assistants-will-be-first-in-state-to-unionize/



The institutional branches of ASUU do not have independent bargaining rights over
compensation and remuneration, and salaries and benefits are predetermined on
a scale agreed nationally. What an outdated, retrogressive system!

Live and let live, I say. I am happy that they have been able to improve salaries nationally.
What's wrong with that?


" .....compensation is not subject to collective bargaining and is set by states, boards of
regents, institutions, and, even more crucially, compensation is individuated
and tied to productivity and not rank."

In the US in general, you are hired on a six year tenure track, to start, and move through the ranks displaying
your publishing wares. You may be promoted to associate professorship after the six years.
Add another six years and you become a full professor.
I know of someone in a US institution who wrote not a single article after that and he is still a full professor.
He has tenure and no one will throw him out. Besides he has a network of friends on the
promotion committees that engage in post-tenure evaluation every six years, and is part of the
old boys network. But others in the same institution continue to publish as well and may be
judged differently. Familiar scenario?Minority professors are not even judged on the same
level playing field.

Tell me more about the individuated compensation
system that you are pushing. I may be missing something.
Do you get a salary increase for every book or article you publish.
Excuse my ignorance but even within this great United States
there is variation.



"The long and short of it is that the trade union template of the 1970s and 1980s, of the

Cold War economy and academy, is inadequate for today's higher educational realities."





What does the cold war have to do with it?





"The latter are being rewarded for seniority and/or for merely fulfilling the bare minimum

of standards required in a non-tenure system in which employment in the academic

sector is basically a lifetime appointment, barring egregious infractions."

U.S tenure is actually a lifetime appointment. I believe that there is a retirement
age in the Nigerian system. You have gotten things mixed up.
Correct me if I am wrong, though.



Prof. Gloria Emeagwali


On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 7:56 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu<mailto:emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>> wrote:
"The current ASUU template of collective uniform bargaining and uniform reward is a drag on Nigerian higher education."

Trade unions, by definition, rely on collective bargaining and rewards.

So is the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and other
such organizations around the world.

Why should ASUU be an exception? Last week, here in Connecticut, the AAUP got into action to pre-empt
a planned centralization of eighteen state funded institutions of higher learning. The AAUP fears that this would lead to job cuts,
layoffs and loss of academic freedom.A few years ago, politicians in Connecticut tried to impose pay cuts and job losses
but they had to back down somewhat because of union solidarity and action.

Anti- labor/ right wing advocates always tend to blame trade unions but these unions have been crucial in bringing
about changes in the workplace, fairness in wages and improved conditions and rights.


"Would ASUU, moreover, allow the kind of quality control and scrutiny.............. "

I am told that the whites, who control South African universities, systematically exclude Blacks from publishing in the 'credible' journals
they invariably control.

When a biased or racist group defines journal or book "credibility" and ties this to promotion and pay, the end result may be
total exclusion and victimization of targeted groups. That is the easiest way for a clique to dominate the university system
and keep others out indefinitely.

South Africa is not a good role model on this issue.



Professor Gloria Emeagwali
africahistory.net<http://africahistory.net>



________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Moses Ebe Ochonu [meochonu@gmail.com<mailto:meochonu@gmail.com>]
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 11:53 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?

"One way therefore of closing the research gap is to attach more importance to academic output based on research in the promotion of academics. This would mean for example that far less recognition will be given to the production of text books which are drawn mainly from the classroom notes of the lecturers. In the same vein, so-called journal articles which do not significantly advance the literature in the discipline or open new lines of theoretical thinking will be lowly rated by promotion committees. On the positive side, academics that undertake research and publish their findings in credible journals should be entitled to bonuses and additional pay as it is the practice in some universities in South Africa."

---Professor Olukotun,



A wonderful suggestion, one which echoes what I have been screaming about on this forum, but the sixty four thousand dollar question is, will ASUU allow this? Will ASUU's insistence on an archaic model of academic valuation, compensation, and bargaining allow for the kind of meritocratic flexibility Professor Olukotun is suggesting? ASUU's existential anxieties would only be heightened by such a system, which would curb the backward-looking tyranny of that body. I'm not necessarily suggesting anything sinister about ASUU, but by caring more about its existence and continued relevance than about quality research and teaching in our universities and how these two foundational academic enterprises are rewarded and recognized, the ASUU folks have placed themselves ahead of the line as the preeminent underwriters of poor teaching and research in Nigerian academe. They will lament and decry but when it comes to allowing reform or simply getting out the way to allow innovative global academic practices of excellence to take root, they will brandish their trade union struggle manual from the 1970s and dust up hackneyed talking points long rendered irrelevant by recent events in Nigerian higher education and the the global knowledge economy.

The current ASUU template of collective uniform bargaining and uniform reward is a drag on Nigerian higher education. The failure to decentralize the connection between research and publication on the one hand and promotion/reward on the other shortchanges and discourages the few research-oriented, productive, and hardworking academics and in the system while protecting those whose lack of productivity should stall their upward mobility. It also breeds and subsidizes laziness, complacency, and incompetence, perpetuating the problem of poor teaching and lack of serious research that is the bane of higher education in Nigeria. As long as ASUU's outmoded 1960s era model is the arbiter of what gets valued or devalued for promotion and compensation purposes, you're going to keep having poor teachers and poor researchers being promoted by simply going through the motions of academic life.

Would ASUU, moreover, allow the kind of quality control and scrutiny Professor Olukotun is advancing in place of the current bean counting practice of the NUC/ASUU publication evaluation template? More crucially, for me, would Professor Olukotun have the liberty, latitude, and independence to speak so bluntly about the culpability of ASUU and ASUU-affiliated academics if he were in the public university system, a member of ASUU and a beneficiary of its bargaining victories that have ironically become stumbling blocks on the path of reform and accountability?







