terrapinsanity.com

The report of a committee’s examination of staff complaints about abuse was released, and we commend the full read to you. It is a masterpiece. But not quite in the way one might think, or hope.

The committee focused narrowly on issues raised about working conditions and climate for a small portion of the whole College Park family, concluded there really aren’t systemic issues and issued recommendations for the future. In many respects, the campus declares that it didn’t do anything wrong and promises to take steps so it doesn’t do anything wrong again. Everything is fine. Now go back to recruiting and fund raising.

Let’s be very clear: the Facilities issues very much needed close scrutiny. Fixes – perhaps more than flagged in the report – are needed. But the overall process followed by the campus in this study this misses broader issues altogether – ones that the campus successfully buried by having gotten rid of people who tried to raise them in the first place.

To see how narrow this report is on its face, please check the full report for yourself (downloadable from the Diamondback site linked above) and consider how the entire document fails to mention the word “ombudsman” once.

The masterpiece? Political, of course. By limiting their consideration to narrow (even if important) issues, the committee avoids any danger of accidentally exposing systemic problems (or ones that might blow back personally on members of leadership), then they get to declare this a closed matter. Any new rumblings? “Old news,” can be the line. “It’s fixed.” They’re free to oversell this report and deflect further scrutiny. Masterpiece indeed.