http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/rm/budget_central/documents/Nielsen_Leffler%204_10_09%20memo%20EOs_Deans_combined.pdf

One of the big things I read this, point no 4. University has to not rehire all TAs. Reason being is all TAs are temp positions on contracts. Contracts not signed yet, we are all out of a job...
That and most (not all) student work. If its not covered though student fees, or a department scholarship of sorts (this is tricky as some departments budget their staff this way, but Im not sure how it falls), you are out of a job come end of spring semester.

4/12/2009 1:02:56 AM

Oh shit. Wonder if my job at the bookstore will possibly be waiting for me this summer (I mean they operate as a proper business, so I would think so).

This really fucking sucks for everybody whose department doesn't earn that money through research. I think the Civil Engineering department pays for most of their RA's through the funding provided for the project, but I don't think their TA positions are covered by non-state funds.

This is amazing. The recession is about to get a lot worse around NCSU it looks like.

4/12/2009 2:39:35 AM

Bob Saget

This could really, really screw up some stuff I'm working with next year...

4/12/2009 3:11:49 AM

maybe if TAs were better about responding to their students' emails in a timely manner, this wouldn't have happened

5 days after the initial email was sent, with 2 follow-up emails in between, is entirely too long -- especially when it is a very important matter

4/12/2009 9:07:31 AM

i know right. i sent an email to Oblinger and he NEVER responded

FIRE ALL CHANCELLORS

4/12/2009 9:18:37 AM

Quote :

"maybe if TAs were better about responding to their students' emails in a timely manner, this wouldn't have happened 5 days after the initial email was sent, with 2 follow-up emails in between, is entirely too long -- especially when it is a very important matter"

I think this is a bit more far reaching than your single emailing experience suggests

4/12/2009 9:38:11 AM

perhaps i should have worked harder to make my post sound more sarcastic

4/12/2009 10:10:41 AM

which number four are you talking about

4/12/2009 12:00:14 PM

they need to knock this shit out

my job can only survive so many of these budget cuts i think

[Edited on April 12, 2009 at 2:11 PM. Reason : good thing Mary Easley got her massive pay raise in on time!]

[Edited on April 12, 2009 at 2:11 PM. Reason : holy crap that was almost a year ago?]

4/12/2009 2:09:50 PM

make your time

4/12/2009 2:11:30 PM

Quote :

"Vacant or temporary positions, except those for which commitments have been made prior to the date of this directive, may not be filled."

Quote :

"9) Current temporary labor appointments, including students, may be continued, but no new temporary appointments may be made."

Does that apply for student temp work, like trying to get work in a lab over the summer?

Fuck you Bev Perdue

[Edited on April 12, 2009 at 2:23 PM. Reason : awesome, got an egg]

4/12/2009 2:23:31 PM

You mean fuck you W and his cronies.....

4/12/2009 3:47:03 PM

Nah, dubya didn't direct our state's spending and taxation priorities.

4/12/2009 10:15:30 PM

Quote :

"Nah, dubya didn't direct our state's spending and taxation priorities."

You must have missed the memo. W is responsible for every bad thing to happen ever.

4/12/2009 10:24:33 PM

If you (or your position) is paid with student fees (eg working at the gym) or through grants (research) you are ok. This is only jobs that are paid with tuition and state funds (most TAs/instructors/etc)

Bookstore, I think is self sufficient, so you should be ok.

The way I read that, is temp positions (most TA positions) can be continued until the contract expires, in May. They rehire all of them every semester. So we aint getting fired, but we aint getting rehired.

4/12/2009 10:51:32 PM

aha
I wonder how long this lasts til professors start bitching about how students are eating up all their time with silly shit

And what, if anything, will happen as a result of that.

4/12/2009 11:01:53 PM

There will be a TA fee for certain classes. Haha, think about that. Your class of 40 students now has to pay $100 each for your TA. Hahah, that'd be brilliant and evil.

It's true though, professors will lose their shit about this.

4/12/2009 11:10:50 PM

I'm not even thinking of classes like fortran and others, where TAs do a shitton of the work.
In most of my textile classes, I've interacted with the prof only. If we have TAs, their roles are mostly limited to grading things, and taking attendance, and handling some email issues. At least in my experience

I can see a few certain faculty members absolutely losing their shit if, god forbid, they actually had to grade the insane amounts of busywork they insist on handing out. Hmmm, I think I found the silver lining to this!

[Edited on April 12, 2009 at 11:15 PM. Reason : asdf]

4/12/2009 11:14:55 PM

The thing I'm worried about is for this international job exchange club that I'm a part of. The basis of the club is to raise summer jobs in the Raleigh area that our NCSU students can 'trade' for international jobs and go overseas.

Usually we raise summer research gigs with professors. If these new budget rules eliminate temporary summer jobs...then we're fucked as far as getting jobs through professors. Not to mention having to put ourselves into the professor's budget.

4/13/2009 11:00:05 AM

Quote :

"...In applying this directive agencies may make special exceptions for positions that provide direct classroom instruction..."

