Related to Jim Ward's points about how to improve the working atmosphere
around here, I wish to address what I regard as an extremely disturbing
event at the faculty meeting yesterday. As Miss Manners would say, civility
is a particularly important virtue at times like these.   Civility, as in
"civil behavior," was not the outstanding feature of the provost's
presentation at the faculty meeting yesterday.  For the information of
those who were not at this meeting, Provost Friedl chose to respond point
by point to the 20 questions posed by Dr. Gavin Townsend in a recent
UTCSTAFF email.  I believe that it is accurate to say that in the process
he excoriated Dr.Townsend.  Here are my concerns.

1.   The inappropriate nature of Dr. Friedl's attack on Gavin Townsend

The provost chose to share with the faculty circumstances related to the
firing of Dr. Townsend as Director of the Honors Program this summer.
While Dr. Townsend may or may not have made bad decisions related to the
Honors Program, I suggest that Dr. Friedl showed very poor judgment in
airing this personnel matter to the entire faculty.  As far as I am aware
(and I've been here 24 years), up until yesterday no UTC administrator has
ever discussed the circumstances surrounding an individual personnel
decision in a public forum.  The reasons for this unspoken rule are
obvious. For instance, if I had an insolent student in my class, I wouldn't
tell the whole class about the poor grades this student was making nor make
fun of his dumb mistakes.  Nor would I expect a department head to be rude
and uncivil to a complaining faculty member at a departmental meeting,
regardless of provocation.  It is simply not appropriate to humiliate
people in public forums...unless you believe that other concerns override
civility.   I argue that that is a very bad position to take for those
trying to restore trust and good will on this campus. (Note:  I have read
over Dr. Townsend's "20 questions" email. In this email, Dr. Townsend was
not exactly cool, calm, and collected.  But it was certainly not a personal
attack against the provost of the sort that the Provost launched against
him yesterday.)


Dr. Friedl also showed poor judgment because, by personally attacking Dr.
Townsend, Dr. Friedl would seem to be trying to suppress criticism of the
administration.  As one of my colleagues put it after the meeting, his
remarks came across as aiming to "crush dissent."  Perhaps Dr. Friedl
intended for his remarks to crush dissent.  In this case, so much for
collegiality.  (So bring on the union?)  Or perhaps Dr. Friedl failed to
realize that his remarks could be interpreted in this light.  In this case,
Dr. Friedl, please be aware:  they CAN and have been interpreted in this
light.

2.  The lack of substance in some answers provided by the Provost

From my own viewpoint, the 20 questions raised by Gavin Townsend were a
mixed bag.  Some went right by me while others struck home (for instance,
the question about funding for general education...).  As the provost
himself said, many of these questions deserve answers.  Straightforward
answers.  My impression was that the Provost was reverting to his training
as a lawyer when answering some questions.  Don't get me wrong--some of my
best friends are lawyers, but straight talk is not their forte.  For
example, consider the provost's answers to Gavin Townsen's questions #14
and #15:

"14.  How does the adminstration intend to pay four new faculty members
$200,000 each next year?"  [As I understand it, these are the four
SIMCenter faculty.]
"15.  How much money has the SimCenter cost the university at this point?
When will the Center become self-supporting?"
Maybe I missed something, but what I learned from the Provost's answers were:
(a)  The salaries that the faculty receive are all less than $200,000. (I
vaguely recall that they start at $117K and go up.)  For those of us
watching the overheads,  we learned that when the costs of benefits are
tacked on, the cost to the university comes close to $200,000 per SimCenter
faculty member.
(b)  I do not recall the provost answering the first part of question 15.
(This may have been because I was so entranced by the four faculty salaries
being shown on the overheard screen.)  However, to the second part of #15 I
believe he said that it would be around 5 (?) years.

This did not answer the main question.  It is true that Dr. Townsend did
not spell it out, but I think we all figured it out for ourselves:  Can UTC
afford to start up an expensive project like the SimCenter during a huge
and ongoing budget crisis?   A straightforward answer (that I am making up
off the top of my head, knowing little about the SimCenter) might have
been, "Yes, it's amazingly expensive and these faculty members are being
paid an unbelievable amount of money compared to almost everybody else (?)
at UTC, but that's the going rate for people of their caliber in that
profession.  But it will be worth it to UTC because the project is
incredibly prestigious and everyone will think more highly of UTC because
of it.  Not only that, it will bring in so much grant money that it will be
a moneymaker for UTC in a few years."  Another straightforward answer might
have been,  "Yes, the timing on the SimCenter is poor, and all that money
going into it right now is unfortunate given how we've had all these budget
cuts, but it's been in the pipeline for a long time and can't just be cut
off in midstream.  But remember that in a few years it'll make money, etc.,
etc."   (Please note that these are made-up answers.  I don't know what I
am talking about.  They just sound plausible.)

I do appreciate the provost answering the question I raised about
operational carry-over funds and travel funds.  That second answer made
sense.  Alert to faculty:  the deans now have a little extra money and one
of their choices on how to spend it is to put some money into travel funds.
However, the latter might not be on the deans' top priority list.
(Personally, I think those adjuncts teaching composition to larger classes
in the English department should have top priority when adjustments are
made.)

I have raised these points because I believe in civility and straight talk.
Lord knows, it is hard to remain civil during heated discussions, but I
urge that we all strive to do so.  It is especially important to note that
the importance of remaining civil increases for those with increased power
and authority.

I hope that we hear straight talk in tomorrow's meeting.  And I ask that we
all remain civil...until the revolution, of course.  But frankly, I don't
much care for revolutions.  War is the very last resort and the aftermath
is never pretty.*


*See Iraq.

p.s.  I am pleased to note that UTC does not have branch campuses,
especially in Dayton.











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