This piece goes to our President, Raj Echambadi; our Provost, Elizabeth Hudson; our Vice President, Mallik Sundharam; and the Board of Trustees. This is for you.
Illinois Tech has undergone a myriad of sudden changes in the university. Many of the changes occurred the week before we got back to classes. Our most revered professors are suddenly gone without a trace. Many PhD students were left without teaching professionals or guidance. Faculty, old and new, suddenly found themselves scrambling to get lesson plans for classes they never taught before. All this chaos fell into the single most important week for everyone in this university. Yet our administrators sit in a cozy 19th-floor office space, looking over our once great university.
It is truly pathetic that the only thing we can get in response to everything we have seen happen is a horribly tone deaf email “celebrating” our transition from seven colleges into three colleges. Our so-called “fearless leaders” sit back and relax with their several hundred thousand dollar salary while the professors and staff at this school are paid pennies on the dollar, only to arrive at a workplace where the administration doesn’t listen to a single thing any student, staff, or faculty member says. This university is run by a circus of clowns, and our Board of Trustees is allowing these clowns to keep running the show despite the One Billion Dollar failure of a sermon, the closing of two whole dorm buildings, and the seeming structural collapse of our university.
Our university is in an active disarray and all our university administrators have to say is absolutely nothing. I will give credit where credit is due, the Student Government Association (SGA) has been doing their best to make student voices heard. Even the Faculty Senate met for the first time in decades, trying to stand up for every population in this campus. Despite the vote of no confidence in our administration and the many resolutions the Faculty Senate has passed, our administrators have done nothing to respond to these demands. The Provost is, so far, due to attend an SGA townhall, but the certainty of that happening is always under question because of the way the administration seems to run things in this university. It should not just be the provost, but our president and vice president should also be in attendance. It is the job of our leaders to face the responsibility of their errors and the protests that follow. If you can’t take the heat, then don’t become a leader.
So, now that all that rambling is over. It’s time to tell you what is really happening. Yes, this can all be verified by asking our administration or any faculty member. Every single resolution passed by the faculty senate has had no response from the administration. The only exception is the vote of no confidence where the people in our Board of Trustees affirmed their confidence in the leadership of Echambadi, Hudson, and Sundharam. Yes, the Board of Trustees are confident in the clowns running the circus on the 19th floor instead of listening to the faculty, who actually know what is happening on the ground. These administrators are unaware of the real effect of the firings or student opinions, but here we are needing to pretend like they are super solid leaders. We lost 90 professors across all the colleges, which is more than the 30 percent which the admin said would occur. That is comfortably in the near 40 percent range including the professors who resigned after the layoffs.
All this was apparently due to an impending enrollment cliff that was due to affect every program. Yet, the business, architecture, and mechanical engineering programs all saw record enrollments. The cherry on top is that professors were handed talking points by the provost to deter them from talking about the “restructuring.” Yes, the very brave and wonderful Provost many of us have yet to meet is writing talking points. Just so everyone is aware, that is something done to intimidate professors and students. That is illegal.
According to internal sources, the registrar’s office was the hardest administrative office hit. Yes, the people who make sure we get our registration done. Notice how we haven’t gotten our PDF schedules. In fact, a lot of necessary staff got laid off with a moment’s notice, and they were taken advantage of quite well by these layoffs. They have no defense, which means there is no need to worry about them talking, right?
Before all these layoffs were announced, faculty apparently had time to provide feedback. Faculty and ex-faculty sources said they had five days to submit feedback, which occurred over a weekend. No faculty member has gotten a response regarding their feedback, which goes to show how much our administrators actually care about our faculty and staff. After this feedback period, the Board of Trustees met. However, it has been rumored that not all Trustee members were aware of this happening.
The administration had promised that the first cuts were to be from the administration. However, it seems the word administration was stretched because it seems though everyone in the high administrative ranks seems to have a nice, cushy job. The people in the “administration” that they did get rid of were all seemingly mailroom people, normal staff, and again, many people in our critical offices.
Raj Echambadi, our brilliant President who thought opening up a second campus in another country was a great idea, also met with many graduate students. However, after asking several graduate students around campus, it is unclear who he actually met with. Again, another potential example of stretching the definition of a word. In any case, according to sources in the faculty, the university received a $25 million donation from a private donor shortly after the removal of many members of the faculty.
Our university administrators have failed their students, faculty, and staff on almost every front. It is about time that they need to be replaced. The students have lost all trust in Echambadi, Sundharam, and Hudson after they have single handedly ruined the reputation of our university in just weeks. Raj Echambadi, Mallik Sundharam, and Elizabeth Hudson must resign immediately. I tell this specifically to our Board of Trustees. We lost confidence in them, now do us the favor and don’t let us lose confidence in you.You will have a mutiny on your hands if you lose all student support. You have lost faculty and staff support almost unanimously. Losing the students will be absolutely detrimental. Sell the Mumbai campus, sell off Coursera, prioritize domestic students, and bring back our laid off staff.
Raj Echambadi, RESIGN.
Mallik Sundharam, RESIGN.
Elizabeth Hudson, RESIGN.
Now, what do we do? Well, there are a few things that worked for other universities. Student and Faculty led protests would be the start. Student Staff, you should stop working immediately. If you are an international student worker or on a Federal Work Study (FWS) program, to preserve your positions, keep working as slowly as you possibly can. Normal staff should stop scanning ID’s and doing standard practices while still making sure basic needs are met for the students. Faculty should continue teaching while supporting students who actively protest against our administrators. Public Safety should attend only immediately threatening situations. Students and ex-faculty should protest outside the tower and on the 19th floor if possible. Protest at the Starbucks locations Raj frequents. Put protest posters up everywhere. Attend classes only when absolutely necessary. Don’t pay tuition until they can provide proof that they will resign.