At SPSU, our teachers constantly assign work for us to do in teams with our classmates. The idea is to learn to work with others, to contribute ideas and to solve problems together. In doing so, the team develops an identity as they become strengthened and continue to excel, much like a sports team does as they practice together.
Corporate America, we are told, demands a workforce that can become unified in its vision, show team loyalty and work with others toward a common goal. Instead of an authoritarian form of leadership where a big, powerful person orders people around, teams bring balance, boost productivity, increase workplace satisfaction and deliver a sense of loyalty. After all, nobody wants to leave their teammates behind to join a competing team.
Right now, we are less competitive than the rest of the global workforce because as a nation, we are very individualistic. Companies need people who can be a part of teams that work from many parts of the world. They want colleges to develop in students the ability to be good teammates so that there isn’t apathy, individualism and disloyalty.
The next time that Corporate America complains about how hard it is to find employees who can be team players, please think about what has just happened here.
A powerful entity came in and announced (without warning, discussion or proof of problem solving) that our healthy and productive university was being taken over in a year. Our name will disappear, our identity has been cast into the trash, and we were not even afforded the respect of an e-mail. Most students and professors heard about it on Facebook.
(Keepin’ it classy.)
What we learned these past two weeks from strangers who control our lives is this:
1. Money is all that matters.
2. It makes no difference if you are able to support your claim of saving money or how much it will cost to merge, just force your will upon others and count on their apathy.
3. All teams are temporal so don’t invest yourself too deeply.
4. Don’t show any loyalty because loyalty doesn’t exist if money is involved.
5. When you have an agenda to push, do it quickly and without input from the people who will be affected by it.
6. Avoid rational thought and polite discourse (which should be hallmarks of our education) because you won’t be able to force your will upon others if you have to answer questions about hard facts, dates and numbers that reveal your hidden agenda.
7. When you are in a position of power, you can bully people who have very little power.
I am disgusted by the shameful way this hostile takeover was handled. The students were demoralized and had no voice. A large bully school that wanted to compete in football with Tech and State just jumped us and stole our lunch money to make that happen. I can only take solace in the fact that I am one of the lucky few who will graduate before the merger and will not have the shame of displaying a degree from such an underhanded institution.
Enjoy your football.
Shannon Hames
Features Editor
SPSU’s The Sting