Editor’s note: David Garrison, WSURA President Elect, recently interviewed Robert E. “Bobby” Rubin, Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Cultural Studies, President of AAUP-WSU, Director of ESL, and Director of the Ambassador Program to Costa Rica.
Note from David Garrison: As retirees we often lose touch with the day-to-day flow of the university, so the WSURA Board decided to ask Robert “Bobby” Rubin a few questions about the way things are these days at 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway and about the direction in which WSU and higher education are headed. We asked Bobby because, as is obvious from the many titles following his name, he has done just about everything, and also because he will retire at the end of this semester. He is at a major crossroad now, looking back on his career and looking forward to retirement.
David Garrison: You and I worked together in Modern Languages for many years, and I wonder if you could tell us a bit about how that program is holding up and adapting under all the stresses of the past few years? I know we have lost many modern language classes and instructors, but we are doing better than West Virginia University, for example, where the entire foreign language program was abolished.
Robert Rubin: Well, just around the time you retired, Chris Hall also retired, and I took over as director of the ESL Program. This, coupled with my being needed to teach a variety of English courses, led me to forgo the joint appointment I had in English and Modern Languages and return 100% to English. I miss teaching Spanish, though I have taught a class here and there for Sinclair. From what I understand, foreign language programs across the country are under a lot of pressure, with many programs closing or facing reductions. The Modern Languages Program at Wright State has not been immune to those stresses, but I believe they have weathered the storm by being nimble and creative. They continue to host very popular immersion days, where high school students come to Wright State to spend the day immersed in French or Spanish language and cultural activities. Likewise, the French and Spanish clubs are quite active and popular. From my own observations, and from what I’ve been hearing, the Modern Languages Program is surviving as best it can given the difficult national trends to de-emphasize and de-value the study of foreign languages. I credit the faculty in that program for their dedication, creativity, and flexibility.
DG: Enrollment is up this semester. Do you think it will ever get back to what it was at its peak in the early 2000s? We had close to 20,000 students then.
RR: I just don’t see that happening. The demographic reality is that there are fewer young people, that is people who will be graduating high school in the coming years, than there were back in the 2000s. Enrollment is largely up because of a huge surge in international students from India, China, and Nepal, primarily. Unless we continue to grow the international enrollment at these exponential rates, I don’t see enrollment increasing much more. We also saw a surge in enrollments during the switch from quarters to semesters, when students had a short window to complete their degrees on the quarter system. That was really an artificial spike that was unsustainable.
DG: What kind of positive things do you see in the new configurations of the university, in which many departments have been joined together? Do these new combinations of disciplines lead to new ideas, new perspectives?
RR: It probably made sense, in the long run, to merge these departments. Some programs and departments were simply too small and risked being eliminated. Merging them into larger schools helped save faculty jobs and some majors. I do also see the possibility for new collaborations, team teaching, and cross-listed courses. I find those possibilities to be intriguing, and I hope they come to fruition. The (relatively new) dean of the College of Liberal Arts seems especially open to creating new courses and programs, and exploring new connections.
DG: Higher education is obviously changing all over the country. What do you think is causing these changes, and what will be the major challenges for colleges and universities in the next decade?
RR: My work in the union for the past 15 years or so has really jaded me, unfortunately. It’s been important work, but it’s been sobering. I’ve witnessed front and center the coordinated attack on higher education and public education in general. This is a concerted attack by mostly ultraconservative political entities who wish to dismantle higher and public education. University administrations have routinely been hiring the same three or four consulting firms who recommend ways for universities to bust unions, weaken faculty power, and consolidate power in the hands of management. This leads to an erosion of shared governance, the underpinning of university curricula. The result is that boards of trustees, largely made up of nonacademics in the business community, cut programs that they deem to be “unnecessary,” such as the arts and humanities. Another, related issue, is that tuition has skyrocketed, but that money has largely gone to hiring more administrators rather than investing in students and faculty. Students and their families start to question the value of a college degree when they are suffocated by student loans that have not paid to better their education, but rather, to increase the bureaucracies at the universities they’ve attended. But then the bureaucrats blame faculty and “worthless” degrees–that is, degrees that aren’t in business, engineering, or medicine. We need more diverse boards of trustees, fewer administrators, and more faculty voices and influence. The major challenge will be for small and mid-sized private and state universities. Many are in danger of closing in the next few years. The big players, like Ohio State, will survive. I worry that smaller schools will not. I think Wright State will be fine, partly because of our relationship and proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Our students get internships and jobs there, we collaborate on research projects, and people at the Base take classes with us. But other state universities, especially the smaller ones, might get swallowed up.
DG: Do you feel that Wright State’s mission has changed? We started out as a state school trying to meet a wide range of educational needs in our region. Does it seem that we are moving toward being more of a vocational program?
RR: It has changed, indeed. Upper-level administrators at Wright State have publicly downplayed the importance of research, and support for research has waned considerably over the past decade. Faculty are being asked to focus more on moving large numbers of students through their classes, but always lost in the conversation are the standards and rigor that we require of our students. Instead, it seems that faculty are being encouraged to get students out the door, diplomas in hand, by any means necessary. I think it means that we’ve all been asked to lower our standards, and indeed, faculty are punished if our students don’t do well. Administration looks at “D, F, W” rates of faculty–how many of our students earn Ds, Fs, or withdraw from our classes. What’s lost in the conversation are all the socioeconomic reasons why the retention rate is so low. Students are working more than ever to pay for their educations. And let’s be brutally honest: Wright State is almost (but not quite) an open admissions university. The data is very clear on this: the higher the acceptance rate of a university, the lower the retention rate. It’s just a fact. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t remain a university that gives everyone an opportunity–I love that about Wright State. But what I am saying is that if we are going to let “anyone” in, our retention rates will suffer, no matter how hard we work to improve those rates. But the Board of Trustees is hyper-focused on retention rates and, yes, I believe, on graduating students into the regional workforce. They want to create “workers” for the region and for the companies that they personally run. Faculty want to create “citizens” and “critical thinkers” who also happen to become workers who earn a good living.
DG: Looking back on your career at WSU, what are some of the highlights?
RR: I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished in my 34 years at Wright State. I started off as a graduate teaching assistant in the English Department, coming into the program with a B.A. in Spanish from Indiana State. A couple of years later, I was hired as a full-time faculty member. Highlights? Well, I designed and taught some of the very first computer classroom sections of first-year composition at WSU. Back in the early ’90s, most composition classrooms were still old-fashioned paper and pencil affairs. I worked hard to harness the (then) “new” technology to help students become better writers.
Also, in the early ’90s, I created the first WSU faculty-designed study abroad program, to Costa Rica. I took well over 300 students to Costa Rica during the 30 years that the program was in operation.
I have to also mention my work with the University Honors Program, which I absolutely love. It’s one of the best things about WSU. I have taught Honors courses every year for the past 32 years or so, and I’ve loved every minute of it. The students are phenomenal, and I get to be creative in designing new course themes. Back in the early 2000s, I served as the first Honors Faculty-in-Residence, living in an apartment in the Honors Community residence. I taught courses in the dorms and interacted with Honors students in numerous on-campus events. It was fun and exhausting!
As I mentioned earlier, when Chris Hall retired, not too many years after Maggie MacDonald had retired, I was called upon to take over the duties as director of ESL. I have been in that role for about 15 years now, and I’ve found it to be important work: serving our international and second-language English speakers by providing special sections of composition, speaking and pronunciation, and teaching assistantship training.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my work for AAUP-WSU, the faculty union. I’ve served on the Executive Committee of AAUP-WSU ever since non-tenure track faculty unionized and joined the existing union. I served as Contract Administration officer for two years, and for the past four years, I’ve served as president, the first non-tenure-track faculty member to be elected to that position at WSU.
But the ultimate highlight for me has been to have had the absolute honor of working with incredibly talented colleagues whom I respect a great deal, including people such as you, Rich Bullock, Henry Limouze, Susan Carrafiello, Mary Kenton, Maggie MacDonald, Chris Hall, David Petreman, and many, many others. Likewise, I’m honored to have taught and mentored thousands of wonderful students, many of whom I’m still in touch with.
DG: I imagine you’ll continue playing in your band, “Rude Scholar,” and we look forward to having you perform for us at the fall Retirees Picnic. Do you have any other plans for your retirement?
RR: We’re looking forward to making some noise at the picnic! We’ll try hard to channel that noise into some ear-satisfying melodies for you.
I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and I plan to continue my travels and explore new places. The Honors Program has asked me to continue teaching a seminar for them, so I’ll do that at least once a year. Sinclair has also asked me to teach for them – both Spanish and English–so I will likely teach a couple of courses a semester at Sinclair.
Last, but certainly not least, I will continue to enjoy my favorite title of all, “Grandpa.” While I don’t have any biological grandchildren yet, I’ve inherited four wonderful grandkids from my wife’s side of the family. I’m having a ball being “Grandpa Bobby” and spoiling them whenever I can.
