Questionable concusion

I fail to see how, given the relative lack of detail in this article about the alleged problems at CWRU (financial mismanagement, unnecessary secrecy, etc.), one could arrive at the conclusion that this is a case of the A & S faculty simply not wanting to “change with the times.” Isn’t it possible that they voted no confidence out of a genuine, well-considered concern that this President is not serving the institution well?

Young administrator, at 6:15 pm EST on March 3, 2006

No-confidence vote not valid?

The Observer, Case’s student newspaper, has an editorial that speaks well of what might’ve gone down with this “petition".

Source: http://observer.case.edu/Archives/Volume_38/Issue_19/Story_721/

“There is no marketplace of ideas if there are only one or two ideas in the market. I know one professor who voted for the president, and who has asked me to help keep this secret because of a fear that it could hurt career opportunities within the department. Any university whose faculty is scared to share their true opinions and beliefs because of the intolerance of colleagues is a long way from becoming “the world’s most powerful learning environment."”

Eric Chen, at 8:25 pm EST on March 3, 2006

A short-sighted, gravely ill-conceived move that hurts everyone

I came to Case two years ago as a new faculty member. The shortcomings in the infrastructure and basic facility management were much worse than imaginable. In just two years, things have improved well beyond expectations. All these seem to be ignored by the critics of the leadership of Case. A large portion of the budget deficit stems from the expenditure needed to bring about these improvements, which have been long overdue, and are expensive to put in place, but much less expensive to maintain. So they are a one-time cost, and very much worth implementing. Another important point that is being ignored by the critics is the economic realities: tuition revenues are at best covering 30% of the operation costs of a research university. The rest of the funds come from research grants and philanthropy. The NIH, which is the major granting institution for a biomedical research university such as Case, has had its worse budget situation in 36 years. Due to the stagnancy of the US economy, philanthropy is down everywhere. All research universities are suffering from lower-than-projected budgetary situations, not just Case. This is absolutely not acknowledged by the people who have set the “no confidence vote” in motion. The last president of Case left after a short tenure, and for a long time the university did not have a president, which greatly hurt the school. If Dr. Hundert leaves, again, a long period of downfall will follow, which the university might never recover from. We are not Harvard, let’s not forget.

Saba Valadkhan, Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University, at 2:55 pm EST on March 5, 2006

An Ex-Student Leader’s View

Those of you at CWRU who don’t remember me, I was a graduate student agitator from 1995-2003 as a PhD canidate in the hard sciences, including two terms as Grad Student Senate. I have been generally disatisfied with CWRU’s direction. I see this latest issue as part of a larger problem at CWRU and people who think they haven’t got the whole story here are almost certainly correct. I have to say that I am not surprised. I openly and vocally opposed Hundert’s hiring. I have told the alumi association that I will not give money to CWRU until Hundert is fired. But that is only part of the burr in my shorts. I also want to see CWRU’s “every tub on its own bottom” financial system abolished. In short, this system is a very weak central administration with the responsibility for financial solvency and most matters given to each cost center. As a result, the central administration holds no power of the purse. My biggest pet peave of this being that the graduate school has no authority to set university-wide standards concering the treatment and compensation for graduate teaching and research assistants. I opposed Hundert’s hiring because while he knew the right things to say, he was clearly going to maintain the every-tub system. It is my contention that CWRU will remain a second teir university until it realizes that the medical, engineering, and physical sciences MUST financially contribute to the growth of a REAL liberal art’s core. You cannot have the “haves” and “have nots” divided by Euclid Ave. I do not have insider information so the remainer of this message is pure conjecture based on my years of experience in this byzantine system. I have the sneaking suspicion that the “haves” engineered the recent no confidence vote. Perhaps Hundert has taken a tiny slice of their pie and given it to the Humanities? He did something to threaten their power base and so they want him out. The Humanities are so disatisfied with years of hearing Hundert say one thing and do another that they have a knee jerk reaction to be used as pawns in this coup. It is sad, because really the humanities should support Hundert for two reasons: 1. he actually might for once do something significant to repay them if they save his bacon and 2. this is a forum where the humanities have a loud speaker to voice their general disatisfaction with the “every tub” system.I am pessimistic that anything will actually change.

John Martin, at 12:35 pm EST on March 6, 2006

A&S First to feel the Ax

The reason why schools of Arts and Sciences are usually the one to vote no confidence in these situations since the presidents in the both these situation were making changes which most greatly impacted them in total. While potential deficits at Case Western would effect all the faculty and school, the problems with curricular change (deemphazing humanities at Havard, instituting SAGES at CWRU) usually impact Arts & Sciences the greatest. No one thinks he can tell a business or medical school how to teach its students better than they can, but everyone want to give his two cents about liberal arts , even when they couldn’t paint their why out of a existential brown paper bag.

Jarod Hightower, at 4:25 am EST on March 14, 2006