So the Fiscal Officers meeting scheduled for February 6th, 2015 has been canceled because there is a Special Board Meeting at 10 AM in the Library Auditorium on that date. The agenda for that meeting is short. The trustees will only deal with legal matters and employment matters in closed session and the requisite public and employee comment in open session. What issues of import could the trustees be discussing that couldn't wait four weeks to take up at the regular board meeting on March 6th? Might it be the preemptive layoffs/firings the regime has initiated in anticipation of significant funding reductions from Springfield? Might it be the plummeting enrollment and unprecedented course cancellations and the impact on the tenure of the president? Might it be a substantive update on the numerous legal actions brought against the university? The Crowley Ticker is over $4 million now. Maybe it is to discuss eliminating all faculty positions to save money to pay administrators who don't appear to be succeeding at enticing students to attend CSU. Or is it the beginning of succession planning for the hiring of a turnaround specialist to repair the horrific damage done to the university since 2009? If it's succession planning, all they need do is pay the Hollins Group $200,000 and find somebody right in the neighborhood. We see how well that's worked out the last time the board needed to hire a president. Maybe the next president is already in our midst.
You hopeless optimist! How quaint that you think this Board will do anything positive for this school. After all, they bear the responsibility for this disaster. More than likely, they think Wayne needs another show of support which they will probably provide, again claiming that they are in sync with his "vision" for the school. Perhaps, they'll fire all the faculty, save those who are willing to take a loyalty oath to the little dictator, and use the cost savings to hire even more crony administrators.
ReplyDeleteWhatever they say the meeting is about the subtext is always going to be "we must keep the patronage pit alive" (and add: "out of the hands of white politicians"). CSU was founded as a patronage pit for a political machine, it has been run as that machine's patronage pit, and overseen by that machine as a patronage pit. The lack of oversight and years of gross mismanagement has been tolerated on the state level because first and foremost CSU must be maintained as a place for the local politicians and their committee men and women, but mostly men. If CSU manages to benefit its students, well that's great, but that's no longer its raison d'etre if it ever really was.
ReplyDeleteDo I exaggerate? A short review: 2008-2009 phony trumped up CSU Prez Search orchestrated by politicians and implemented by pols Emil Jones & Leon Finney; 2013 BOT actions to get rid of WW halted by that phony 'reform' Gov. Quinn who gets rid of the Board members instead; 2013 new BOT members named by phony Quinn via Donnie Trotter as "people with whom WW can work;" they immediately prostrate themselves at the altar of HRH WW and extend his contract; 2013/2014 BOT (read Anthony Young) pledge fervent support of WW in face of mountains of evidence of failure--fall 2014 BOT attacks the Faculty Senate and rescinds recognition of it, disbands the CSU Foundation.
Are all the presidencies of state universities in ILL passed around among friends (or frenemies) of pols like rewards one warlord (read godfather Jones) gives to a loyal retainer? Are all universities in the state of ILL extensive patronage pits? Ours is. Is this "emergency" BOT meeting going to do anything but prop up the patronage machine in some way shape or form? Just wait for it, but don't hold your breath that past practice will change.
The State of Illinois, as anybody not sensory-dead must surely realize, is in deep financial trouble. your blog and the Tribune articles about the continuing Watson administration fiasco has been read by CSU's Board and legislators, those with oversight power. It would appear that those with oversight responsibilities have shirked their ethical responsibilities. Reporting that CSU administrator (Austin?), to give only one example, to OEIG for misrepresenting credentials would be fruitless. OEIG would send the comaint right back to Watson for 'review' and the matter would sink into the CSU administrative quagmire.
ReplyDeleteThe failure of the OEIG to act is in itself an ethics violation.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Corday: Can anyone say "RACISM"? Does anyone imagine that this would be tolerated if our students were not black and working class? Racism takes many forms. There is Michael Brown and Eric Garner. But there is also Chicago State, where the chief racists and their political sponsors are often black. Some are, under these circumstances, reluctant to call it racism, but why? Is it only white people who can be indifferent to the good of black students and use black students to advantage themselves?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they're going to announce that they're giving Angela Henderson, entry-level provost and plagiarizer-in-chief, a five year contract as university president, effective the minute Wayne Watson's current contract ends!
ReplyDelete