And does it all come down to a cliché.... "cherchez la femme" or is it déjà vu all over again-- "blame the faculty?"
Chicago Sun Times, February 23, 2013
Sneed exclusive...
Is Armageddon at hand at Chicago State
University
Sneed hears trouble is brewing at the South Side university,
which was pockmarked for years by fiscal mismanagement and inept leadership.
◆ At
issue: A battle between University President Wayne Watson, the highly respected
former chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago
◆ The buckshot: Watson, who was hired in 2009 to install
top-to-bottom management at the fiscally unsound school, was reportedly accused
by several board members of violating school policy by being less than candid
about a relationship he has with a school employee — even though both of them
are single.
◆ The flipshot: Sneed is told pressure was put on Gov. Pat
Quinn to get rid of Watson, who, according to two top sources, was getting
pushback for trying to instill a culture change at the struggling school by
instituting heavier faculty workloads.
◆ The backshot: “There are board members who either want to
control Watson or want their own person at the helm and have heavy backers who
are major donors to Gov. Quinn,” said a Watson supporter. “It’s as simple as
that.”
Sneed has no clue what she is talking about. The issue is not Board of Trustees' members clashing with Watson or faculty upset due to increased workload. Sneed has proven, like Wayne, that she has no clue about what a university is nor how it is run nor what faculty at a PhD-granting institution do. If anyone cares to look through this blog, they will find all the answers they need in order to discern why most faculty (90% vote of no confidence in faculty senate) want a regime change.
ReplyDeleteSince they have no vehicle (newspaper, blog) to express their ideas regarding our administration, I'm posting this at the request of one of our students:
ReplyDeleteIn her February 24 column, Michael Sneed says that trouble is brewing at Chicago State University. That part of her column is correct. That, however, is just about the only thing accurate in the article.
Wayne Watson is not "the highly respected former Chancellor of the City Colleges", he is a political hack foisted on the University by former members of the Board of Trustees against the advice of the Board's own search committee in 2009. The relationship Dr Watson allegedly has with an employee at the University is being questioned because the woman in question is grossly unqualified for the senior management position she holds, a position that pays well in excess of $100,000/yr. This is but one of many questionable hires by Dr Watson during the three years he's been President at CSU as he institutes a Todd Stroger style "friends and family" program at our school.
Under the Watson regime, Chicago State University has been in the news for a vast increase in mistakes in money management, allowing students with GPA's as low at 0.0 to re enroll and receive financial aid in violation of federal guidelines, and for trying to institute a campus wide communication policy that violated the first amendment rights of faculty and staff. We have also suffered a 20% drop in enrollment in the three years of the Watson administration. Those are the reasons Dr Watson was hit with a recent vote of no confidence by the University faculty, NOT because he was 'trying to institute a heavier faculty workload."
He needs to go, and God Bless the board members who seem to be finally ready to act.