Hispanic University President at Pennsylvania College Facing Increasing Pressure to Step Down
Dr. F. Javier Cevallos, president of Kutztown University, a publicly funded college located in Pennsylvania, is facing new pressure to step down from his post amid criticism from the university’s faculty union
February 14th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
From this article, since its all I have, this looks like a management and governance issue. Where is the university board? If the union has a problem that is not being resolved, that is where they need to go and get an answer from that board. Cevallos gets his marching orders from them or gets fired. Doesn’t matter who is in the position if the marching orders are the same from the board.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Any president of a college that has a 30% graduation rate should be ready to get fired. I am generally against unions and what they stand for but if he is stepping down to avoid a no-confidence vote, I bet he really is doing a pretty lousy job. Citizens, especially voters and taxpayers, have virtually no say over what goes on at universities. It appears as though Cevallos spent some of the university’s scarce resources on “diversity.” Perhaps if he had used the money and manpower that went into his diversity iniatives into student retention and assistance for instructors he wouldn’t be in this mess.
The part of this article that I find disturbing is how latino activists are rallying for him. So a lousy university administrator happens to have parents that migrated from a Spanish-speaking country. So what. He couldn’t do the job well, is resigning and it has nothing to do with his race. Actions like this make the so called “civil rights” establishment look like a bunch of racist, cry babies (which they are).
February 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
It must be noted that it was the Latino leaders mentioned in this discussion who first began leveling charges of racism in this debate, specifically regarding the Borough of Kutztown, which is not even the host municipality of Kutztown University. (More than 95% of Kutztown University is located in Maxatawny Township.) This charge is specious, irresponsible, and reprehensible. As someone of relative standing in the Kutztown community, I am also a first-generation native speaker of English, so let me state this in plain, clear English: There are significant problems with KU’s administrative arrogance and lack of accountability that have absolutely nothing to do with Dr. Cevallos’s race. Many of us in the surrounding community embrace ethnic diversity, but not at the expense of effective leadership. While I agree that not all of the problems cited by the faculty union owe themselves to Dr. Cevallos, he is accountable, rightly or wrongly, for the actions (or lack thereof) and tactics of the administration he oversees. A more accurate no-confidence vote would be directed toward the administration as a whole rather than toward just one individual, but it must be made clear that of all the many and dissimilar issues being discussed in this situation, race is not among them. If, as Samuel Johnson suggested, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” then what are fabrciated charges of racism but an attempt to evade the real problems?
February 14th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Dr. Cevallos is one of the more outstanding leaders it has been my pleasure to know; leading with compassion and care for each member of a campus constituency. He has faced difficult times with grace under pressure and will continue to do so.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Thanks. Coming, as it does, from the University of South Alabama, the above endorsement means so much to those of us who are next-door neighbors to a university with an enrollment increase of 25% in the past six years that has not even begun to ask about potentially negative impact on its host and immediately adjacent communities. As a former police officer, Dr. Wims should be very conversant with the problems attendant upon being the primary impacted community of university presence, particularly with regard to law enforcement. The Borough of Kutztown’s Police Dept. has a $1.4 million annual budget for a town with only about 3,000 permanent residents, due mainly to the presence of the 2,000-2,500 transients it hosts in off-campus student housing and the dubious element that a college town attracts. At least 75% of all crime in Kutztown is the result of KU’s student population and those who are attracted to the community as a result of university presence — i.e. a university that actually seems to thrive on its reputation as a party school. Since it is not located within the Borough, KU contributes virtually nothing directly to Kutztown’s law enforcement even though Borough police are responsible for the safety and welfare of approximately 25% of its student body. I do not intend any slight toward either Dr. Cevallos or Dr. Wims, but some understanding of these issues is essential to an accurate rendering of the local situation.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
The department representatives of the faculty have spoken 45-15 in favor of holding a referendum on the question of ‘no confidence’. Because of this overwhelming support for the referendum, it will be scheduled early in March.
Individuals interested in more details on this issue can go to:
http://cevallosnoconfidence.blogspot.com/