Administrator Kupp
© 1994, Agnes Azzolino, Assistant Prof. of Mathematics
Middlesex County College, Edison, NJ

      In late April or early May of 1994 as the number of papers and tests to be graded grew, there arrived another set of papers to be reviewed, the April 25th memo from the our college president regarding MCC 2000. It solicited review and written comments before a May 12th public hearing. Even a faculty member teaching only one class should have felt the crush of the end of the semester and known a worse time could not have been chosen for honestly and sincerely accomplishing this task.

      One wonders if the timing of the memo was an accident, a deliberate attempt to prohibit faculty input, the result of a job rushed to completion before the end of the academic year, or perhaps "administrator kupp," a. kupp. The term parallels the Yiddish expression goisha kupp, christian brain, used to explain the reasoning behind an act no thinking person would consider.

      As a new faculty member I would never have considered the existence of this phenomena. I joyously served on campus and department committees, collaborated on grants, and even headed Science days for 400 high school freshmen at a time (the last one during a campus-wide power failure which disabled our impressive computer facilities, labs, and auditorium). Even when my chair denied me permission to serve on a national committee, I chalked it up to individual differences not to a clear differences in thought. Even when this same individual year in and year out informed me that he had not recommended me for promotion, I naively did not worry. I knew the department promotion committee had recommended me and believed the dean would see that I was indeed worthy of promotion. Once the dean began to state year in and year out in my denial of promotion letters that I "do not communicate with my students and my peers" I really began to question the system. You see, I knew I communicated very well with my students and felt I communicated well with my peers: I have an impressive reputation in mathematics education in my home state, have presented papers at NADE, NJEA, and NCTM Annual Meetings, and minicourses at MAA-AMS, and MATYCNJ Annual Meetings. It wasn't my brain that was malfunctioning.

      Years of deliberation about this problem, training by world-renowned mathematics educator in mathematics education and supervision, and an interest in all progress science has made in the working of the human mind have prompted me to posit the existence of a. kupp, administrator brain. I pose the following theorems, thoughts, and examples since in my field that is what one does. I hope the reader will expound or at least reflect on my position and that the theorems do not remain unproved for as long as the proof of Fermat's Last theorem remained elusive.

Definitions

administrator

- one who administers; one who manages, superintends, one who performs the office.

faculty member

- teacher in a school or college or one of its divisions.

professionalism

- the conduct aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person.

Undefined Terms

The following are terms talked about but left undefined.

administrator kupp, a. kupp - administrator brain

professional kupp, p. kupp - professional brain

Postulates - Unproved statements assumed to be true

• Truth about a. kupp must be sought using Zedah's fuzzy logic of true-maybe-false (and shades in between) rather than the Aristotle's logic of true-false. A. kupp is a matter of degree rather than a matter of having it or not.
• A. kupp is a derogatory term. An administrator high in p. kupp might think of an administrator high in a. kupp as one "who gives administrators a bad name."
• Though a. kupp is undefined, individuals with a. kupp may be characterized by other fuzzy-logic attributes such as power-seeker, resume-builder, dictator, elitist, profiteer, self-centered, or being a political savant.
  For example:
  • The politician a. kupp administrator would say yes to each applicant until the yesses contradict each other making those who have been yessed in conflict.
  • The politician a. kupp administrator would do, even go out of the way to do, something that was politically in his/her best interest.
  • The profiteer a. kupp administrator would lean on faculty (nontenured or not) to adopt an English test books he or she had written.
  • The profiteer a. kupp administrator would dictate the use of one brand of graphing calculator to the exclusion of all others.
  • The self-centered a. kupp administrator would remake the world (or at least a department) in his/her own image excluding diversity and select those with credential similar to his/her own as candidates for new positions. In a math department with a chair who is a mathematician, this might mean hiring Ph. D. or A. B. D. mathematicians and not math education candidates.
  • The resume-builder a. kupp board member would feel a 20-minute public meetings was adequate and include the board membership as another line on his/her resume .
  • The resume-builder a. kupp faculty member would assume an office in a professional organization and not work seriously at completing the task of that office.
• An individual high in a. kupp, whether administrator or teacher ascribes to the theory that administrators don't have to abide by the rules of the rest of the community.
• A. kupp administrators might think:
  • "I can do what ever I want and you must obey."
  • "Don't do as I wish and you wont get your day off or desired schedule."
  • "Play the game my way and I'll take care of you."
  • "Speak out against me and I'll take care of you."
• Faculty may also be high in a. kupp.
  • An faculty negotiating team member high in a. kupp would discusses union strategy with administration.
  • A faculty member high in a. kupp would ascribe to the infallibility of administrators.
  • It is possible to exhibit both a. kupp and p. kupp. Remember, this is a fuzzy attribute. It is a matter a degree rather than a matter of existence or nonexistence.

Theorems

      High administrator kupp may be measured by faculty rights. This may be measured in a few ways. Consider answering "always, most of the time, sometimes, little of the time, never" to each of the following:

1. Do department members publically agree with the chair but privately, personally disagree with an issue or decision?
2. Do nontenured and nontenure-track-appointees have all the rights and privileges of other faculty members. Do they have desks? Do they have file cabinets? Do they have book cases? Do they dare suggest these things might be essential?
3. Do adjunct faculty have the a desk? office space? a phone?
4. Do faculty serve of "important college committees" at the pleasure of the dean or at the pleasure of the faculty?
5. How often is "managerial prerogative" cited in a grievance? Does a working system of checks and balances exist?

      Beginning faculty members are more likely to be high in a. kupp than those who have taught longer.

      Perhaps high a. kupp is a survival attribute: if you are not high enough in a. kupp, you don't last as a faculty member. Perhaps the decrease in a. kupp comes with more experience and reflection upon the decisions administrator make that professionals or teachers would not make. Perhaps a nontenured English department faculty member who used the Chemistry department xerox machine would not be rehired.

Summary

      I believe a. kupp exist at MCC. I think there are many administrator high in p. kupp and there are many high in a. kupp. I hope that by considering characteristics I attribute to a. kupp administrators and faculty members each of us works toward becoming more of a p. kupp individual.

      I believe continued research in this field will prove useful in related fields. Supervisor-supervisee relations is similar to administrator-faculty relations. Politicians-representee relations seem also to me a related field.

      One last comment, for those who chance to read this piece and believe "I don't communicate with my students and peers," don't worry. Since I spoke to my peers, no one listened.

© 01-4-18 www.mathnstuff.com/papers/abrain.htm