Logic is critical to proving theorems but it's the wrong way to argue for resources.
When I was such an administrator, faculty would come and argue, generally for more salary, more office space, more hiring in their specialty or less teaching. Since I had many mathematicians and computer scientists, I'd often get these logical arguments. These arguments were typically fitted to generate the conclusion. How? By choosing the right assumptions, or putting in certain facts, or a certain interpretation of the facts. I've never seen a faculty member give a logical argument on why they should be paid less.
I could point out the faulty assumptions or sometime faculty logic but you can never convince someone they are wrong, especially if it means they won't get what they want. So I generally just agree with them, try to to help out if I can but generally say limited resources tie my hands, which usually is true.
What's the right way to argue? Show why helping you would strengthen the department/college/university, how you don't need that many resources and how you can generate more resources (say through grants). Arguing to grow the pie always wins over arguing for a bigger slice. I was also more receptive for requests that helped students rather than the faculty themselves.
Example?
ReplyDeleteI can't give a specific cases, but for example I've had people from a subarea where the department has strength argue that we should grow our strengths, and a lone person from another subarea argue that we need to grow our breadth.
DeleteWhy did you feel the need to wait to say this?
ReplyDeleteNot sure why you would call these "logical" arguments. If the person doesn't identify the correct goal, the argument doesn't demonstrate the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you consider this post controversial so that you had to wait until you were no longer an academic administrator?
ReplyDeleteIt would be tough to do a post like this while I'm actively negotiating with professors.
DeleteDont mean to be a personal attack, but read here, https://newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-award-winning-mathematician?utm_source=publication-search. Do you think the administration should always have the say?
ReplyDeleteTerry Tao is referring to the current US administration and most assuredly they shouldn't be getting in the way of research. But also university administration should never start dictating say research directions for its faculty. But when you have to make decisions about allocating limited resources, you should get the input from the faculty but an administrator needs to make, and take responsibility, for the decision.
DeleteThis sounds like cherry picking the administration. I am not saying you dont have reasons to what you believe, but to dismiss the other side has no logical ground is flawed, with all due respect.
DeleteFaculty should be free to choose their research direction, but facility is not free to dictate the research allocation at the department level.
DeleteIf a faculty has outside founding for hiring post-docs, they should have freedom to allocate it.
For funding for department and things that impact the department in general, faculty members mentally decide through committee, but the hiring decision rest often with the dean of the university subdivision or higher.
If a department has been given permission to hire 2 new faculty members, and different subgroups all want to hire different people, and cannot get to consensus about who to hire or in which area, it is the chair's job to make a call based on their judgement about what is best for the department in the longer run.
If we had infinite resources, we could give everyone whatever they want, but we don't, so we need to make choices, and it will not be that everyone gets what they wanted.
What Lance is saying is that if you want to convince a department chair to make a decision that you want, don't just throw your arguments about why you are right, try to understand how they are looking at the options and evaluating them and try to make an argument towards why your preferred option is the better one for the department overall.