They’re intensely secretive, they’re unapologetic and they increasingly deal in misleading statements.
They’re members of USD’s administration.
They’re a group led by President James Abbott and it increasingly seems their mission is to squelch negative news and muzzle dissent among faculty and staff.
Just a few weeks ago, Abbott downplayed the recession’s effects on USD in a forum. He assured us personnel and program cuts were last resorts.
Now, despite the fact that USD is a liberal arts institution, science programs are being expanded at the expense of 16 faculty and staff, who were abruptly fired last week.
We weren’t we told we had so quickly reached our last resort.
And the administration’s secrecy didn’t start with the firings.
Earlier this semester, we wrote about the secrecy surrounding the administration’s controversial plan to fund the Promise Scholarship.
That’s the scholarship centralization scheme.
Seemingly plucked from thin air, it seemed hurried and reactionary. Students, faculty and staff were blindsided by the administration’s sudden, unprovoked power grab.
Many faculty and staff had strong opinions on the secrecy, but their opinions weren’t printed in The Volante. And that’s not because we didn’t ask.
It’s because the administration seems willing to punish when secrecy is violated. This has created a culture of fear.
The Volante was refused interviews by several faculty members, citing possible administration retaliation. Others insisted on off-the-record interviews, saying even the lightest criticism of administration policies or decisions could end their careers at USD.
Faculty and staff have even requested we contact them through non-USD e-mail accounts, in case university e-mail was being read.
We recently received an anonymous letter from a faculty member decrying the administration’s Promise Scholarship secrecy. While it is our policy to not publish unsigned letters, this statement is quite telling:
“I’m not signing this note because I honestly believe that doing so would cost me my job,” they write.
We can’t be sure why these faculty and staff believe their jobs are at risk.
We’re no conspiracy theorists, but that feeling seems ubiquitous on campus.
Is the Abbott administration actively punishing faculty and staff who dissent from its policies and decisions? We demand an answer.
We note that the Abbott Administration has complied with The Volante’s every interview request.
They routinely meet with our reporters for interviews on many topics, and they’re nice about it.
But we’re not concerned with their manners. We’re concerned they’re not telling us the whole story. We’re concerned that, with faculty effectively silenced, they can spin information any way they’d like.
Abbott even refused an invitation to participate in the Cross Media Council’s Budget Forum on Thursday. He would have been forced to answer to fellow faculty sitting next to him onstage, unlike in his own forum, which occurs an hour earlier than the CMC’s.
So his refusal is quite telling.
Of course, some degree of secrecy is necessary. We know some decision-making processes are sensitive and must be kept from the general public.
But Abbott and company are treating the rest of USD like the enemy by withholding information and downplaying negative news.
This secrecy is unwarranted. Indeed, if we’d have been told layoffs were coming, we mayhave been better able to accept them when they did.
But instead, we were consistently left in the dark about the imminent danger of layoffs. We were consequently dismayed by last week’s firings.
Faculty and staff are fearful. They were suddenly thrust into a world of layoffs, a world from which the administration suggested they’d be protected.
More, they’re being pressured to not criticize their superiors. Is this the kind of work environment that would be tolerated in any other state institution?
The administration’s secretive tactics have been tolerated for far too long.
It is imperative that students, faculty and staff make it known to the administration that under no uncertain terms will they accept undue secrecy and bullying tactics.
SPECIAL EDITORIAL: Administration secrecy must stop
Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Updated: Thursday, April 16, 2009
11 comments
As far as employees that have lost their jobs, two were over 75 years old and one of them had previously retired and come back (like Tad Perry). The people who could least afford to lose their job were those with families, SD unemployement is horrible and there aren't any jobs out there. These people probably make a lot less than $30,000 a year, the head of the Med school makes $210,000, President Abbott more than that ... State employees were denied a cost of living raise this year, looks like once again the little people lose!