terrapinsanity.com

Since last fall our administration – hell-bent to “merge” the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CMPS) with the College of Chemical and Life Sciences (CLFS) – has quietly quashed opposition to the typically fast-and-loose process. This week we learn that the plan is now not one of merger but of outright acquisition. If approved, CLFS will disband at start of the fall, its units will become part of CMPS (administrators graciously offer to come up with a new name), and all staff (that is not otherwise cut) will merge into the CMPS administrative structure – under the CMPS dean which has championed this plan. No wonder.

CLFS faculty and staff were briefed, had open meetings for discussion, received a copy of the report from the (sham) joint committee that studied the “merger” and then voted. We’re told they voted “overwhelmingly” to approve the change. Late Tuesday of this week, the CMPS faculty were given the surprise opportunity to vote on this as well – before the deadline at COB on Thursday. With 48 hours to vote, many faculty who have never been given the first bit of analysis, discussion or description of the change must make a decision. (While asked for the same level of information and access as CLFS, the CMPS dean, Steve Halperin, denied release of the same report to his faculty. There have been no college-wide meetings, no reports and no general faculty discussions.)

But the story gets worse.

The balloting is being tracked by the same people in the central office that has championed this change in the first place. When the CLFS results were announced, it was accompanied by a detailed breakdown of the titles and roles of those who participated (not nearly the whole college.) And just like with the CLFS ballot, those in CMPS now able to vote must first log in giving their campus directory ID, anticipating that their preferences on the “merger” will be tracked by the very people advocating the change.

We’ve now interacted with several staff and junior faculty who have expressed – without wanting their names public – that they fear the merger (some for substantive reasons, some for process reasons) yet fear casting a vote against it, to be tracked by their direct supervisors who have taken the strong advocacy position in support of this change.

In spite of no CLFS administrative staff member expressing public support for the plan to disband, the Provost reported these employees voted support – by about the same margin that Vladimir Putin ensured voters picked Dmitry Medvedev as Russia’s duly elected president. Now that everyone knows central is monitoring ballots cast, the real question is whether CMPS’s dean – reputed to have an approach to administration that makes Putin look like a wimp – can beat those numbers. Maybe he can get his margin up to that of Kim Jong Il’s election results. It’s possible. Their campaign techniques are the same.

This process is flat wrong and should not be tolerated on a free and open university campus.