2008 Woodie Awards
On Meaningful Resolution of Presidential Mischief
Tom Jones
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Opinion
As the Academic Senate's Dec. 4 resolutions instructed its ad hoc committee to assemble a comprehensive list of reasons for faculty lack of confidence in President Richmond (with suggested resolutions), and as few of my many reasons were emphasized in the comments recorded in the Faculty Poll, I ask that the following item be included in the committee's Bill of Particulars:
COMPLAINT.
My primary reason is the indifference to fine teaching, contempt for students and faculty (especially those of us who imagine ourselves to be exceptional teachers), and arrogance of power displayed in the particulars of Richmond's unconscionable treatment of former Physics Professor Stone Brusca, Outstanding Professor for 2005.
In April, 2005, after 24 years of stellar teaching, Professor Brusca received a post-tenure review from his dean admonishing him for not publishing his 'Cosmos' class material. As punishment, Brusca's review period was shortened from five years to two. Brusca protested with a 6-page memorandum (copied to Richmond and his provost), demanding that the dean retract his review and apologize. Receiving neither retraction, apology, nor response from anyone and assuming his teaching to be no longer appreciated at Humboldt State, Brusca entered the early retirement program to buy time to search for a school that valued teaching. No one in Richmond's administration lifted a finger to dissuade this superlative teacher from leaving Humboldt State.
Subsequently, Brusca was named recipient of HSU's annual teaching award. Affronted by the administration's proposal that he receive his award at a dinner at which he was to break bread and exchange fake smiles with those who had driven him into premature retirement, Brusca spurned the invitation. That made news, and The Northcoast Journal (1/19/06) quoted both Brusca's charge that Richmond was leading HSU down a "publish or perish" path, and Richmond's response to it ("That's a common refrain from faculty who don't come up to standards.…You can't be a good teacher if you are not a good scholar.") Reminding Richmond that Brusca had been named Outstanding Professor, The Journal asked, "Wouldn't it follow that the administration thinks he's a good scholar?" To this, our illustrious president, who 49 days earlier had asked colleagues to join him in congratulating Brusca "on his accomplishments as a teacher and scholar," now replied: "'I don't think there's any question that the courses he teaches are well received by the students,'…But, he added, he might have thought twice about approving the selection of Brusca for the award had he been aware of his dean's evaluation." Students and faculty committees might consider Brusca an outstanding teacher, but Richmond knows otherwise!
COMPLAINT.
My primary reason is the indifference to fine teaching, contempt for students and faculty (especially those of us who imagine ourselves to be exceptional teachers), and arrogance of power displayed in the particulars of Richmond's unconscionable treatment of former Physics Professor Stone Brusca, Outstanding Professor for 2005.
In April, 2005, after 24 years of stellar teaching, Professor Brusca received a post-tenure review from his dean admonishing him for not publishing his 'Cosmos' class material. As punishment, Brusca's review period was shortened from five years to two. Brusca protested with a 6-page memorandum (copied to Richmond and his provost), demanding that the dean retract his review and apologize. Receiving neither retraction, apology, nor response from anyone and assuming his teaching to be no longer appreciated at Humboldt State, Brusca entered the early retirement program to buy time to search for a school that valued teaching. No one in Richmond's administration lifted a finger to dissuade this superlative teacher from leaving Humboldt State.
Subsequently, Brusca was named recipient of HSU's annual teaching award. Affronted by the administration's proposal that he receive his award at a dinner at which he was to break bread and exchange fake smiles with those who had driven him into premature retirement, Brusca spurned the invitation. That made news, and The Northcoast Journal (1/19/06) quoted both Brusca's charge that Richmond was leading HSU down a "publish or perish" path, and Richmond's response to it ("That's a common refrain from faculty who don't come up to standards.…You can't be a good teacher if you are not a good scholar.") Reminding Richmond that Brusca had been named Outstanding Professor, The Journal asked, "Wouldn't it follow that the administration thinks he's a good scholar?" To this, our illustrious president, who 49 days earlier had asked colleagues to join him in congratulating Brusca "on his accomplishments as a teacher and scholar," now replied: "'I don't think there's any question that the courses he teaches are well received by the students,'…But, he added, he might have thought twice about approving the selection of Brusca for the award had he been aware of his dean's evaluation." Students and faculty committees might consider Brusca an outstanding teacher, but Richmond knows otherwise!
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