To the Board…
December 9, 2008
CODFA PRESIDENT HANSEN ADDRESSES BOT: COD DRAWING NATIONAL ATTENTION FOR POLICY MANUAL CONTROVERSY
Glenn Hansen, President of the College of DuPage Faculty Association and Professor of Photography, made the following comments to the Board of Trustees at its meeting December 8, 2008:
Dr. McAninch, I'd like to thank you for your time and commitment to COD. I'm sure at times it has seemed like it's been more than seven months. We have agreed and disagreed. May I wish you the best of luck and fine weather in Arizona.
What happened on November 20th deserves a special "Thank you!" Faculty turned out in numbers that worried the Board and President. The campus police were prepared for something that may have happened in 1968, but we have evolved and use different tools in 2008. Unity is a powerful tool. While some may have believed that we, the faculty, are orchestrating the protests and press coverage of the past two years, they fail to realize that it is they who have provided the opportunity and that events occur in reaction to their behavior. There is now collaboration among faculty, students, and staff. We are all united in our resolve; but we the faculty must acknowledge that many other constituencies are unable to speak. Because of the climate here at COD, few feel free to speak openly and honestly without fear of retribution. Members of others constituencies have repeatedly thanked the Faculty for standing up for College of DuPage and being willing to openly voice our opinion, especially when it is contrary to the planned direction for the college. Faculty have a unique culture. I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate our culture of open debate and disagreement, done with respect; this is something that many do not understand. They don't recognize how we can value dissenting voices, come to agreement, and move forward. As we approach the issues that are ahead of us, we must continue to emphasize the importance of collegial debate and disagreement.
As a result of the Board Policy proposals, I have been contacted by numerous publications and most recently, the David Horowitz organization. I'm certain you, the Board of Trustees, are very frustrated by national coverage and our comments to the press. But it's your actions that have captured the attention of the education community, without any help from us. Beyond the press coverage, as recently as today, we've had several contacts with AAUP, the American Association of University Professors, both on the state and national level; they are appalled by the Board Policy proposal and are preparing responses. Requests for information have come from members of IBHE, ICCB, and HLC. CODFA will continue to answer questions and make comments; we have a responsibility to our students and community to do so.
Much of the national attention is of course focused on the Academic Bill of Rights. If you have not checked out their site, visit http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/. The attitude towards Islamic groups, promoted on the website cannot be denied. This is an issue that the Board must confront. There has not been a public debate by the Board of Trustees of the proposed manual. Your silence would indicate that you are in agreement with Trustee Atkinson and Carlin's vision for COD. You have a responsibility to make your position on the Policy manual clear before any next steps occur.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 9, there will be a meeting of Leadership Council with Trustees Atkinson and Carlin to discuss the next steps. Interim President McAninch is proposing a process to approve some of the proposed policy changes and to work through the protested changes. We (all constituencies) have been given until Dec. 15 to respond to the policies that did not receive any objections. We are reviewing these policies, but the bottom line is that we cannot accept any policies without seeing the procedures. Trustee Atkinson noted to a journalist that people are reading more into the policies than they should. If that is so, it's because we do not have the Procedure detail for any policy. Mary Ann Millush of the President's office has compiled a spreadsheet with the old procedures, the few that could be aligned. Thank you, Mary Ann, for that tremendous effort. We continue to defend the existing process for revision of the policies and procedures. If COD does not return to the process defined in Board Policy and Procedure 1001, we will have two manuals simultaneously. We will have lost a sense of institutional history that is captured in the existing manual, where every policy indicates when it was amended. And we will have violated an important tenet of accreditation that requires true collaboration.
The public, as represented in the Daily Herald editorial, believes the process has been delayed and that you will work with us. As I have said publicly, we the Faculty are willing to work together to move the College forward. But there must be a real commitment to work with us. If the new direction is simply to meet with us and hear our responses, COD has not gained anything. We all owe our students our total commitment to progress and finding the best solution.
I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow.
Thank you.
