Students have played several games of tag with the administration this year.
During the past eight months, students have been chasing administrators for answers ‘- honest answers ‘- to questions like why the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Jim Stellar suddenly ‘resigned’ from his position right before the start of the fall semester. Or finding the truth behind the use of the committee exploring the pros and cons of restructuring CAS and the College of Criminal Justice (CJ).
Administrators have answered in similar ways to each question surrounding controversial issues the university has faced this year ‘- they have responded indirectly and with lies and illusions. The administration has stepped away from putting students first.
Take, for instance, Provost Stephen Director’s response to why Stellar resigned. In an article in the Sept. 11 issue of The News, Director said Stellar set the time frame for his resignation and it was not unexpected.
‘Most university deans serve five to 10 years, so it’s not a surprise for somebody to say, ‘Look I’ve done it for 10 years,” Director said in the article.
However, Stellar, who became a professor after his resignation as dean, recently announced he is leaving Northeastern to serve as provost at another university. Subsequently, Nicholas Daniloff, a journalism professor, friend and longtime colleague of Stellar, said in an article in the April 9 issue of The News that Stellar’s resignation as dean was partially because of conflicts with Director.
‘Apparently, the provost felt he couldn’t work effectively with Dean Stellar, so essentially he asked him to resign his position,’ Daniloff said.
New administration will always bring changes, but administrators’ actions have been inappropriate while handling certain situations this year. We understand certain decisions and changes need to be made, but the process is secretive. Instead of taking a possible hit once from some students and implementing a change they back up with reason, some administrators drag on their secrecy until students and faculty become upset.
Instead of being up front and saying they had different views of how to operate the school than Stellar had, administrators lied to the university by saying Stellar resigned on his own terms. The administration must not have thought students ‘- the university’s customers who should be treated as adults ‘- could handle the truth.
It seems Northeastern is veering off course from understanding its students. Many students close to Stellar had their skepticism about Director’s comments when the issue began in September. Yes, it might be a hard punch at first, but the truth is always better than hearing lies for days, weeks, even months.
Students should be able to trust the provost of their university. After all, the provost is Northeastern’s chief academic officer with overall responsibility for educational and research activities of all academic units.
Another troubling matter is the administration having meetings about the reorganization of CAS and CJ. Admissions into CJ for the next academic year have already been cut by about 60 percent as compared to previous years, according to a letter to the editor from Jack Greene, a professor of criminal justice and former dean of CJ, in the April 9 issue of The News.
In the letter, Greene said that in the past two academic years, there have been between 360 and 375 students admitted to CJ, respectively. With a rate of about 35 percent of admitted students actually enrolling at Northeastern, this produces classes of 120 to 125 entering freshmen. In the current admissions cycle only 144 freshmen CJ majors were admitted. Administrators say the program hasn’t been cut yet, but this is an indicator that the administration is seriously considering cutting the program.
Why don’t administrators fess up and say, ‘OK, we think this is the best decision for the university. We know you’re angry, but we promise that this is better for Northeastern, and here’s why.’ (Insert reasons here.)
‘I think it’s important to have open communication and transparent policies,’ Director said in a June 4, 2008 article in the Northeastern News before he took the position as provost. ‘If it’s of concern, it’s something that I would like to look into and understand and see what the basic problem is.’
Remember in grade school when all students were taught to tell the truth? Well, apparently, some members of the administration missed that day of school. With a new semester and new school year approaching in a few months, hopefully the administration can learn some honesty skills before September begins.