Thursday, April 23, 2009

An update

So the battle for the future of CSU continues. The faculty-student-staff unity rally held yesterday at noon received local television attention. The letter from the Faculty Senate to Governor Quinn requesting the removal of the Board of Trustees was delivered at 2PM on Wednesday, the full text of which will be posted here. The rumors abound about what the Governor will do now. We can continue to pressure the Governor with telephone calls, emails and faxes asking him to remove the Board of Trustees and prevent them from hiring a new president. Elected officials often respond to public pressure and if you value what happens here you will bring some pressure to bear. Unfortunately, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

The Board of Trustees has posted their agenda for the April 29th meeting. They plan on voting on one of the two applicants toward the end of the meeting. I have to say, it is pretty arrogant given the ineptness they have demonstrated over the past five years. And what’s worse is that the Board Chair and one of the applicants are scheduled to appear together at a university function on Monday. Who was the administrator that didn’t realize this was completely inappropriate? In the private sector people who make those types of mistakes get fired. Not at CSU though. They just seem to get promoted and allowed to make bigger mistakes.

One fear expressed to me recently was that the Board was simply trying wait out the faculty and students by not making a decision until the summer when no one is around to watch what they are doing. So much of what goes on is done in the shadows and what the faculty and students have done is shine a light on processes that have yielded bad results. Vigilance is what is required. The university operates year round and even if we don’t teach during the summer, we should still be paying attention especially with a Board of Trustees we can’t trust to do the right thing.

Finally, it is rumored that the second applicant plans on bringing two bus loads of City Colleges students to our campus as a show of support for his candidacy. I hope he doesn’t bring the daughter who assaulted one of our students while he was confronting your humble blogger during his campus visit. Two confrontations in two weeks is too many.

1 comment:

  1. I thought the unity rally went well. After the rally, I am very hopeful that Gov. Quinn hear our cry, respond to our despair and remove our pain (the Board of Trustees). This university has been through too much heartache and it's time for us to heal. My voice counts, my voice will be heard, and my voice does matters when I speak. This isn't a battle that will go unheard or unresolved.

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