4/13/2009 11:47:49 AM

So I guess we'll still have our class labs. Still, that's going to have a lot of professors pissed off when they lose their classroom TA's, haha.

4/13/2009 11:49:12 AM

^ They can just make their grad students do it for no pay.

4/13/2009 11:56:19 AM

^ Not quite in my department. If that were the case and they weren't doing research, they'd just opt out to the MCE (non-thesis) program and tell them to stuff it.

4/13/2009 11:59:27 AM

Quote :

"^ They can just make their grad students do it for no pay."

Ha ha sure can... Animal Science might have a few assistantship programs but the amount of students going in is higher than the amount of students coming out which means you pretty much work for nothing.

They send you over the biological sciences department to be their bitch... You have to have at least 2 semesters of teaching. (But you need the money to live so you teach more semesters) But the sucky part about that is that you are their lab TA which means your duties include
- teaching 3+ labs of 25 students
- attending 3 different lab sessions
- preparing for lab which can include a powerpoint presentation (which isn't required) and that takes about an hour to 3 hours to prepare.
- grading for 75 people
- And sometimes you have to grade papers for the professors themselves and attend their lectures.

All this compared to TAing for your own professor's class which is about 25 to 100 students and you work closely with that person. They also know how busy your research and class schedule so they are normally willing to work with you.

I really enjoyed teaching but I spent SOOOOOO much time with the department that I felt like it took away from my other classes, writing and research. I felt like I HAD to put that much time into it too because they were the ones paying me... If I see green, I am more likely to be more productive. I have to have a means of putting food in my mouth so I am definitely not going to screw that up!

I believe for the Poultry Science Department they don't even require teaching semesters.

If I had to help my professor now with teaching, I wouldn't mind...

But the department also puts students on assistantships so they don't have to worry about teaching and if they do teach, its during a semester where research is to a minimum. After this one student is done on his assitantship in August, they are no longer going to offer it. So they will no longer be able to open that position.

But because I am a permanent employee now, my job should always be here for me :-) as long as I work hard and such... Which I don't mind... I am getting paid plus getting my name on papers and gaining great experience.

4/13/2009 12:16:54 PM

Master_Yoda, you know we don't have to worry. ToniAnn has us covered.

But yes, temp employees are going first. I'm losing my regular student employee job. Thank god the TA position still stands.

4/14/2009 4:16:32 PM

Update after reading this and talking to some people.

Only effective till July 1 when the new budget kicks in.

LikeThePeter, some clubs are affected by travel restrictions as well. But mostly unless they hired early, there wont be too many TAs for the summer classes. Fall TAs are ok but they cant sign anything till after July 1.

As Squirt and Mindstorm also brought up, Im glad Im not a grad student this summer.

4/15/2009 7:15:08 AM

Well, look at what state we are in:
1) Roads in NC were always bragged about, and the excellent roads were always brought up when people complained about the state portion of the gas tax being one of the highest in the nation. Then we get an infrastructure report card with a bunch of Ds on it. Turns out they raid the highway trust fund for other pet projects.

2) The state health plan. A plan that for many costs more than what they would pay if they got insurance on their own. Part of their solution is to raise the premiums by 20% the other part of the solution is to have the NC taxpayers bail out the plan. Last time I was a state employee an individual paid no premium whatsoever while people looking to cover a family member were bilked to the tune of $400+ per month. Here's an idea. Charge premiums to the person that is only getting health insurance for themselves instead of picking up 100% of their premium (they might have changed this in the last 5 years, don't know).

3) The state is hijacking people's tax refunds. Not too much I'd have to add to this.

NC always puts herself before her citizens. When it comes to money the state believes its needs come first. How many times have I heard "the state needs the money" from the elected officials. Yeah, the people you are taking the money from need it too.

Meh, sorry for the soapbox rant. I assume it's just as bad in other states, otherwise why would people be coming to NC in droves?

[Edited on April 15, 2009 at 7:44 AM. Reason : -]

4/15/2009 7:42:13 AM

Quote :

"1) Roads in NC were always bragged about, and the excellent roads were always brought up when people complained about the state portion of the gas tax being one of the highest in the nation. Then we get an infrastructure report card with a bunch of Ds on it. Turns out they raid the highway trust fund for other pet projects."

nc roads were only bragged about in the sense that we have a lot of them and that it's easy/quick to get from place to place (something i've actually found to be pretty true compared to most other areas as sprawling as the triangle)...not necessarily that the roads themselves are in great shape

Quote :

"2) The state health plan. A plan that for many costs more than what they would pay if they got insurance on their own. Part of their solution is to raise the premiums by 20% the other part of the solution is to have the NC taxpayers bail out the plan. Last time I was a state employee an individual paid no premium whatsoever while people looking to cover a family member were bilked to the tune of $400+ per month. Here's an idea. Charge premiums to the person that is only getting health insurance for themselves instead of picking up 100% of their premium (they might have changed this in the last 5 years, don't know)."

state insurance coverage has most definitely changed in the past 5 years...in fact, as of late 2006 (i think), the plan actually doesn't suck (it's pretty damn good, really, as good as i had under duke's premium plan when i worked there)

Quote :

"3) The state is hijacking people's tax refunds. Not too much I'd have to add to this."

don't know what to say about this...yepper, the economy is in the crapper and the state is delaying the payment of tax refunds...it's not "fair", per se, but it's the world we're in

[Edited on April 15, 2009 at 9:00 AM. Reason : .]

