[Alumni-chat] Recent Visit to YS

[Travis Sanford (travissanford at msn.com)]

Why no one remembers the money raised from Al's first year to Bob's last amazes me. There were substantial funds raised during these fifteen odd years. The wealthy alumni have proven willing to give big gifts IF they know that their gift is not going to support the University (as to why those of a certain age and position in life distrust the university is for another long post) and that their money is helping to build the future of the college i.e. they trust the president, the direction of the curriculum and believe others are on board as well. For our little college these gifts were not small. The capital campaigns were not failures (untill the rotating presidency began).

As for the small donations, the every little bit helps ones, they are vital and, I think the same rule applies for these, people have to believe and they have to trust. After the Divine Administration I am shocked that anyone gave to the college. The Straumis (sp) Administration, at least in retrospect, was obviously a stop gap, the Jursek the same, Lawry we will never know, Andrezj? No one is giving because they believe CAO Bloch has a firm on hand on the future (full disclosure: Andrezj was my academic and thesis advisor and colleauge on AdCil and I have always known him to honest, competent and not one to trade away his integrity). These weaknesses come back to distrust of the Univeristy, not anyone person at the University the mistrust predates anyones tenure, but as I pointed out earlier, whether it is the powers of the office or the structure of the system, or a really bad run on leaders (in that they have been unable to create an environment of trust for the U), no one person
can be blamed because no one person can be trusted (or so my argument about contributions goes). That the incumbent administration of the U seems particularly prone to foot-in-mouth and foot-on-neck mistakes does not help. Perhaps any Chancellor that led for "suspension" of college operations would earn my scorn, but I do know that one that at least went through the motions of shared governance and consultation, showed even a hint of sadness at the state of things and could articulate a vision for the future based on something other than a shallow and fatuous neo-liberal screed from a newspaper columnist, would earn my sympathy and perhaps my trust that any future for the college under their administration was possible.