Tim Woods of the Waco Herald Tribune dropped another bombshell when he revealed yesterday,
Baylor University’s faculty senate Tuesday passed a “failure of shared governance” resolution sharply critical of the administrative style of President John Lilley.
The action came during a meeting lasting three hours and 45 minutes, after which senate chairman Matt Cordon said faculty morale has been low for months. The senate voted 29-0 in favor of the resolution, with two members abstaining. (May 7, 2008)
Denial of tenure to profs supported by their departments was a top grievance:
This spring, 12 of 30 professors eligible for tenure were denied by Lilley and Provost Randall O’Brien. The pair cited as a reason substandard research when viewed “through the lens of (Baylor) 2012,” O’Brien has said.
Baylor faculty claim tenure guidelines were changed after their tenure notebooks were filed.
The vote was 29-0, with two abstentions. So not one of the 31 senate members supports the administration.
One way of looking at it: The worst Lilley can do is convert two abstentions to nays. Can’t get worse.
Uncommon Descent was actually nicer to Lilley
Hey, we’ve discussed Baylor tenure here at Uncommon Descent in recent months, and I’m pretty sure more of our commenters were pro-Lilley than the senate was.
I recall we even had a tenured prof sign in to announce that Lilley has vital information about the deficiencies of the denied that we mere mortals can’t know. Or something.
Guess the Baylor faculty senate is mortal too then, because darned if they know either. Ten of the 12 denial-ees are appealing, probably with support. (By the way, is Lilley in the running for Denialist of the Year?)
Former president Sloan’s administrative ghost rises, wagging a finger … ?
What would spook me if I were Lilley is that reporter Woods goes on to recall the ghost of the ill-fated former President Sloan. Sloan lasted ten years, and Lilley has hardly managed 2.5 years before all this blew up.
Anyway, reading over the resolution, it’s clear that faculty feel overridden on tenure decisions which they – quite obviously – think should be theirs, unless serious misconduct is suspected. Lilley had approved the departments’ written statements on tenure (January 6, 2006), and there was no hint of a problem until candidates started to file.
Were the “wrong” candidates qualifying? The faculty was supposed to read between the lines to know who Lilley didn’t want and get rid of them before they applied for tenure?
Incendiary? Who, me? Read this next bit –
One of the Whereas’s reads,
Whereas the Faculty Senate emphatically decries the implications of the President’s public assertion that he trusts and/or has confidence in only certain unnamed departments and deans;
Wow. So Lilley was implying the other heads are all deadheads … Maybe he was shafting the tenure candidates from “disloyal” departments under suspect deans. I couldn’t think of a better way of cementing opposition if you paid me, but rats! Some management consultant beat me to it.
But more to the point: What if the CEO of General Motors was thought to have confidence only in certain divisions and product lines? What if the US President was widely rumoured to have confidence in the loyalty only of certain states and branches of the federal civil service?
That would suggest something about his abilities as an executive.
Still, confusing as it all sounds, at the end of the day, it’s kind of simple. A retired dictator once explained, I am resigning because I cannot make the peasants resign.
So maybe Lilley should heed Sloan’s ghost and resign. Even if Lilley is right in his views, he can’t run Baylor if he only has the confidence of some departments and deans.
Anyway, people who have donated large sums to Baylor should investigate insurance against spontaneous combustion.
Note: An angry jock has just informed me that Lilley’s really, really big sin was wanting to change the Baylor team logo, to score more brand recognition with, like, the Air America crowd. Oh, come on, Jock. This is all getting to you, isn’t it?
For one thing, there isn’t an Air America crowd any more. That second fellow left to catch the bus. Still, messing with the team logo? … mmm, I always say, Lilleys that fester … .
Also, just up at The Mindful Hack
Placebo effect: Your mind’s role in your health. (No, don’t throw away that prescription. But read this before you conclude that only that pill makes you well.)
Philosophy of mind: In case you wondered whether you are conscious and reading this. (Actually, there is hardly a materialist explanation of consciousness that is worth considering.)
Animal minds: Learning may not pay, but some animals do it anyway. “If your science prof told you long ago that learning evolves because animals that learn faster are more likely to survive, forget it. Learning imposes costs of its own, as one experiment showed.”
Heard way, way too often: The soul boils down to a few genes?
Materialist Mythbusting: Genes ‘R’ Not Us