tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67882337927778838602024-03-20T10:43:49.727-07:00Shimer Student AllianceDedicated to the preservation and advancement of Shimer's mission, ethos, and self-governance.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-28936632611247512012011-02-05T07:06:00.001-08:002011-04-13T06:13:39.420-07:00Lindsay Faction Rewards ItselfAfter former President Thomas Lindsay was fired last year, members of his Board faction sued particular members of Shimer's Board and Shimer College at large for what they dubbed Thomas Lindsay's "illegal termination." Since then, the ridiculous allegations led to an <a href="http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/2010/11/lindsayparker-v-shimer-lawsuit-settled.html">out-of-court settlement</a>, the Lindsay faction resigned and seven financially powerful, Shimer-supporting alumni <a href="http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/2010/09/board-of-trustees-inducts-seven-new.html">joined the Board</a>. After a battle that successfully preserved our college and strengthened our Board's capacity to effectively manage financial affairs, Shimer has enjoyed a secure and positive atmosphere. <div><br /></div><div>After everything settled down, we didn't hear much from the other side. But on Thursday, the infamous Joe Bast, President of a libertarian think-tank, recently <a href="http://blog.heartland.org/2011/02/shimer-trustees-honored/">covered</a> the Lindsay faction's self-congratulation party on his blog. Former Lindsay-supporting Board members, along with Lindsay and formerly anonymous donor Barre Seid himself, attended the event. The group celebrated their hard-fought effort, talked about the future of "liberal education," and even awarded themselves crystal-glass trophies.</div><div><br /></div><div>Inconsequential (and humorous) as the gathering may be, there's something interesting about how Bast discussed the anonymous donor's role. "As always, the anonymous donor was at turns thoughtful and entertaining, thanking us for taking on a task we all knew would be difficult, but explaining that all great achievements faced high risks of failure," Bast reported.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hm. Thomas Lindsay and his followers repeatedly <a href="http://shimerstudentalliance.blogspot.com/2010/03/comments-published-in-reader.html">claimed</a> that there was no conspiracy, that Seid was a supporter of Shimer College, and that each Lindsay supporter was genuinely acting, not with a predetermined agenda, but for the goal of a thriving Shimer. So why would the anonymous donor feel the need to "thank" them for "taking on" this task?</div><div><br /></div><div>There's no way to be sure, but it's probably because Lindsay supporters were lying. There is plenty of support for the theory that the anonymous donor, Barre Seid, became involved with Shimer long ago with premeditated intentions to transform it into a libertarian institute. After all, Seid <a href="http://www.eri-nonprofit-salaries.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=NPO.Form990&EIN=363342443&Year=2010">predominately funds</a> right-wing and libertarian organizations, <a href="http://shimerstudentalliance.blogspot.com/2010/02/countdown-to-board-meeting.html">including the ones</a> to which the Lindsay-supporting board members belong. Seid also paid the Board entrance fees of nearly the entire Lindsay faction. And most memorably, Seid's close friend and former Lindsay-supporting trustee Patrick Parker used threats of Seid's fiscal withdrawal to advance Lindsay's objectives on <a href="http://shimercollege.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-patrick-parker-gets-his-way.html">more</a> than <a href="https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ab88E5miKgPCZGRncXE5N2NfOGZmbmt3a2c3&hl=en">one</a> occasion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the point: it's likely that Barre Seid did indeed play a premeditated, highly influential role in last year's attempted coup. There is lengthy documentation to support this theory. Bast's account can be added to the list. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-81829945593734190872010-05-28T17:39:00.000-07:002010-05-29T00:31:06.398-07:00Let's Respond to Joe Bast's Article Positively<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:small;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(20, 2, 1); line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Shimer Trustee and President Lindsay supporter Joe Bast </span><a href="http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/a-small-college-on-the" style="color: rgb(4, 137, 148); text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">recently raised his voice</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, once again, to misrepresent and disrespect Shimer College and its people. As usual, his narrative paints Lindsay as Shimer's savior and Shimer's people as hotheaded, politically-homogenous idiots. Bast's understanding is that Lindsay was unquestionably successful in his large-scale "reforms" of Shimer College and that his opposition was nothing but simple-minded stubbornness. Following down the path he started after his infamous meeting with students, Bast reaches new lows in attacking the academic credibility and general character of Shimer's supporters -- those who, unlike Bast, are contributing positively and productively to Shimer College in sentimental, tangible, and financial ways.