Communication is COM’s problem By ALI RAVANDI | Posted: Friday, July 5, 2013 12:00 am Once again, College of the Mainland is engulfed in controversy, as if it needed more. The new ballyhoo is about the new COM president, Beth Lewis, recommending the termination of a popular tenured faculty member, David Smith. COM and controversy have been going hand-in-hand the past few years, but this is a big one. If the board goes ahead with the termination as predicted, the negative consequences will far overshadow all the bad decisions the board has made thus far. Perhaps, the worst yet. Let me be clear that I consider David Smith a good personal friend and a unique individual who loves to help those in distress. After 27 years at COM, I honestly cannot name one person who is willing to go so far to help others. I am not a socialist, but I believe that everyone should work together to improve America so that justice and fairness prevail and all people are treated with dignity and respect. Nowadays, many employees feel COM is almost a hostile work environment ruled by a semi-totalitarian administration which wants to eliminate faculty and staff who speak out about the college’s serious problems. My guess is Dr. Lewis is overanxious in fixing the college’s many problems. Nobody would blame her for that. All those who care about COM know that the school is facing a financial pinch, a multitude of legal problems, low enrollment and low employee morale. The actions of the president with the board’s support resembles an annoyed operator at the “check engine” light on the dashboard by removing the light bulb rather by than dealing with source of the problem. No doubt, Dr. Lewis’ justification for terminating Dr. Smith will be challenged in the courts; and many pundits believe this will be an open-and-shut case in favor of Dr. Smith. The smart money is on the bet that the trustees know they will have to settle this case, yet they are willing to waste more taxpayer money to silence their strongest critic and disrupt the union. However, the main problem at COM is the lack of communication between the decision-makers and those who really do the work at the college, namely, faculty and staff. President Lewis needs to get off her high horse and sit down with different groups and try her best to get to know the faculty and staff and familiarize herself with their ideas and concerns and not put so much stock in those few opportunists who tell her who the good guys and the bad guys are. The ambience at COM is neither friendly nor energizing. Every new policy seems to end with the dreaded word termination. My advice to the board is that the many pictures of past presidents on the board room’s wall in the past 10-12 years reflect the fact that many presidents have come and gone, yet COM has faculty and staff who have proudly served the college and the community more than 30 years. David Smith is not perfect, but firing one of COM’s best professors will make the crisis on campus much worse and by no means end the legal debacle. Firing him gives COM’s administrators the well-deserved recognition as bad policymakers. Given the circumstances, reinstatement of David Smith is in the best interest of the students and the college.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:20:47 +0000
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