Our new teaching term is nearly half over. Please forgive me for taking so long to communicate! There's lots to tell, and I need to catch up.

A few months ago I told you about the preparations for Gansu United University’s accreditation review, called "The Inspection" by my deans and colleagues. This event, the arrival of inspectors from the central authority in Beijing, has had our campus and faculty in its death grip for over a year, now. All the Chinese teachers have worked six day weeks without relief and given up most of their holidays to labor over the preparations. These have included reconstructing (falsifying?) attendance and lesson plan records since 2005, to name just one activity, and re-correcting thousands of examination papers because the pen mark used to indicate a wrong answer had been a downstroke rather than an upstroke – a mistake grave enough to warrant countless hours of staff drudgery.



I am of two minds about the whole fiasco. On the one hand, the inspection has prompted our department to take itself seriously. Everything has become more organized, albeit scarcely more student-centered than before. Campus wide, physical improvements are slightly more then cosmetic, as you will see below. On the other hand, as the process drags on, it fits neatly into a pattern I perceive. Authorities keep those below them so worn down with procedures, unreasonable demands and capricious changes that everyone is constantly enervated, incapable of initiative. As it stands now, our inspection will occur either a.) now, b.) somewhat later, c.) next year. No one on campus knows for sure.


I have cynically called this "our year of pretending to be a real university." In the spring term, I participated in several carefully-orchestrated photo opportunities. One was a bogus faculty meeting that took place in a gleaming conference room with a polished mahogany table and upholstered chairs. My colleagues and I were each given a bottle of water (an unheard-of amenity) and carried on a phony discussion of curriculum while the video camera rolled. Our usual meetings take place in classrooms, we provide our own drinks, and the discussion is mundane. Similarly, I taught one of my classes in a clean, well-lighted classroom with a superior chalkboard – what a treat! – while being videotaped.


The physical improvements have been impressive. While I was in the U.S. for the summer, window glass was replaced, walls and ceilings painted, some rest rooms completely renovated. There are lightbulbs in most fixtures, and we have electric power in our classrooms almost every day. This last improvement is my favorite.



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