On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 9:20 PM, ayo_olukotun via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>> wrote:
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
________________________________
From: Tunde Oseni <tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com><mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com<mailto:tundeoseni@gmail.com>>>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:34:17 +0100
To: ayo_olukotun<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com><mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<mailto:ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>>>
Subject: UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?



UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GRANTS IN SEARCH OF GRANTEES?
Ayo Olukotun

'In a situation of prolonged decline and decay what needs re-building is more than just the infrastructure but also the ethos and the ethics of the academy' Jimi Adesina
To begin with our usual tit bits, consider how uplifting and therapeutic it was to learn that celebrated scholar, award winning poet and essayist, Niyi Osundare has been named winner of this year's National Merit Award. In a clime where good news is in short supply, it comes as refreshing drops of water, massaging parched throats. Of course, some may complain and validly too that it took this long for Osundare's distinction to be recognized by his countrymen but it's better late than never.

No stranger to awards, Osundare has been the recipient of the Fonion Nicholas award for Excellence in Literary Creativity and Significant contribution to Human Rights in Africa; the Norman Award, perhaps the most prestigious book prize for new work in Africa, which he won in 1991, among several others. What is especially regaling about this notice is that it came to someone who has been anything but sparing of the official cant and bumbling of successive Nigerian governments. Under the military, for example, the poet kept going a vibrant and lively observatory on the brutal excesses of the dictators, exploring the borders of permissible criticisms under cruel dictatorships. Needless it is to recall that his daring earned him several unwanted visits by the state security apparatus which consigned him to a blacklist. Truly one of our best and brightest, his prolific output has inspired and edified many. A fortnight ago, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on the occasion of receiving a honourary Doctorate in Law from the University of Ibadan, made it known that he cut his milk teeth in literary matters by sitting at the feet of Osundare. The poet of the people, as he is called, Osundare demystified poetry by bringing it to our door steps wrapped in idioms drawn from nature and the melody of African life. Said he: 'poetry is the eloquence of the gong/ It is what the soft wind/music to the listening muse'. May his verses, virtue and verve continue to reverberate edifyingly to our benefit.

Take this along too. Renowned social critic and principal of Mayflower School, Ikenne, Tai Solarin came alive in a convocation lecture delivered on Wednesday by distinguished history professor, Toyin Falola, who is also the President of the African Studies Association. Going down memory lane to exhume the exploits of one of our heroes past, Falola argues that the nation is in need of visioners like Tai Solarin who are also imbued with a civic conscience and a passion for mentoring. Isolating the entrepreneurial skills which Solarin impacted to students of Mayflower, Falola submits that in a season when the prize of our oil is fluctuating like a yoyo, 'our educational goal should be able to make food available, plan cities, supply energy and run services'. Well said.

Now the main course; some newspapers have expressed consternation about a recent statement made by the minister of education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau to the effect that a lot of research money set aside by government under the Education Trust Fund is sitting pretty idle unused. The argument that has been made is that if indeed underfunding has been the bane of our universities and the reason therefore for ruptured calendars, how come our academics are not availing themselves of these funds believed to be in the neighbourhood of 3 billion naira? To unravel the mystery, this writer called up Professor Femi Bamiro, former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan and chairman TETFUND's screening/monitoring committee. Bamiro explained that his committee spent some time drawing up a research agenda in order to provide the template for administering the funds and screening applicants. He went on to say that out of 150 or so applications received in the last cycle only 30 met the standard set by his committee.

What is the problem? The scholar believes that there are issues of capacity in the universities which relate to inability to set out lucid proposals for funding. 'Grantsmanship' as one other academic, Prof Tiwa Olugbade calls it refers to the skill required to articulate research proposals in order to attract funding. Obviously, such attributes are not easy to come by in our universities. The opening quote drawn from Professor Jimi Adesina provides a clue to the underlying problem, namely that the decay which set in into the Nigerian academic culture in the late 1980s and 1990s washed over to affect the academic culture.

As is well known, several journals in our universities once had global appeal. Regrettably, very few of these journals or the epistemic schools that they represent have survived till today. More frequently, one encounters what one academic has described acerbically as fast food journals some of which die after the publication of Volume 1 Number 1.
To return to the point, it may startle but it is true that money set aside by some of our universities as research grants are rarely exhausted and since they could not be used for other purposes are returned unspent year after year. To be sure, and to take a somewhat global perspective, less than half of universities in the United States and other countries are truly research-oriented. There are diverse institutions many of which prioritize a teaching culture and do not take research all that seriously. Indeed, a debate rages as to whether the teaching of undergraduates is not being swallowed up by frenetic research activities in some institutions. This debate notwithstanding, the reality is that it is the quality of research in a university and consequently of its publications that situates it on the world map. Moreover, research should all the more be encouraged in universities in the developing world which have not had the advantage of drawing upon centuries of accumulated knowledge in solving problems.

One way therefore of closing the research gap is to attach more importance to academic output based on research in the promotion of academics. This would mean for example that far less recognition will be given to the production of text books which are drawn mainly from the classroom notes of the lecturers. In the same vein, so-called journal articles which do not significantly advance the literature in the discipline or open new lines of theoretical thinking will be lowly rated by promotion committees. On the positive side, academics that undertake research and publish their findings in credible journals should be entitled to bonuses and additional pay as it is the practice in some universities in South Africa.

In sum, research activity is low on the agenda of our universities because we have not attached particular incentives to it. It is also true as Bamiro argues that the universities must focus more on issues of training and building academic capacity in the area of research. The under-subscription by our academics of the National Research Fund indexes the current state of our academic culture; but we can begin to slowly re-build the comatose research tradition until it becomes once again globally competitive.

Prof Olukotun is the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lead City University, Ibadan








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