CSU Faculty Voice: Monday thoughts

Monday, April 20, 2009

Monday thoughts

So don’t forget to vote in our online poll on the BOT positioned to the right of this posting. Let your voice be heard.

******************************

I found out what a small world this really is today. One of our students was recording a post interview encounter with the second candidate and your humble narrator on Tuesday when a woman believed to be the applicant’s daughter snatched the cell phone from the student’s hand. No, I couldn’t believe that someone would have the audacity to do that to one of our students. Upon further investigation I discovered that the unnamed woman is believed to be an employee of ComEd in the Media Relations department. She also was the point of contact for a news release touting the awarding of a $115 million bond sale to Loop Capital Markets whose CEO and Chairman is none other than James Reynolds of the CSU Board of Trustees. The daughter of an applicant for President happens to be working with the CEO of a company managed by a board member. These sorts of linkages are not accidents and should be revealed just so everybody knows who everybody knows.

*****************************

Come out Wednesday, April 22 at 12PM to the CRSUB Rotunda for a faculty, student, staff unity rally. If you have a class at that time, please consider bringing your class for this event. I believe it will be historic.

*****************************

Since taking over as the Faculty Athletics Representative, I have been getting up to speed on the byzantine rules that are codified in the NCAA Division 1 manual. One of the more interesting set of rules is around recruiting; when can you contact a recruit; how can you contact a recruit etc. Recruiting is critical to building strong programs in the long term. Solid programs do their recruiting and really stay on top of finding the best student-athletes for their institutions. So I was excited that a recruiting period was coming up and CSU planned on attending the recruiting event. My excitement turned to disappointment when I found out that our coaches didn’t attend the recruiting event and possibly missed out on bringing an outstanding student athlete to CSU. How often do we miss out on recruiting a great student to our university? How did we come up short again? Was it a coaching issue where a coach simply didn't go? Was it an administration problem where the paperwork wasn't submitted on time? Was it a money issue that precluded our participation? When will we stop speaking of CSU in potential terms and start actualizing our potential? When will we stop missing out on being the best CSU possible?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks to Haki Madhabuti

"1. He/she must be a scholar of national note, with significant peer review publications and books in his or her field. There must be no doubt as to his/her standing in the community of scholars. This would also include a history of the candidate’s participation in the appropriate professional organizations.

2. He/she must have served with distinction as the administrative head of a major unit within an institution of higher learning or at the important position of Provost and/or Dean. Of course, prior service at the presidential level is preferred.

3. He/she must have a documented history of raising significant monies from the private and public sectors. At most major and research one universities it is not unusual to expect the president to come with a plan to raise in excess of half a billion dollars or more in the first few years.

4. The prospective president must have a consensus buy-in from the faculty, students, administration and staff, therefore, arriving with a unity mandate to lead by joining a University community that has bought into his or her vision for the future."

From an open letter to the CSU Community, 2009.