November 3, 2010. FAU’s recent past remains a cause for continued concern and potential controversy.
On October 13 FAU Philosophy professor Carol S. Gould filed a lawsuit in US District Court against the University. Contrary to a slightly misleading report highlighting anti-Semitism, one of the suit’s main thrusts is that College of Arts and Letters administrators violated Florida’s racketeering laws through self-serving practices where administrators privileged pay hikes and power plays over the greater good of the University and the constituencies it serves.
The alleged behavior, which sounds more suited for a Brooklyn pool hall than an institution of higher learning, variously manifested itself in a hostile work environment for Dr. Gould, one element of which involved anti-Semitic statements . Another involved an administration that repeatedly pooh-poohed Gould and her Philosophy colleagues’ numerous complaints, the foremost of which involved a 90% “no confidence” vote by Philosophy faculty in the department’s chair.
Perhaps Gould’s lucid and chronological set of assertions are the result of her own hallucinations. Or, at the very least, one might conclude that the plaintiff is overreacting. However, we would be remiss not to point out that the allegations conform with a set of practices by the former Brogan/Pritchett-led administration that allowed administrators over the past several years to repeatedly reward themselves with higher salaries that broadened the divide between management’s compensation and the depressed compensation of their teaching faculty counterparts. In addition, an implicit policy of favoritism, fear, and intimidation almost certainly kept the bulk of faculty from complaining. Such practices fly in the face of the “shared governance” mandates in the UFF-FAU/FAUBOT Collective Bargaining Agreement.
While we look to turn a page with the installation of a new president, our recent past remains a cause for continued concern and potential controversy. This is especially the case when an entire department came close to being eliminated while another, the School of Communication, was thrown into a tailspin when the very out-of-unit Philosophy faculty named in Gould’s suit sought to join its program.
A positive sign in all of this is the administration’s unmistakable move to resolve these festering issues by appointing an interim chair to the Department of Philosophy, who took the reins on November 1. This is also in accord with a vote by the College of Arts and Letters Faculty Assembly on October 15 to keep Philosophy intact. Overall, this development suggests administrators’ acknowledgment that sweeping problems under the carpet only results in magnified controversies later on that detract from FAU’s broader reputation and ability to carry out its mission of teaching, research, and service.
See related posts/links:
Results of 2009-10 Faculty Assessment of Administrators
Philosophy Chair Demotes Himself
2,000 copies of FAU newspaper with controversial story tossed in trash