4/15/2009 8:59:48 AM

Hate to derail, so last off-topic post from me. How much does a state health plan cost now? It used to be close to:

Just yourself: Free
You and dependents: High $100s
You and spouse: Mid $400s

Seems like they could make up some of the shortfall by not paying 100% of an individual's premium.

4/15/2009 9:29:57 AM

Yes the state plan for family on the 80/20 plan is running me fucking $490/month for myself, the wife, and kids.

4/15/2009 10:10:10 AM

^^ & ^ oh, well, perhaps y'all are referring to the current plan and i was referring to absolutely horrific one they had in place before

i think those numbers are all pretty average...but what would it cost if you just went with BCBS alone? i doubt it'd be any better for a couple and kids

that said, i love that i my insurance (just me) is "free"...i wouldn't complain if they made me pay some and subsidized the other options, though...i just don't think it's any worse than you'll find anywhere else (though the duke plan i used to be on was a bit less, i think)

4/15/2009 10:47:30 AM

Yes we are now on a PPO option. That other one was the indemnity plan, which I took one look at and said fuck no. It was a SHIT plan.

4/15/2009 12:49:24 PM

I just heard that for my department, TA funds are supposedly protected from budget cuts and spending edicts.

4/15/2009 1:43:22 PM

^ you a grad student? Grad students its been discussed above. That or does your department use some weird way to allocate for TAs?

4/15/2009 2:53:52 PM

^ Yes, I'm a grad student. Can you translate the rest of your post into English so I can understand what you're trying to say?

4/17/2009 3:57:07 PM

Quote :

"But yes, temp employees are going first. I'm losing my regular student employee job. Thank god the TA position still stands."

You can come by a workstudy if you'd like!

(But this just means you're going to manage our Billboard instead of ISE's )

4/17/2009 4:05:46 PM

Quote :

"University is totally fucked by the State... "

4/17/2009 4:53:17 PM

Quote :

"You can come by a workstudy if you'd like!"

i wonder how/if workstudy awardings will be affected by this

[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 5:50 PM. Reason : hopefully that's protected financial aid]

4/17/2009 5:49:56 PM

I'm pretty certain that workstudys are federal money, so I don't think they're going anywhere.

Well, unless departments/groups decide that they don't want to pony up the 10% of their salary they actually pay.

4/17/2009 7:33:24 PM

that 10% doesn't last very long for the work study jobs I oversee, usually about mid semester we pay the full 100%.

4/18/2009 9:54:00 AM

theres one problem with everyones complaints........THERE.IS.NO.!@#$%^MONEY.TO.SPEND!

4/18/2009 11:09:37 AM

Quote :

"nc roads were only bragged about in the sense that we have a lot of them and that it's easy/quick to get from place to place (something i've actually found to be pretty true compared to most other areas as sprawling as the triangle)...not necessarily that the roads themselves are in great shape"

try driving in South Carolina. I-95 is in terrible shape.

4/18/2009 11:28:01 AM

YES! What else can NC or the US do to discourage their academic youth from continuing their college education past the bachelor level!!

Why do we need crummy TA jobs to help US born grad students make it through college when we can just enroll more foreign grad students whose host governments pay for them to come over here to study! USA #1

4/18/2009 6:47:23 PM

^ I lolled from that because companies do not seem to be sonsoring currently. So both American and foreign students are screwed in the ass currently.

4/18/2009 7:45:32 PM

Work study is federal money. Im not eligible so its a null point for me

darkone, if you read up several posts, we discussed why grad students were immune to this. They get made to TA regardless as part of their research. Grad students are the ultimate of professors bitch sometimes. I dont mean to apply it to everyone but it is true for quite a few.

4/18/2009 8:43:18 PM

Across the board pay cut for all teachers and state employees:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5037937/

Granted, .5% isn't going to hurt anyone that badly, but still--damn. That's a sweeping move.



[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 11:55 AM. Reason : /]

4/28/2009 11:54:32 AM

the REAL fucking will begin with the '09-'11 budget

4/28/2009 12:08:30 PM

^^it's bullshit is what it is. I was hired at a certain rate that was agreed upon for the entire term of the year. (I'm a teacher)

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 12:28 PM. Reason : ]

4/28/2009 12:26:25 PM

It's bullshit in that they found out via WRAL.

4/28/2009 12:38:18 PM

Yeah I am not at all enjoying this idea of furloughs :-( For someone making 6 digits it wont affect too much and for someone with student loans out the ass and a low salary, this will hurt...

4/28/2009 12:46:56 PM