Thursday, March 10, 2016
Of all the posts I'd never want to write, this is somewhere in the top 3... or,
Fuck.
Ed. Note: This post has been long in development, and while working on it, a recent dust up here at the college has demonstrated that whatever my prospects are long-term, I'm still wildly overpaid compared to other financial aid counselors, whether they're on the other side of the country or two offices down. Honestly, I may be the best paid financial aid advisor in the nation. I say this without hyperbole. Nevertheless, here we go.
I thought I was done with posts of this nature. I thought I was done with thoughts of this nature. I wrote earlier that I'd given up all notions of doing anything financially beyond working. Everything else was taken off the table. I really haven't properly explained how relieved I was, but now I feel I have no choice but to make structural changes to my finances and the way I make a living. Even typing this post is bringing up all my inadequacies. I've spent all this money, taken all this time, traveled to all these places, and have accomplished less than nothing. If I had just put that money into a mutual fund and dedicated all that time and effort into learning how to crochet... I'd have lost my shirt in the market and made an afghan and a tea cozy! I'm not even sure about the afghan. Let's just move on.
So what happened? The fuse was lit the day I was hired in 2001, and any chance to snuff it was gone 6 months later, but I've known that since 2006. No, it's the extreme quiet of the past two registration periods that has convinced me financial aid counseling, or any type of college advising, is in its final sunset. A few days ago it became even clearer. While walking to the cafeteria for coffee, I thought of an app where a student would enter his preferred class times, then an algorithm will check his major and examine his grades. A schedule will be generated depending on availability and classes required for the program, counterbalanced by the student's prior record. He may want exclusively 8am classes, but if he's failed every early class he's ever taken, the app may suggest differential equations at a more reasonable 10:30. This is college; the student would have final say in most cases, unless the student's grades are bad enough to require intervention. Otherwise, that would be the extent of his advisement, all done via a smartphone while he's also doing something else. (I'm guessing video games). Is this the best way to help students? Probably not, but as I've posted before, getting to perfection was never the goal anyway. It's seen as good enough, and that's good enough. Lest anyone think this approach is too impersonal to work, know that much the same happened to me at Florida International University from 1994 to 1997. The only part that's new is the app. I was using a kiosk back then, something else going extinct. I can't remember ever seeing an academic advisor, now that I consider it. I probably could have used the help, honestly, but everything related to my time in Miami was sink or swim.
As I mentioned before, attrition will delay some of the pain for those of us still employed in higher ed., but it won't eliminate it. Additionally, there are potential changes to financial aid coming soon that will completely change the way I award aid and why, but that's a few years away. This will mean much more work while they work out the kinks. I'm not referring to free community college, which I covered in a prior post. That policy will be deceptively simple: everyone applies for aid and those that don't qualify get free tuition, but not free books or fees. The framework remains the same, only the volume increases. Another change in the short-term is the new focus on completion of degrees supplanting the traditional model of open access. This will change my role more than changing the work itself. I'll spend more time chasing students, speaking at info sessions, and getting referrals from other counselors. This play to my strengths, which is nice. These are all new posts in themselves, and I wouldn't be much of an opportunist if I didn't keep myself informed, so expect more when the policies congeal like old pan drippings on a plate of leftovers in the back of the fridge.
None of this is helpful or instructive without a timeline. In the immediate future, my income will be slightly lower until the union contract is signed. Overtime adds an addition 15-20% to my yearly gross, and while it won't disappear, it will be cut. I expect to take overall pay cut of 10%. I make a significant salary, so I'll survive of course, but I won't be able to ignore it either. The contract getting finished probably won't happen until the end of the year, raises and retro pay unknown, and it won't be settled until we collectively make more than we're making now. I consider it a bond coming to maturity, date of redemption unknown. The long term is less clear. I've often quipped that my job would cease to exist in 10 years, but now I know I was too optimistic. I can only say that I'll remain employed until the end of the next contract. If it is done at the end of this year, and it takes another 4-5 years to negotiate another one, I'm safe for that time span. Changes to my job, faculty status, pay, etc., can happen absent collective bargaining, but it's hard and lawsuits would inevitably follow. I doubt anyone at the college has the appetite; the relationship between the college and faculty is bad enough.
I framed all this by thinking that my salary is what I'm trying to recreate; the job itself isn't the issue. As I work on this post, I realized that isn't true. I actually need to do two things. I need to potentially replace my income, but I also need to secure my retirement. The two goals are not mutually inclusive. Getting a second income stream doesn't automatically secure my ability to support myself in my old age, though it would be more likely, and fixing my retirement doesn't need a second income stream at all. It would just require serious financial pain in the short run. It's more likely I'll need to do both as separate processes, with different challenges that would probably contradict each other. As for the job itself, I do have to remember it is my most important obligation in all this. I can't really allow some side venture interfering with work. With that, I am finally forced to take stock of what I have and finally, regretfully choose my path.
Ed. Note: This post has been long in development, and while working on it, a recent dust up here at the college has demonstrated that whatever my prospects are long-term, I'm still wildly overpaid compared to other financial aid counselors, whether they're on the other side of the country or two offices down. Honestly, I may be the best paid financial aid advisor in the nation. I say this without hyperbole. Nevertheless, here we go.
I thought I was done with posts of this nature. I thought I was done with thoughts of this nature. I wrote earlier that I'd given up all notions of doing anything financially beyond working. Everything else was taken off the table. I really haven't properly explained how relieved I was, but now I feel I have no choice but to make structural changes to my finances and the way I make a living. Even typing this post is bringing up all my inadequacies. I've spent all this money, taken all this time, traveled to all these places, and have accomplished less than nothing. If I had just put that money into a mutual fund and dedicated all that time and effort into learning how to crochet... I'd have lost my shirt in the market and made an afghan and a tea cozy! I'm not even sure about the afghan. Let's just move on.
So what happened? The fuse was lit the day I was hired in 2001, and any chance to snuff it was gone 6 months later, but I've known that since 2006. No, it's the extreme quiet of the past two registration periods that has convinced me financial aid counseling, or any type of college advising, is in its final sunset. A few days ago it became even clearer. While walking to the cafeteria for coffee, I thought of an app where a student would enter his preferred class times, then an algorithm will check his major and examine his grades. A schedule will be generated depending on availability and classes required for the program, counterbalanced by the student's prior record. He may want exclusively 8am classes, but if he's failed every early class he's ever taken, the app may suggest differential equations at a more reasonable 10:30. This is college; the student would have final say in most cases, unless the student's grades are bad enough to require intervention. Otherwise, that would be the extent of his advisement, all done via a smartphone while he's also doing something else. (I'm guessing video games). Is this the best way to help students? Probably not, but as I've posted before, getting to perfection was never the goal anyway. It's seen as good enough, and that's good enough. Lest anyone think this approach is too impersonal to work, know that much the same happened to me at Florida International University from 1994 to 1997. The only part that's new is the app. I was using a kiosk back then, something else going extinct. I can't remember ever seeing an academic advisor, now that I consider it. I probably could have used the help, honestly, but everything related to my time in Miami was sink or swim.
As I mentioned before, attrition will delay some of the pain for those of us still employed in higher ed., but it won't eliminate it. Additionally, there are potential changes to financial aid coming soon that will completely change the way I award aid and why, but that's a few years away. This will mean much more work while they work out the kinks. I'm not referring to free community college, which I covered in a prior post. That policy will be deceptively simple: everyone applies for aid and those that don't qualify get free tuition, but not free books or fees. The framework remains the same, only the volume increases. Another change in the short-term is the new focus on completion of degrees supplanting the traditional model of open access. This will change my role more than changing the work itself. I'll spend more time chasing students, speaking at info sessions, and getting referrals from other counselors. This play to my strengths, which is nice. These are all new posts in themselves, and I wouldn't be much of an opportunist if I didn't keep myself informed, so expect more when the policies congeal like old pan drippings on a plate of leftovers in the back of the fridge.
None of this is helpful or instructive without a timeline. In the immediate future, my income will be slightly lower until the union contract is signed. Overtime adds an addition 15-20% to my yearly gross, and while it won't disappear, it will be cut. I expect to take overall pay cut of 10%. I make a significant salary, so I'll survive of course, but I won't be able to ignore it either. The contract getting finished probably won't happen until the end of the year, raises and retro pay unknown, and it won't be settled until we collectively make more than we're making now. I consider it a bond coming to maturity, date of redemption unknown. The long term is less clear. I've often quipped that my job would cease to exist in 10 years, but now I know I was too optimistic. I can only say that I'll remain employed until the end of the next contract. If it is done at the end of this year, and it takes another 4-5 years to negotiate another one, I'm safe for that time span. Changes to my job, faculty status, pay, etc., can happen absent collective bargaining, but it's hard and lawsuits would inevitably follow. I doubt anyone at the college has the appetite; the relationship between the college and faculty is bad enough.
I framed all this by thinking that my salary is what I'm trying to recreate; the job itself isn't the issue. As I work on this post, I realized that isn't true. I actually need to do two things. I need to potentially replace my income, but I also need to secure my retirement. The two goals are not mutually inclusive. Getting a second income stream doesn't automatically secure my ability to support myself in my old age, though it would be more likely, and fixing my retirement doesn't need a second income stream at all. It would just require serious financial pain in the short run. It's more likely I'll need to do both as separate processes, with different challenges that would probably contradict each other. As for the job itself, I do have to remember it is my most important obligation in all this. I can't really allow some side venture interfering with work. With that, I am finally forced to take stock of what I have and finally, regretfully choose my path.
