2008 Woodie Awards
A presidency in denial
Tom Jones
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Opinion
If the March 3 Lumberjack's report is accurate concerning President Richmond's responses to questions about the Bill of Particulars; about Professor Wieand's assessment of his failure to deal
forthrightly with the University Budget Committee; about his contempt for students; about Professor Stepp's March 3 remarks concerning the shenanigans surrounding the termination of track coach David Wells; about his disrespect for Professor Brusca and the mindless 'you-can't-be-a-good-teacher-
unless-you-are-a-good-scholar' slogan he had invoked to justify his public insult of Brusca,-then it should be clear to even the staunchest of his defenders that for Richmond, it's business as usual:
obfuscation, condescension, distraction, prevarication and ad hominem innuendo.
To address just one of these responses, the following is what Richmond had to say about the Bill of Particulars:
"I found the Bill of Particulars a little hard in the sense that I think this is a hard time for the university....The fact that we've been struggling in the years that I've been here with budget
reductions from the state...I think the campus as a whole needs to, as much as possible, work together to solve these problems."
Note the claim: Faculty complaints about me are not justified. I am faultless here. Their complaints reflect problems stemming entirely from budget reductions over which I have no control and which I have had to
address ever since arriving at HSU. I have been doing my best, but the campus just will not work with me to solve them.
We've heard all this before. It is Richmond at his deceptive best: faculty complaints are all about budget reductions. But here, in contrast and word-for-word, are the eleven complaints of the Bill of
Particulars. President Richmond, it is charged,...
(1) has not articulated a vision in which the faculty members can share for the future of
Humboldt State University.
(2) has not properly supported Academic Affairs-the central and most important part of our university-by allocating larger and larger portions of the budget to other branches of the university to the detriment of academics.
forthrightly with the University Budget Committee; about his contempt for students; about Professor Stepp's March 3 remarks concerning the shenanigans surrounding the termination of track coach David Wells; about his disrespect for Professor Brusca and the mindless 'you-can't-be-a-good-teacher-
unless-you-are-a-good-scholar' slogan he had invoked to justify his public insult of Brusca,-then it should be clear to even the staunchest of his defenders that for Richmond, it's business as usual:
obfuscation, condescension, distraction, prevarication and ad hominem innuendo.
To address just one of these responses, the following is what Richmond had to say about the Bill of Particulars:
"I found the Bill of Particulars a little hard in the sense that I think this is a hard time for the university....The fact that we've been struggling in the years that I've been here with budget
reductions from the state...I think the campus as a whole needs to, as much as possible, work together to solve these problems."
Note the claim: Faculty complaints about me are not justified. I am faultless here. Their complaints reflect problems stemming entirely from budget reductions over which I have no control and which I have had to
address ever since arriving at HSU. I have been doing my best, but the campus just will not work with me to solve them.
We've heard all this before. It is Richmond at his deceptive best: faculty complaints are all about budget reductions. But here, in contrast and word-for-word, are the eleven complaints of the Bill of
Particulars. President Richmond, it is charged,...
(1) has not articulated a vision in which the faculty members can share for the future of
Humboldt State University.
(2) has not properly supported Academic Affairs-the central and most important part of our university-by allocating larger and larger portions of the budget to other branches of the university to the detriment of academics.
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