Monday, March 30, 2009

Presidential Search Part Deux

So one of the breakdowns in institutional communications is around rumors. Most leaders of organizations choose not address rumors and dismiss them as unsubstantiated or idle gossip. Rumors often have a grain of truth in them which makes them so appealing to circulate. Here are the top 10 rumors that I heard recently. And the ‘authorities’ can make use of this blog to go on the record to dispel these statements as rumors.

Rumor 1: The Board of Trustees (BOT) selected a replacement for the former president more than 18 months ago and that Candidate 1 has been actively lobbying for the job for the past five years while at the City Colleges of Chicago.

Rumor 2: Various current and former local politicians are calling in favors to support one of the two candidates with the former Senate President lining up behind Candidate 2 and the current Senate Appropriations Chairman backing Candidate 1.

Rumor 3: The faculty is going to leave the stage at commencement in protest of the BOT presidential selection.

Rumor 4: The Interim President was pressured not to hire a permanent Vice President for Administrative and Financial Affairs months ago to create more audit findings so that the BOT could expand its micro-management of the university.

Rumor 5: The new president will make CSU an open enrollment university.

Rumor 6: The new president will eliminate the Athletics Department to save money.

Rumor 7: The graduates at the Spring Commencement plan on walking out to protest the BOT’s hiring of Candidate 1.

Rumor 8: The BOT is accelerating the hiring process so that the Interim President will be relieved of his duties prior to June 30 thus allowing the BOT Chairman to lead the Commencement procession.

Rumor 9: Some faculty are going to wear gags at the candidate interviews to symbolize not having a voice in the presidential selection process.

Rumor 10: Both candidates have reputations for retaliation against those that challenge them.

If any of the aforementioned persons wish to categorically dispel these statements as rumors they are welcome to post a response. Otherwise I guess time will tell.

3 comments:

  1. Regarding rumor #3: I'm no authority but I don't see how there are going to be many faculty at commencement this year. Whoever organized this semester's calendar has seen fit to have the last day of exams on a Wednesday with final grades due by 5 p.m. on the next day which happens to be commencement. Maybe the Admin purposely does not want the faculty to attend.

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  2. Why so negative?

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  3. Corday,
    The commencement date was chosen specifically so faculty could attend. The next possible date would have been in June, which would have required faculty to come back to campus after the end of the term.

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