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It was a relatively sunny afternoon. I was in the thick of marking my student's scripts in the process of trying to meet up with the ridiculous deadline given by the school management to submit student's grades for the just concluded 'online' examination. The management here refers to one man - the owner of the school is the alpha and omega of everything that happens in the school. The tiniest of issues relating to the administration (both academic and non-academic) of the school has to pass through his table. He often boasts at staff/management's meetings of how little he sleeps in order to meet up with the volume of work and how the 'hard work' is primarily the reason he is rich and we (the employees) are not.
How can a sane and supposedly educated person give a 2-week deadline to mark over one thousand scripts of 5 different courses, grade, and upload results to the school portal? I thought deeply in my mind without taking my eyes off the scripts I was marking. This is what happens when you commercialize education and give chronic capitalists free hands to operate higher institutions of learning. In his selfish wisdom, the earlier the student's results come out, the earlier money flows in from parents/guardians for the new session. This has been the normal practice over the years and it seems to work for him.
I was still deeply buried in my work and thoughts when my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw that it was the school's Bursar. She hardly calls for pleasantries, whatever the reason for the call is must be very important.
"Hi, my honourable Bursar."
I opened the conversation with a jovial tone as usual.
"Hello sir, are you around?"
"Of course I am! I am yet to get another job!"
Still, no sign of chuckle from the other end.
"Please, I will need your attention in my office A-S-A-P. Something really urgent just came up."
"All right ma'am. I will be there in a jiffy."
Whatever she's calling me for must be serious because she sounded quite unusual over the phone. Could it be that I have been slapped with DNP again? Yea, we usually get DNP (Do Not Pay) for the most ridiculous of excuses (like not picking your calls) from the university's proprietor. Not that such salary will not be paid eventually, but you will literarily have to beg for it. DNP is not new to anyone within the system and the Bursar would not have called me with such a tone for a 'mere' DNP.
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All forms of thoughts kept filtering into my mind as I quickly picked up my car key to head to the Bursary unit; less than a 2-minute drive from my office. I reached the unit in no time, greeted the secretary and other staff, ignored the gloomy glance I was being thrown by virtually everyone and headed to the office of the Bursar. Coincidentally (what I thought initially), I met some final year students from my department seated in the Bursar's office. Their countenance was sad and one one of them that happens to be a student under my supervision has her eyes all red, obviously from crying. What the fuck is going on?
"Good afternoon ma. Hope there is no problem? You know how busy this period can be for us lecturers."
"Good afternoon Mr. Shaid. I am genuinely sorry for disturbing your work. I sure understand that you would be busy but the matter at hand requires your urgent attention. The Chairman just-"
Ugh! The chairman? Well, this would definitely be serious. The chairman here refers to the university's proprietor. He likes to be addressed by different appellations and once threatened to terminate my appointment in the glare of other staff for addressing him wrongly.
>When you are addressing me in matters that relate to academics, you must address me as the Chancellor. If it is about non-academic administration, you should address me as the Chairman.
"- left my office and he has passed a memo to the registrar for your appointment to be terminated right away."
Wait! I was jolted back to reality as she spoke the last few words.
"Termination of appointment? Based on what ground?"
Going by his antecedents, it is not like I expected the Chairman to give reasons for termination of appointments. But I was still curious to know if there was a reason at all or just did what he is known for.
"It is a long story but I will make it as short as possible. (Points to the 3 ladies I met in her office) Do you know these students?" She asked.
"Yes, I do. They are all in my department. One of them is actually a student under my supervision for her undergraduate research project." I retorted.
"The 3 of them have been pestering my office for hostel accommodation for a while now. But since they have written their final semester's examination while at home during the lockdown, the school does not recognize them officially as her students anymore, even when we all know that they are yet to complete their undergraduate research. I know they need a place to stay for them to complete their research project but we are in a new session now and the priority for accommodation goes to the real students."
She took a pause for a sip of water.
