Achenbaumis
gone; Smith rolls on
Bob Buzzanco
Guest Columnist
The "resignation" of Dean of the
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Andrew Achenbaum ought to alarm
all faculty, staff and students at UH.
Achembaum was not a great administrator
— in fact, he was weak and essentially did the administrationis bidding
— but his departure signals another ominous step in the increasing path
toward centralized, authoritarian control of UH by President Arthur K.
Smith and Provost Edward Sheridan.
Achenbaum was never a strong leader.
The merger of the College of Humanities, Fine Arts and Communications with
the College of Social Sciences was essentially forced upon him without
input from his office. His associate deans, the under-qualified Kathy Sheridan
— wife of the provost — and the imperious Robert Palmer, seemed to have
their own agendas and bases of power.
Sheridan has peppered the CLASS faculty
with instructions on everything from how to fill out grade-change forms
to how to process "incompletes." The faculty is well aware of, and competent
to handle, both issues.
Palmer, for his part, is attempting
to run the graduate programs in CLASS by fiat and is lessening departmental
decision-making capacities in the process.
As a result, Achenbaum sometimes
appeared to be little more than a bystander in the college he was supposed
to run.
This is another example of Smith
and Sheridanis "leadership" style. Not content to have a "yes man" as dean
of CLASS, they apparently want total control of the University governance
structure.
Concurrent with Achenbaumis ouster,
they are currently trying to force a new method of selecting department
chairs upon the faculty. Rather than let the faculty choose their own department
chairs, as has been traditionally done and is consistent with the concept
of "shared governance," the Smith-Sheridan administration wants to abolish
elections and have department chairs serve at the pleasure of the central
administration.
This is the same administration that
incessantly and fruitlessly pursued its case against Susan Septimus, at
great cost to the Universityis finances and reputation. This is the same
administration that demands the right to fire staff without cause, explanation
or appeal. This is the same administration that brought ridicule and financial
folly upon UH by erecting temporary stadium seats made of little more than
aluminum foil and glue.
This is the same administration that
continues to raise tuition and fees, while selling out vital University
services like food preparation and the bookstore to corporate concerns
that make boatloads of money off UH students.
Whenever UH faculty members get together
formally, we are virtually unanimous in our condemnation of the Smith-Sheridan
gang. But we do virtually nothing but gripe about it, and thereby give
the administration a green light to continue its plundering of our reputation,
our rights as faculty and the studentsi rights to the best educational
environment possible.
It is now imperative, however, that
faculty, staff and others band together to defend the rights and reputation
of this institution and tell Smith and Sheridan that they have gone far
enough. This is a university, not a corporation.
