Warning: My biases may be all too obvious here; judge for yourself.
My earlier post about Dubuque's interest in Sitka's academic workforce has garnered quite a few comments. Among them are concerns that criticism of Dobler and the Trustees is unproductive and may hurt the chances of a future partnership between the two schools.
My take: Any partnership that fails to address the issues of the past and hold accountable those responsble will not last. Secondly, any partnership that allows the SJ(C?) Board of Trustees authority over student welfare clearly fails to acknowledge the harm caused to students at the time of closure and fails to take seriously the responsibility an institution has to its students.
Unfortunately, Dubuque President Jeffrey Bullock seems to think that Dobler and the Trustees "served admirably" during this time. More of the same...
What do others think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Have you actually seen anything to suggest that the board or administration would continue on beyond the settling of the debt and transfer of the school to Dubuque (if that is what comes to pass)? All I remember seeing seems to imply there will be a clean break between the old and new.
My feeling concerning the negative comments toward the administration/board is that they oversimplify things. I think it's all too easy to focus on the end result, especially what happened in the crisis atmosphere immediately following the City Assembly vote to refuse SJC the loan, and forget that the school almost closed 18 months earlier over Christmas Break in what quite possibly would have been even more sudden/unexpected circumstances.
As far as I could tell, the administration and board put a huge amount of effort toward finding a wait to revitalize the school and pull it away from the brink of closure. It seemed as though they made significant progress in the face of circumstances where they may not have been a "right" answer. It also seemed like they were getting close to finding a path to success. I think this is what Dr. Bullock is considering when he says they "served admirably." I think it's possible to acknowledge these positive things while not denying that there were unneccesarily hurtful decisions were made, especially in the immediate aftermath of the decision to suspend academic operations.
There is an old saying among my agrarian friends that it depends on whose bull is being gored. My own thoughts go way back, before closure was even a consideration, when the board agreed to let the administration develop a basketball program and build the "new gym". That was the beginning of the downfall with debt there was no way to repay. It has been a down hill battle since then, I would not want to have the job of getting the college out of the hole created in the late '80s and early '90s. It is time to let some new people with new insight set the goals. Clyde
I think a lot of good points a being made on both sides of this debate. One thing that has not been said enough is how much the faculty, staff, VIM’s and students did to keep the school going. There is no doubt that there were also some dedicated members of the board who also tried hard. As it has already been said this is a complex issue. However, it sure was easy to see from my prospective that Dobler would not listen to ideas, was totally uncommunicative to most of his senior staff, and was most certainly ungrateful for the hard work that was being done by volunteers. I watched him walk away from several donations that would have gone a long ways towards helping to rebuild the school. Just ask the people from Westward Presbyterian Church and others how easy it was to get the ear of the last President when it came time to make what could have been some substantial donations.
In 2006 when Westward repeatedly tried to arrange a dinner with some of the top business people in LA the only one who would answer their e-mails, phone calls and letters was me. When I repeatedly forwarded these e-mails, etc onto the Proper People nothing ever happened. In the end Westward gave up after 4 months or so of trying. I could only guess this lack of communication from Dobler and some of his staff might have had something to do with some board members having a long standing pissing match with a past SJ board member who is a member at Westward. Did I mention that the man who was trying to put this all together had said they would raise ½ million or more? In my opinion, nothing killed the school faster than not recognizing that fact that outside donations meant building a network of friends of the school. Many of those friends could have come from workgroup volunteers and VIM’s and their connections. But for that to work communication would have been necessary. And, a little appreciation from Dobler of all that the volunteers did give to the school.
I more than anyone wants to see a school come back to life on the SJ campus. But, like Chris and others I think for this to work it has to be under new management. It has to be management that is willing to build a team.
Matt, I think the Board wanted SJ to succeed, they merely are not competent enough to have made it happen. That was clear. They are also seriously lacking in the ethics department.
I remember when Dobler came on as President. We all sat in the Chapel and he asked the students what we wanted from him. What could he do to foster trust. Anyone who remembers that time will remember well that there was a real distrust between students and, frankly, nearly all of the administration. Nearly everyone said that the way to foster that trust was open and honest communication about what was happening.
We knew accreditation was on the line. We knew the school was struggling financially (I remember several students offering to help fund raise and being shot down repeatedly). We wanted to be kept in the loop. We were major stake holders for SJ. Dobler (a man I refuse to address as Rev. or Dr.) told us he would bring a new era - he would keep us updated no matter how bad the news. We would have monthly meetings or newsletters or campus wide emails. For half an hour he assured us that things would be different. SJ would thrive and we would be allowed to help.
And then? Nothing. He flip flopped constantly, kept students (and faculty) in the dark and refused to accept help from his students. More of the same. When the board met and students wanted to talk about the problems, we were shut out. When students wrote the board, we were ignored.
I have no faith that those people have any ability to handle any institution. They may be good people but they are bad leaders.
Dr Dobler's "Dr" was honorary and given by the University of Dubuque under Bullock after Dobler served as the conservative moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA. I don't think you will get an unbiased assessment of his performance from Bullock, based on their prior relationship.
Honorary Doctor, that explains a lot. Where did the Reverend come from? Even if it was earned it is a title he should not hold. He’s about the least Christian person I have ever known. His compassion is less than the Marquis de Sade’s was.
It is possible that the SJ(C?) Trustees will relinquish control completely, leaving the future of the campus solely in the hands of Dubuque. I have not seen or heard anything to suggest that this isn't possible.
I don't believe that I have stated the opposite; that Dobler and the Trustees are staying. My argument is just this: I will not support a scenario in which Dobler and/or the Trustees remain involved. Their collective actions, despite past service, demonstrate a lack of care for students too egregious to ignore. Fool me once, shame on you...
It also seems plausible that Dobler and the Trustees will retain a role. I do not see the UD purchasing the campus. Bullock has stated that the institution must be debt neutral. I don't think he meant that the UD would be the one to pay this debt.
The purpose for blog posts regarding the SJ(C?) / UD relationship is to make this clear. UD should know that for some, support of their work in Sitka is conditional.
I should have remembered my father's words when I started working under an Tribal Colleges and University Grant (NSF) at SJC.
My father used to tell us whenever the local Pastor or Pfarrer came to our house - "Das sind alles Tagediebe" – The word “Tagediebe” in German is used for somebody who steals your time and money. You can tell I wasn’t brought up Christian.
My time at SJC (almost 2 years) was lost time and cemented my mistrust in Christian Churches.
I was under the impression that the goal of the TCUP-NSF grant was to bring native students into science and technology, with new approaches. Instead I had to learn that the grant was used by SJC to keep the college afloat and that the SJC missionary approach to dealing with native students did not much change over the last hundred years.
After two years working with the grant there was no results.
Native students were lured to SJ by giving credit points for TCUP summer camps. No other tribal college (35) used gave out Credit points for the TCUP bridging camps. The reason is easy to understand. By using credit points we had to stick to “college courses” taught during the summer, which did not leave much room to experiment with alternative forms of interesting students into the fields of science or technology. It was more important that Math 137 was hammered into the brains of the students so that they did not have to take any math classes anymore when they came back as regular students (mainly in the teacher training program).
In the last year at SJ some of the native students organized of campus because they felt they were treated racist. Usually were there is smoke there is a fire.
I can just say that when we tried to bring more Tlingit tribal resident elders into the summer camp the initial reaction of the some of the people involved (I don’t want to name anybody here) was: “We tried that last year. All the (tribal) person did was to get drunk after a couple of days of teaching and never come back to class.”
Such stereotyping would have resulted in some serious finger slapping at any tribal college.
Back then I should have stood up, left the room and typed an email to NSF to take that particular person of the payroll of the grant.
Now, why do I tell you all of this?
I hope that if SJ comes back under the rule of Dubuque (another Christian college), that NSF will not consider them again for any TCUP money.
Those moneys are way better put to work at real tribal colleges.
It is just too bad that none of the native cooperation in Alaska had an interest in buying SJ and transforming it to a real tribal or native college.
How about these names for a native college there in Sitka: K'alyaan (Katlian) or Shis'kí Noow
Mell
SJC is still fighting to keep the money donated for Founder's Day scholarships. They say the money was spent on operating expenses after the school closed. It's petty.
I think it's reasonable the community should ask for a clean sweep before supporting the school again.
Mell, Just as you would wish a broad brush not paint all Ak natives poorly, I would hope you wouldn't do that with Christians; for yes, although there are some who do not represent the Christian base properly and that's unfortunate indeed- it would be sad to place us all into that category. There are 'bad apples' in every bunch :-)) and I too am disappointed with SJ[C]'s actions... or lack there of.
Sorry about that!
I guess you are right. It wasn't all bad up there at SJC.
I draw my Che Guevara cap before the VIMs who put so much work into that place without getting enough recognition from their "christian environment."
Pat Sheahan, as a man of the cloth was also one of good people at SJC.
I just get carried away sometimes regarding organized religions (especially when I look at their historical role of keeping people down).
Mell
To best remember the last few years of SJ(c), and Mr. Dobler read "The Smartest Guys in the Room" the Enron story.Then think of all the times you tried to help, and suggestions went to the black hole of the smartest guys.
For those looking for an Honorary Doctor of Diviniy:
http://ficotw.org/drdivinityprogram.html
Fits right in with all the other fraud
Post a Comment