So just when you think you have heard it all, you hear the body that holds the fiduciary responsibility for the institution states they have confidence in the vision of the president and are taking steps to extend his contract until June 30, 2016. No, loyal readers, that date is not a typographic error. In the face of declining enrollments, a shrinking endowment, more than 100 audit findings in three years, continued negative public perception and a plethora of ostensibly unethical behaviors, the Board of Trustees is extending the contract of the president. This is a chief executive who by the methodological standards employed in the recent book Presidencies Derailed should have stood down or been stood down several months ago. Having not satisfied five of seven contractual criteria the Board of Trustees ignored that in favor of having confidence in a vision; a vision that has yet to be realized in four long years. This action is a clear statement of how the Board views the University. CSU will continue to be a patronage plaything for certain political elites for the foreseeable future and is unlikely to realize its potential as an outstanding university.
One of the things this politically motivated board decision failed to address is the context for the problems at Chicago State. The miserable performance of the school's administration occurs when Chicago State is the only four-year state university on Chicago's south side. When we have basically a monopoly and experience the disastrous declines of the past three years what is likely to occur when we have competition? The answer will come soon when Governor's State transforms itself into a four-year institution (scheduled for Fall 2014 I believe). That school, with similar tuition and with a far better public image than Wayne Watson's CSU, will likely siphon off a number of our potential students. For a glimpse at the future, see this article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-25/news/ct-met-governors-state-university-20121122_1_governors-state-upper-division-university-freshman-class
ReplyDeleteGiven the data I have collected, I believe that the politically motivated decision by our board has exposed our university to potentially dire consequences. Since this bungling administration is severely injuring the school, primarily by mouthing meaningless platitudes and ridiculous jargon while the school's most pressing problems fester, perhaps the transformation of Governor's State will simply provide the coup de grâce.