An "Embarrassment" and "Laughingstock" Indeed: Chicago State University's Web Site

Yesterday, in the Sun Times Mary Mitchell called Chicago State an “embarrassment,” and “the laughingstock of the state university system.” She pointed out that “While students and faculty rallied in Springfield last year to keep the doors open during the budget stalemate, the school’s administrators have been showing the kind of incompetent leadership that causes black institutions to implode.” http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/mitchell-chicago-state-university-needs-to-clean-up-its-act/.

For heaven’s sake, how long do we have to suffer this? How long before we are either put out of our misery or someone with the authority to take action starts to clean this place up? Will we ever get away from the “politics of personality and cronyism” that Mitchell references in her article?

One of the most noticeable effects of cronyism is a work product that is far below standard. For a sterling example of crappy work here at Chicago State, look no farther than the university’s web site, the school’s first chance to make a good impression. In the past, I have criticized our site for its egregious grammatical errors, pointing out that it’s not a blog or a forum in which persons write off-the-cuff comments or pieces, which often contain such errors. As our window on the world, the material on the university’s web site should be up-to-date, polished and precise, free of errors in spelling and grammar. Taking only a cursory look at the material on our web page immediately reveals how far removed it is from this ideal. Apparently, here at Chicago State, we have neither the pride nor the ability to present accurate and professional material to the outside world. Here are just a few examples from earlier today:

This is the president's portion of the Chicago State web site. This might leave someone looking in from outside scratching her/his head in wonder.

Next, we navigate to the Enrollment Management section of the site. Here, we see that Dr. Carol Cortilet-Albrecht, who left university employment at the end of June, is still the V.P. of Enrollment Management. As we all know, that's simply not true as we are currently in the process of selecting our third Vice President (I assume) of Enrollment Management since June 29, 2016. Readers might also notice that both her name and the name of the Director of admissions are spelled incorrectly. It's Cortilet, not Cotilet. It's Bhatia, not Bhitia.

Staying with the Enrollment Management folks, clicking on one of the menu items brings up this screen. You'll notice that here, both of Dr. Cortilet-Albrecht's surnames are spelled incorrectly:

We move on to the Governmental Affairs portion of our web site. Here we find Farah Muscadin listed as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. As some of you may remember, she has not been employed at the university since April 30, 2016.

I conclude with information on the web site that simply needs no commentary: