U admins breach policy in decision to restructure Grad School

on this timely article.

A thought-provoking piece on Graduate School reorganization is currently circulating. It was written by University of Minnesota faculty members. The full article is available on the Periodic Table, Too, at:

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/bgleason/pt/2009/02/observations_on_the_universi...

From that article:

"It is widely recognized that the manner in which the plan to reorganize the Graduate School was decided violated all the norms of wide-spread consultation and faculty involvement in major decisions in the University."

"We must return to the question of why—why make this particular change and why do so immediately rather than after due consideration of meaningful deliberation and faculty input? The Provost would have us believe that he and others were concerned about increasing the rate of improvement in graduate programs which was below what was needed to become one of the top three public research universities in the world. He also believed that there were gross inefficiencies in the Graduate School operations that could be eliminated by reorganization. This hwould free up money for fellowships and other goodies."

"This scenario is simply preposterous (in the etymological meaning of the word). If the Provost really wanted to improve the organization of the Graduate School to improve quality and wanted to look at some models of success, how could he conceivably overlook how the truly great and successful public research universities organize graduate education? If we rule out ignorance or stupidity, which we will do, there is only one reason. He already had in his mind a model of what he wanted to do, and simply went out and found some research universities that did not have strong graduate schools. That they happened to be private, that they happened to be so different from great public research universities was irrelevant. Who could fault following the example of MIT or Stanford? The fact that he ignored other great private universities like Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Princeton would not strike most people as being more than an odd coincidence."

"Of course, no top administrator wants to increase his or her authority with obvious moves. Thus the new proposal emphasizes decentralization. Turn admissions over to departments, programs and deans. Disperse the fellowship funds to the deans. (Deans love slush funds to reward those who in the dean’s mind deserve rewards.) But controlling these funds provides no leverage to influence important decisions in the university. Don’t let them clutter up the Provost’s office."

"On the other hand it appears as if the general research funds go into the Associate Provost’s office. Control of those funds provides a real lever of power. More important the McKnight Land Grant program with its $50,000,000 plus endowment goes directly to the Provost. The income from this would make any Provost’s mouth water. Provosts do not get evaluated on the basis of how well he or she runs a program that was devised by someone else, with money raised by someone else, which has little visibility outside the university, and whose big impact comes from the accumulated impact of hundreds of small decisions. Provosts get praised for setting up new research institutes, recruiting to the university famous scholars, and other big visible activities particularly if they resonate with the latest academic enthusiasm. A McKnight Land Grant program under the provost’s control would not survive ten years. This is not because provosts are dumb, or venial, or uncaring. It is because in a highly centralized system with no significant positions of autonomy that provide some checks, the incentives to do visible, dramatic things are overwhelming."

"Is this just a paranoid’s delusion? The Provost created an Institute for the Environment reporting to his office and recruited a highly paid outstanding scholar to head it, but didn’t have the money to pay for it, so he skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the McKnight Land Grant Fund to help cover the costs."

"Bob Bruininks may go down in history as the President who built a football stadium and abolished the graduate school."

We all knew this was against Public Policy, but are there any disciplinary actions that will be taken? Or will be an apologize-after-the-fact type of offense?

My guess is that the committees would have eventually approved this decision or at least decided to widdle down the graduate school. But not after a long thought-out discussion. This discussion would have included some plans for the future, instead of giving the provosts office all administrative power.

This was no accident. The administrators have enough staff and other support that SOMEBODY must have known that this policy existed. The Admin's hack spin merchant who claimed that the "document could be construed in different ways" is forecasting what we should expect in any response from Bruininks or Sullivan. ANY document can be creatively construed, but if the document(s) in question are read with attention to what they ACTUALLY say and the spirit in which they were written and intended to be taken, then there is no room for interpretation, and none is necessary. The only reason to imply that multiple readings are available is to open up a space through which the dirty dealings can be excused and the admins involved can lay a slime trail to slide out of the blame they are due.
THIS IS NOT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION! Without honesty, integrity and the much-touted buzzword "transparency" (to which constant lip service is paid, yet incidents like this undermine any admin claims to the same) the University cannot function. Bruininks and Sullivan are the most obvious impediments to the effective functioning and governance of the University, and they should take the massive amounts of money they've already bilked the U out of (A PUBLIC institution that compensates them like for-profit CEOs) and resign.
Bruininks and Sullivan: Let us get on with the U's mission of doing important research and educating the people of the state of Minnesota and stop the proliferation of administrators, dirty dealings, consolidation of power in the Provost's office, and everything else that is an ongoing distraction from our (mainly) shared core purposes. Let us actually share some of the pain of this economic crisis, give some of your bloated salaries back! Don't take your increasing retirement fund bonuses! Don't do more to hurt and hinder graduate students, who do the majority of the teaching around here while you earn 50 time more than them!
It is episodes like this, along with the disproportionate compensation for admins, etc., that make any talk of the U becoming one of the top three research institutions in the world an empty slogan, a ridiculous ad campaign, and, ultimately, a fake goal that dissolves into nonsense when it is considered against the actual actions of those "in charge".

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