"A while back, the chairman came for his normal routine check and met the students seated in my office. I seized the opportunity to present their case to him since he has the final say on the issue but he was not forthcoming. Instead, he dismissed the request of the student on the premise that they have no business staying in the school that the students are just being extorted by their supervisors in the name of the research project. He went further to interrogate one of them (who happened to be my student) by asking how much she has spent on the so-called project and she quoted a figure. Upon further inquiry as to who her supervisor is, your name came up, and that's how the chairman immediately wrote a memo to the registrar to terminate your appointment on the allegation that you extorted your students in the name of research project."
I gave a sarcastic laugh. It is public knowledge that the school's laboratories are virtually empty. Not a dime has been spent to purchase equipment or consumable chemicals into them since the last National University Commission's accreditation exercise which was 4 years ago. It is also a known fact that project students contribute money to buy consumable chemicals for their projects. It is never heard of that students will obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences without any laboratory work.
Actually, it is not like the school's proprietor cares about the students or any standard as long as money keeps flowing in. Any action or advice from a staff that will take money out of the coffer of the proprietor is either waved away, that's if such staff is lucky enough not to have been sent packing. If you want to be in the good book of the self-acclaimed professor, only give advice that will bring in more money even if they are spurious.
I have worked in this school for roughly 8 years and never for once has my salary been increased neither did I get any form of promotion. Instead, salaries decreased significantly even in the face of more works. Lecturers are made to slave like camels with only a two-week general break throughout the year. Each lecturer must take a minimum of 15 unit courses every semester without any ceiling as per the maximum. Some take as much as 30 units every semester with some departments having just 2 lecturers to take all the courses from 100 to 400 level.
Each semester, the proprietor requests the course allocation for each department and ensures that lecturers without the required number of course units are fired from the system. Lecturers are also given 'other duties' on the course allocation. These other duties range from acting as project supervisors for ongoing building projects within and outside the school, acting as the manager in one of the chairman's hotels outside the school, acting as transport managers for school vehicles, to being an event planner for all the school's social activities and beyond.
The school runs two sessions within an academic calendar year - regular session and summer. This means that lecturers work round the year with only a 2-weeks break separating the two sessions. Salaries are deducted for the flimsiest of 'offences' which are often defined according to the whims of the proprietor. My salary was barely up to $200 and I have once been fined $10 for not wearing my tie while working in my office. There is a unit known as 'quality control' in which the primary function of the staff is to monitor other staff for compliance with all the rules of the school. No loitering in the open, no going out of the school premises during working hours, dressings must be proper, and all sorts of ridiculous rules.
Whenever our chairman is low on cash or needs money for something out of the usual, the staff (or sometimes, the students) pays for it either directly or indirectly. We were once forced to register for compulsory health insurance with the school's health center. Staff must renew their insurance at the beginning of each session and erring staff will either have their salaries withheld (DNP) until they pay up and register or get their appointment terminated outrightly.
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Staff promotion depended on how close and loyal you are to the chairman, staff welfare was zero while staff development was also a mirage. Those of us yet to obtain our PhDs had a torrid time furthering our education. We were instead extorted and forced to register for a scam program in the name of collaboration with one non-existence foreign university. A significant percentage of our salary went into the program monthly while no one graduated throughout my 8 years of stay in the school.
"Mr. Shaid, the chairman is still within the school premises. I will advise that you seek him out immediately and explain the true situation to him before the registrar will issue the termination letter."
I thought about the sleepless nights in school, the days I went without food, the hustles I had to go through to raise money for my school fees, and a host of other thoughts. How did I arrive here?
"Thank you ma. I really appreciate your kind gesture and advice."
I stood up, told the students to stop crying as they are not the cause of my misfortune, stepped outside, drove back to my office, packed all my things into the car, wrote a small handover note to the head of department, and drove straight home.
The evils I had endured in the name of a job were enough.
I quit.
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