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(20, 2, 1); line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bast's article isn't worthy of any thorough critique. His positions are illegitimate and unsubstantiated, marked by the same lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance that has fueled the attack on our beloved and dynamic school. Perhaps most striking is his contention that Shimer lacks academic credibility, something that runs completely contrary to any Accreditation Report of which I am aware, or any report on the success of our graduates. Most offensive among the insults to Shimer's strong academics may be the fact that at the Board Meeting, not only did Dean Shiner have to sit through Bast's completely false allegation that Shiner received his Doctorate from a "Diploma-Mill," but seven trustees also voted (unsuccessfully) to revoke the Class of 2010's degrees on the grounds that the "campaign against Tom Lindsay" was "an attempt to hide the deficiencies in the quality of education being delivered by Shimer." A tragically ironic jab is Bast's allegation of Trustee and Alumnus Daniel Shiner's conflict of interest, simply by virtue of his kinship to Dean David Shiner. The irony of this is apparent to anyone who has studied </span><a href="http://shimerstudentalliance.blogspot.com/2010/02/countdown-to-board-meeting.html" style="color: rgb(4, 137, 148); text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the undisclosed fiscal connections</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> between several destructive Trustees, including Bast, and the Anonymous Donor.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bast's words are deplorable and do a disservice to the many people who work so hard to make Shimer the amazing place that it is. It is understandable for us to respond to his insults with frustration and anger. But are we really surprised by Bast's depiction of our school and its current situation? Do we expect from him, given his record, anything other than slander and insult to the people that work so hard to preserve the College that we know and love? Bast's article, let's not forget, contains the most laughable lie since the supposed free pizza that lured us salivating dogs to vote "No Confidence": that all classes were supposedly cancelled for a day in celebration of Lindsay's resignation. Bast does not know or understand Shimer College, nor the people he targets. Attacks directed at both our academic credibility and strong supporters of our school just illustrate his ignorance.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Instead of expressing hatred towards Bast, let's direct that energy towards reaffirming our appreciation for those who are under his crosshairs and those working so hard to repair the damage that he and his cohorts have caused. Joe Bast isn't going to dialogue with any of us students, nor will he contribute positively to our experience at Shimer. Let's allow his words to be forgotten and instead concentrate on people who make tremendous sacrifices to make Shimer thrive. Personally, my support for our Faculty, staff, and hard-working Trustees is not "blind," as Bast claims. I support Trustee Daniel Shiner for spearheading a frantic and challenging search that yielded 6 highly qualified nominees to the Board -- and his words of support and humor when things looked their worst. I support Dean David Shiner not (solely) for his (legitimate) Doctoral Diploma, but for the extra hours he has dedicated to our school during this time of crisis, trudging through adversities I couldn't imagine shouldering in his position -- and for the fact that he treated me with respect and knew my name before I had attended my first class. I support Marc Hoffman, whose arm I had to twist for two hours today just to take a break from preparing the College's defense and eat something. I support our second-longest-working Faculty Member, Eileen Buchanan, who, while battling cancer and after undergoing chemotherapy, is enthusiastically planning her return to Shimer classrooms this Fall and gives me a joyful hug every time I see her.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Joe Bast hasn't taken the time to get to know these people and the many others who keep Shimer's doors open, or ever come close to fathoming the amount of blood, sweat, and tears they've poured into this organization. He hasn't even taken the time to learn enough of Shimer's history to construct a mildly legitimate argument concerning the issues facing our little College, or an understanding of what makes it so special to us. And that's his loss.</span></div></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-36484427454026177602010-05-27T21:07:00.000-07:002010-05-27T21:18:11.627-07:00Just When You Thought It Was Coming to a Close...<span style="font-size:100%;">...ideologues force you to think again!<br /><br />Once again drawing from unofficial sources, I have this news to report from today's meeting of Shimer's Board of Trustees:<br /><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Lawyers representing former President Thomas Lindsay and former trustee Patrick Parker filed suit against Shimer College, its Board of Trustees, today-reelected Chair Christopher Nelson, Faculty Trustees Albert Fernandez and Steven Werlin, Trustee and Alumnus Daniel Shiner, and Interim President Edward Noonan. The suit calls for the reinstatement of Thomas Lindsay as President of Shimer College.<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">While Christopher Nelson was reelected as Chair of the Board, Trustees Barry Carroll, Mary-Lou Kennedy, and Patrick Parker were not reelected. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Marc Hoffman, Shimer's CFO and Adjunct Faculty member was seated on the Board by virtue of his position as Assistant Treasurer. