Editorial board: Ignoring University Senate review bad move by administration
The Board of Trustee’s renewal of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s contract before she underwent a University Senate review lacked tact and transparency. It unnecessarily puts the administration in a shroud of secrecy and close-mindedness that is detrimental to both chancellor and the university.
What does the chancellor or the Board of trustees have to hide? No one is served by the way the Board of Trustees handled the chancellor’s contract renewal. In the way it was handled, faculty, professors and students were not even given the chance to voice their opinions on the chancellor, and what she has and has not done for Syracuse University.
The fact that the Board of Trustees convened during the summer, at a time when it would draw the least amount of faculty attention, makes the administration look more like a shadowy Soviet Kremlin than the administration of a prestigious university.
Even if the Board of Trustees did not purposely renew the chancellor’s contract before the USen review, some members of the University Senate felt slighted by the lack of regard for USen procedure.
In fact, the tension between some faculty and the administration represents a larger rift about a new corporate culture developing within the university. This conflict between the faculty and the administration has to be addressed before these procedural slights develop into standard procedure and the faculty has no way to voice their criticisms about the university and its authority figures.
At the very least, this represents a need for better communication between the Board of Trustees and the University Senate. By establishing regular communication, the two governing bodies can serve as a check for each other and prevent the administration from carrying out important decisions without public knowledge.
The university would be better served by transparent administrative procedure, and should move away from this corporate atmosphere which puts emphasis on closed-door decision making rather than openness and honesty.
Published on October 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm
