As an occasionally put-upon and always-whimsical observer of the
faculty-administration drama in our halls of learning, I found the
following to be, well, provocative (but not surprising):
> As Jon mentions, Harkness broke a New England Small College Athletic
> Conference rule prohibiting coaches from visiting with recruits. This
> happened in the spring of 1977, and when then-Union president Thomas Bonner
> confronted Harkness with the allegations, Harkness lied and said he had not
> visited the recruit. A few days later, Harkness admitted to lying, and
> said, "I did it to save my team." Well, he was suspended by Bonner but
> almost immediately reinstated by the Union board of trustees.
>
> The faculty were outraged by this, and they voted no confidence in Bonner,
> who then submitted his resignation to the trustees. The trustees voted not
> to accept it at first, but Bonner eventually left the college. Meanwhile,
Let me get this straight: the president suspended the coach for his
misdeed. Then the board reinstated the coach. Then the faculty voted
no confidence in the PRESIDENT! Hmmm . . . .
I can't resist saying this, although I KNOW I must preface it with the
information that I LOVE faculty, for 14 years I held full-time faculty
appointments, and I'm very
proud (and in fact insisted) that my administrative appointment here
includes faculty status and rank, and that I
see my number one priority as an academic administrator the assisting
of the faculty in the performance of their top-priority-to-us-all
mission: teaching, scholarship and service. That said, the above
incident (if the facts are accurately recounted) reminds me of what
a fellow dean likes to say, "You can always count on the faculty to
do the right thing--after they've tried everything else first."
;-)
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* Steve Christopher, NMU *
* "Go 'Cats!''Goin' for it again in *
* '93--With a little less "O" *
* and a lot more "D"! *
* [log in to unmask] *
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