As I said, I had responsibilities beyond putting benevolent smiles on the faces of higher-ranking administrators (1).
As a public servant, my duty was to the public. As an intellectual working at a university, I was responsible for putting students out into the world that do things competently. Here is the fundamental conflict of any mid-level bureaucrat at a university: You often find yourself in situations where your duty to the public and to students clashes with your interest of self-preservation.
The sound of no hands clapping
On 15 Apr 2016, I write an email to the Provost in response to his Education Plan. I make three points, one of which is this: "In the Education Plan draft you are referencing Halpern and Hakel (2003). The paper is a good summary of research in various psychological fields, and I agree with all but one statement in it. Yes, faculty members could do better at teaching and learning. But does that mean that universities should [-- here comes the Provost's bizarre idea --] hand "the locus of control for learning" to students who, being students, know even less? In fact, I would argue that some of Halpern and Hakel's suggestions would be rejected by the average student."
On 24 Mar 2017, a day after the approval of a questionable program proposal at the Senate Budget Committee, I write a letter to the V.P. Administration (2): "My point is that committees do serve an important function, namely to protect the institution as a whole against excessive risk and missed opportunity. ... Yet, what I observe in many committees is excessive congeniality. ... It is this excessive congeniality that poses a great risk for the university."
On 20 Jul 2017, I write an email to the V.P. Students: "As you know the Senior Administrator Retreat on U.F.V. Culture will be held on 24 Aug 2017 at Harrison Hot Springs Resort. Ironically the retreat itself is a reflection of the current organizational culture, and the outside perception will be this: Fifty exempt administrators, sequestered at a resort, discussing culture for a day, passing judgements, setting a future direction for everyone. All this while a whole university sits empty, neither faculty nor staff nor union are invited, and no money is available to academic departments to even hold something as simple as a hotdog luncheon for their students." (3)
Whatever the case, I do not enjoy being in a superminority, but I did take my duties seriously, even when higher-ranking administrators did not. If they had done their job, I wouldn't have been obliged.
But as one high-ranking administrator once put it to me:
"Nobody gets fired at U.F.V. for NOT doing their job."
Groupthink ...
As uncomfortable as situations sometimes were under President Evered, critical voices were at least tolerated as part of the discussion. Under MacLean's regime, even I gave up. Again, three examples:
On 11 May 2018, MacLean is installed as the next president of U.F.V.. I hold a naive hope and consequently attend the ceremony (4). Looking around I notice that although third-level delegates from other universities were given seats on stage, the preceding president, Dr. Evered, was not. What's going on, I wonder (5). And then come MacLean's inaugural words: "Through my experiences, I have learned the value of team work and respect for others[.]"(6) Empty words, humanity's worst scourge.
On 30 November 2018, during a discussion on office space problems the A.V.P. Teaching gets up from her chair and -- hoisting her laptop high above her head -- pronounces: "I'll tell you what an office is today ... THIS IS AN OFFICE!" (7) I know, I know, how can such blatant display of ignorance about basic human needs go unchallenged in a room packed with educated people? Beats me (8).
On 14 Jan 2019, in order to provide feedback on U.F.V.'s visioning process (9), I draft an email to visioning@ufv.ca that I never send.
"I am struggling to write this. You see, over the years I have been trying to engage with university senior leadership; it has been an exercise in futility. But it is my professional duty, and I will keep my comments short.
"1: The visioning process -- to move from government mandate, to values, to mission, to vision, to goals (and indicators, and actions) -- is both rational and systematic. The process is not immune to cognitive biases.
"2: The values identified in the visioning process -- community, excellence, inclusiveness, integrity [(10)] -- are obvious, or should be. This is easily revealed by stating the opposite: What academic institution would state to be anti-community, striving for mediocrity, discriminatory, and ambiguous on integrity?
"3: The mission as stated so far -- Engaging minds; Building community; Transforming lives -- is not university-specific and may in fact apply to a dance troupe or an old-folks home [(11)].
