2008 Woodie Awards
What kind of president?
Tom Jones
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
What kind of university president would provoke the editorial board of his campus newspaper to editorialize on his repeated refusal to allow a student reporter to meet with him for an interview? "How can journalists accurately investigate and report decisions that affect the university," the editors ask, "if its leader won't make the time to chat?" ('Show yourself, Richmond,' Lumberjack, 10/3/07)
A partial answer to the question of the kind of president that would close his door to a student reporter is, the very same kind of president who, having first refused to acknowledge repeated requests for answers to questions from a faculty member regarding administrative decisions affecting that faculty member, would then refuse to meet with him to settle the matter, saying, "I see no point in taking your or my time to further explore these concerns" (Rollin Richmond, in litt., 6/5/03). The 'concerns' (i.e., unanswered questions), of course, had never been 'explored' (i.e., responded to); nor would they be. Student reporters, then, are by no means alone in finding their president's door closed to those who seek explanations for administrative decisions.
But this is also the same president who, in August of 2002, sprinkled his first speech to the HSU faculty and staff with the words that today appear at the top of his presidential web site ("fairness," "honesty," "trust," and "openness") where they function only as decoration; and it is the same president who, in his May 14, 2003, inaugural address ('Light and Truth'), called upon every HSU administrator to ask herself or himself "what students learn from observing her or his administrative style" and who declared that those same administrators "must learn to incorporate a broad array of campus constituencies in our decision process"; and it is the same president who had earlier boasted of his own administrative style to the public: "If I can't give somebody a clear, rational explanation for a decision, even if they disagree with it, I'm probably not making the right decision. So I'm more than willing to get up and defend my own and my team's administrative decisions in front of people," and who went on to claim, "What I am trying to do here is build a sense that this university does not get administered by a single person or small group of people, but by a large group of people."(North Coast Journal, 1/30/03); finally, it is the same president whose presidential web site (on the same page as the above-cited decorations that end with 'openness') includes a repetition of his tireless reminder that he once read a book by someone named Greenleaf from which he learned that "leadership is about service of the people you represent not about serving yourself" and which also includes the following propaganda: "Dr. Richmond has been practicing what he's been teaching: He has an open line of communication with students, faculty, staff, alumni, news media, government officials, and other constituencies" (updated May 23, 2006).
But for some reason, this 'practice-what-he-preaches' message seems not to have made it through his 'open line of communication' to the Lumberjack, whose editors ask: "Is Richmond so afraid of students that he chooses to bunker down and hide in his office at Siemens Hall?"
So what kind of president, then? The Lumberjack editors got it pretty much right: one who is "inaccessible, not transparent and ultimately not a good leader," though they might want to have added hypocritical as well. And, oh yes, he seems also to be a president very much in need of a lecture from student journalists on qualities that make for responsible leadership--a president that clearly needs to be told, "Good leaders make time to talk. Good leaders make time to listen." And this from students that I'll bet have never read a book by someone named Greenleaf!
Jones is a professor of European Cultural
History at Humboldt State
A partial answer to the question of the kind of president that would close his door to a student reporter is, the very same kind of president who, having first refused to acknowledge repeated requests for answers to questions from a faculty member regarding administrative decisions affecting that faculty member, would then refuse to meet with him to settle the matter, saying, "I see no point in taking your or my time to further explore these concerns" (Rollin Richmond, in litt., 6/5/03). The 'concerns' (i.e., unanswered questions), of course, had never been 'explored' (i.e., responded to); nor would they be. Student reporters, then, are by no means alone in finding their president's door closed to those who seek explanations for administrative decisions.
But this is also the same president who, in August of 2002, sprinkled his first speech to the HSU faculty and staff with the words that today appear at the top of his presidential web site ("fairness," "honesty," "trust," and "openness") where they function only as decoration; and it is the same president who, in his May 14, 2003, inaugural address ('Light and Truth'), called upon every HSU administrator to ask herself or himself "what students learn from observing her or his administrative style" and who declared that those same administrators "must learn to incorporate a broad array of campus constituencies in our decision process"; and it is the same president who had earlier boasted of his own administrative style to the public: "If I can't give somebody a clear, rational explanation for a decision, even if they disagree with it, I'm probably not making the right decision. So I'm more than willing to get up and defend my own and my team's administrative decisions in front of people," and who went on to claim, "What I am trying to do here is build a sense that this university does not get administered by a single person or small group of people, but by a large group of people."(North Coast Journal, 1/30/03); finally, it is the same president whose presidential web site (on the same page as the above-cited decorations that end with 'openness') includes a repetition of his tireless reminder that he once read a book by someone named Greenleaf from which he learned that "leadership is about service of the people you represent not about serving yourself" and which also includes the following propaganda: "Dr. Richmond has been practicing what he's been teaching: He has an open line of communication with students, faculty, staff, alumni, news media, government officials, and other constituencies" (updated May 23, 2006).
But for some reason, this 'practice-what-he-preaches' message seems not to have made it through his 'open line of communication' to the Lumberjack, whose editors ask: "Is Richmond so afraid of students that he chooses to bunker down and hide in his office at Siemens Hall?"
So what kind of president, then? The Lumberjack editors got it pretty much right: one who is "inaccessible, not transparent and ultimately not a good leader," though they might want to have added hypocritical as well. And, oh yes, he seems also to be a president very much in need of a lecture from student journalists on qualities that make for responsible leadership--a president that clearly needs to be told, "Good leaders make time to talk. Good leaders make time to listen." And this from students that I'll bet have never read a book by someone named Greenleaf!
Jones is a professor of European Cultural
History at Humboldt State
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