CSU Faculty Voice: A View of the Wayne Watson Clown Show From A City Colleges Colleague

Friday, April 11, 2014

A View of the Wayne Watson Clown Show From A City Colleges Colleague

I received this from a faculty colleague at the City Colleges of Chicago. It speaks for itself.

Professor Bionaz,

I want to congratulate you on your efforts to reform Chicago State University by exposing the corrupt methods of Wayne Watson on the CSUFacultyVoice blog.

As a long time adjunct at the City Colleges of Chicago, I can relate to the difficulties that you are experiencing. Every unethical action occurring on your campus presently, has occurred at the City Colleges of Chicago during the sorry decade in which Watson served as the chancellor. Likewise, Watson proved to be an utter failure while serving as the president of both Kennedy-King and Malcolm X Colleges. Watson is both an incompetent and a bigot. He genuinely dislikes white people, especially white males, and he would oftentimes intervene in hiring decisions to prevent non-minorities from being hired for full-time, tenure track positions. Nepotism and favoritism were the ordinary rule of the day at the City Colleges. Sometimes, job interviews were really orchestrated charades. Watson frequently had a preferred candidate and the hiring outcomes were generally rigged.

Angela Henderson and her husband, Attorney Victor Henderson, were very much in evidence at the City Colleges. Victor actually hosted a legal affairs program on the PBS affiliate, WYCC Channel 20. Watson was later sued after he terminated the general manager of the television station when she accused him of using the station as a platform to publicize himself and his political cronies, including Emil Jones. After Watson left the City Colleges, the lawsuit was settled out of court for a reported seven figure amount. The E.E.O.C. found that under Watson the City Colleges also engaged in age discrimination.

The City Colleges are still struggling to recover from the Watson era. There have been a few marginal improvements, but there is much more damage to be repaired. Sixty plus percent of our classes are taught by adjunct faculty because it was more important to award no bid contracts and high salaries to Watson's friends and allies than it was to staff the colleges. Of course, allegations of sexual misconduct were not unusual for Watson when he was at the City Colleges either. Hermene Hartman was covering for him back then too.

As for Watson's allies, their support is usually predicated on financial considerations. Their paychecks are dependent upon his looting the institution. Watson is a petty and venal politician. He is not an educator.

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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.