"4: Both values and mission are noble goals, but far from status quo realities at U.F.V.. Words must give way to actions, and senior leaders must be held accountable."
Or fearthink?
A revealing anecdote comes to my mind: A few weeks before my sacking, one high-ranking administrator asked me: "If you could keep your job by going over to MacLean's house and telling her what a great president she is, would you do it?" My answer: "Are you insane?" I then asked her whether she would do it. Her answer: "I AM doing it."(12)
So, remember my spineless accusers from Part 1 of this trilogy? (1) I don't blame them for their cowardice. I am sure their decade-long neglect of both student academic performance and post-graduation professional life could have made them targets (13), and what is easier than blaming a mid-level director?
As for Senior Administration, there are two possibilities: Either they believed the spineless accusers, which would indeed shock me. Or they found me dispensable (14) and thought it useful to "hit the goat to scare the sheep." (15)
There is a lot of self-glorification and empty flattery going around at U.F.V.. Yet what this university oh so desperately needs is critical voices, not in the hallways, but in the room (16).
To be continued ...
NOTES AND REFERENCES
(1) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ufv-michaels-version-part-1-michael-baumann/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(2) https://drive.google.com/file/d/19CBh3-cn_3HDovTcDqePBVRX1WWor5JD/view (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(3) Consider that in fiscal year 2018 the U.F.V. Administration spent $39,000 at Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa (https://ufv.ca/media/assets/finance/SOFI--Year-Ended-March-2018.pdf; Accessed: 25 Apr 2019).
(4) It's true, I never considered MacLean an intellectual. But I was sure as an openly gay woman, she has experienced her unfair share of discrimination, as have I, for completely different reasons. I expected an embrace of Humanism, not the abandonment of civility. As I said, I was naive.
(5) I have asked Dr. Evered about this incident; he never responded. I don't think that he would publicly embarrass MacLean, but I also don't think that he would lie. (To be sure, there never was much love lost between President Evered and me. But if I had found myself being installed as the next president, I would certainly have paid respect to his eight years in office. That is what good leaders do.)
(6) https://blogs.ufv.ca/blog/2018/05/ufv-welcomes-dr-joanne-maclean-to-presidency-with-installation-ceremony/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(7) Maybe instead of hoisting her laptop up, she could have used it to look things up, e.g. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/04/airpods-open-plan-offices/588112/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019).
(8) William Boyd (2002) has an interesting hypothesis: "I descended into a form of tolerable apathy -- which I believe all prisoners experience. You surrender your individual spirit to the routine of the institution." A more nefarious thought by other administrators could have been: "If the A.V.P. Teaching is stupid enough to believe what she is saying, she won't put up much resistance when we take space away from her staff."
(9) https://blogs.ufv.ca/visioning/2019/01/11/town-hall-values-and-mission/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(10) I am always suspicious of people who point out their own integrity, and for two reasons: First, integrity is the default; you don't need to point out that you are NOT a liar, a thief, or a murderer. Second, integrity manifests itself in your actions, not in your own judgement of yourself.
(11) A few will remember that in 2017, after the failed search for a new U.F.V. president in the previous year, I applied for the position and wrote a "draft manifesto". In it I laid out the four simple goals every university should have (https://www.citizenbaumann.ca/2017/08/university-presidency-draft-manifesto.html#Chapter4; Accessed: 25 Apr 2019).
(12) This may explain both attendance and atmosphere at MacLean's townhall meetings.
(13) E.g. http://news.yorku.ca/2019/04/25/study-finds-more-than-half-of-university-students-feel-they-need-better-basic-skills-to-succeed/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(14) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trust-michael-baumann/ (Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)
(15) Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama (1990, 1998), Freedom in Exile.
(16) Again, MacLean's words ring hollow: "I also look forward to open, honest, and fair discussion that is about ideas, practices, and goals and not about individuals, or at least not ad personam: attacks made on opponents' character as opposed to their arguments." (https://blogs.ufv.ca/announce/files/2018/09/UFV-Part-2-A-university-is-its-people.pdf; Accessed: 25 Apr 2019)