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">Seven Trustees voted against awarding degrees to the entire class of 2010.<br /></span></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-19087808356104224362010-05-22T19:01:00.000-07:002010-05-28T12:48:47.224-07:00Three Cronies Resign<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unofficial reports indicate that 3 trustees of the so-called "Executive Party" -- the party that voted to change the Mission statement, as opposed to the so-called "Constitutional Party," who vote in support of Shimer's people and Constitution -- have resigned from Shimer's Board of Trustees. The identities have yet to be confirmed, but there is strong likelihood that Carson Holloway, Matt Franck, and Frank Buckley could be the three.<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">All three trustees, if resigned, would be remembered for their willful ignorance of Shimer's identity and history as well as their disrespect for Shimer's Assembly and students. Their blind support for President Lindsay and his agenda stalled genuine dialog and cooperation, contributing to an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. I wish them the best of luck pursuing their interests elsewhere, but hope that unlike at Shimer, their doing so does not trample on the productivity and livelihood of others.<br /><br />******<br />UPDATE 5/28/10: Contrary to previous speculation, Frank Buckley remains on the Board of Trustees, but Matt Franck and Carson Holloway did indeed resign. The third member who resigned was Claudia Allums -- another supporter of President Lindsay. An updated list of Shimer's Board of Trustees can be viewed <a href="http://shimer.edu/aboutshimercollege/boardoftrustees.cfm">here. </a><br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-44639338003080057882010-04-21T19:25:00.000-07:002010-04-22T00:11:21.491-07:00Coverage of Our Victory<ul><li><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Shimer-College-Ousts-Its/65172/">Chronicle of Higher Education</a>: "Shimer College Ousts its President"</li><li><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/4/21/859367/-Shimer-College-thwarts-right-wing-takeover-attempt">Daily Kos</a>: "Shimer College Thwarts Right-Wing Takeover Attempt" </li><li><a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2010/04/20/after-all-the-strife-shimer-college-prez-out">Chicago Reader</a>: "After All the Strife: Shimer College Prez Out"</li><li><a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/21/shimer">Inside Higher Ed</a>: "Old School Shimer"</li></ul><div>Keep us posted as you see more media attention pop up! </div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-59168328859767942292010-04-19T19:10:00.001-07:002010-04-20T18:01:00.074-07:00PRESIDENT LINDSAY 'OUSTED' BY BOARD<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Today, in the most significant moment of Shimer's history since its relocation to Chicago, Shimer College's Board of Trustees 'ousted' President Thomas Lindsay, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The announcement was first released by the </span><a href="http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=1277"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">National Association of Scholars</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (NAS), best known by the Shimer community for its <a href="http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1154">glowing</a> <a href="http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1184">defense</a> <a href="http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doctype_code=Article&doc_id=1184">of</a> Lindsay. They posted a brief report shortly after the Board of Trustees held an unannounced meeting this afternoon.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Chronicle writer Don Troop wrote that the board "fired" Lindsay and the NAS wrote that the Board "voted to dismiss" Lindsay. In contrast, Shimer's Office of Advancement issued </span><a href="http://www.shimer.edu/upload/Shimer-www.shimer.edu/upload/President-Steps-Down.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a press release</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> reporting that Lindsay "stepped down" from his position. So far, the details on the meeting to answer this ambiguity remain undisclosed. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The vote followed months of bitter conflict between Shimer's community and President Lindsay and his supporters. During the past week, following </span><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/FWS/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a growing petition</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> demonstrating a widespread desire for Lindsay to resign, the Shimer community promulgated its lack of support for Lindsay loud and clear with votes of no confidence from both the Faculty and </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjkN4qdCNsI&feature=player_embedded"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Shimer's Assembly</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and a call for resignation from the directors of Shimer's Alumni Association.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Trustee Emeritus Ed Noonan, long-time Shimer supporter, will serve as interim President for the time being. Noonan is widely supported by the Shimer community. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For those of you that know your Shimer folklore: Ding, dong. Ding, dong. </span></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-57242300266731715712010-04-18T19:30:00.001-07:002010-04-19T11:32:51.041-07:00Assembly Votes No Confidence<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And finally, Shimer College's Assembly (made up of students, faculty, staff, and trustees if they choose to vote) removed from the table the resolution of no confidence in President Lindsay and it passed. Voted by secret ballot, with 60 votes for, 0 votes against, and 3 abstentions, here is the resolution (as amended): </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Whereas the Presidency of Thomas Lindsay has imperiled the very existence of the College, the Assembly declares that it has no confidence in the ability of President Lindsay to lead Shimer College.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></blockquote></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let's all take a deep breath and cross our fingers.<br /></span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-92168269929736411762010-04-18T19:25:00.000-07:002010-04-18T19:29:57.404-07:00Shimer College Alumni Association Calls for Lindsay's ResignationFrom the Alumni Association of Shimer College's Board followed the Faculty by calling for Thomas Lindsay's resignation: <div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></span></p><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Shimer Alumni Association, acting through its Board, calls for the resignation of Thomas Lindsay as President of Shimer. The resolution was adopted with 9 votes in favor, none against, and no abstentions.</span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></blockquote></span></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" ;font-size:10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></span></p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-40898498061766284342010-04-14T14:36:00.000-07:002010-04-14T14:37:39.000-07:00Faculty Votes No Confidence in President LindsayA lot has happened lately, though much of it kept silent. I've been awful about posting updates here, but this one has to go up. This is the faculty's recent resolution, unanimous, with no abstentions:<br /><br /><blockquote>Whereas Thomas Lindsay’s unilateral approach to the management of Shimer College has sapped morale and created a climate of fear and mistrust that now pervades the College;<br /><br />Whereas he has consistently shown a lack of understanding of and respect for Shimer College’s history, traditions, culture, identity, and academic mission;<br /><br />Whereas he has increasingly acted in opposition to structures of the College, including committees and procedures, written policies, and handbooks;<br /><br />Whereas his inability or unwillingness to communicate and work with Shimer College’s constituencies is demonstrated by his making major decisions and attempting major changes in the face of overwhelming opposition;<br /><br />And whereas he has given no credible indication that he will desist from the conduct described or cease attempting to transform the College according to his own plans and without broad support;<br /><br />The Faculty declares that Thomas Lindsay has done grave harm to Shimer College and imperils its very existence; and, therefore,<br /><br />The Faculty resolves that it has no confidence in Thomas Lindsay as President of Shimer College.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-38233768020830478872010-03-13T14:22:00.000-08:002014-01-02T16:27:57.911-08:00Wall Street Journal Smears Shimer Student Alliance<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">So far, the only "journalism" that has come out in clear support of President Tom Lindsay's action at Shimer College came from the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a right-wing organization whose Board once seated Lindsay himself. The two NAS articles were rife with ignorance of both Shimer's history and the current issues and both articles painted Lindsay’s opponents -- at this point, roughly the entire Shimer community -- as stubborn children.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Unfortunately, freelance journalist Emily Smith followed in the NAS’ footsteps with</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704784904575111523914776174.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif";">an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal</span></a>. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Smith’s article both misrepresents the situation and comes out in clear support of Lindsay and his supporters' hostile takeover of our college.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Like the NAS, Lindsay himself, and some of Lindsay’s followers, Smith depicts Shimer's political conflict as a simple debate over management:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The "family dispute" is over how to govern this great-books school. Should a community of scholars call the shots, as it has done over the past 30 years? Or should the school be run by a chief executive, as the college's president thinks? Is Shimer a Greek-style polis, as many Shimerians believe? Or does it need to function more like a corporation, as the president contends?</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">This is a sorely inaccurate characterization of the conflict. A wealth of information is available at numerous blogs, Shimer’s student newspaper, several non-Shimer publications, and from representatives of our college that very clearly indicate that this conflict is not solely centered on college governance. Indeed, one of many charges against Lindsay is that he has unjustly transgressed his authority. But the issue runs far deeper than that. The conflict is also over the fact that Lindsay is attempting a profound re-branding of the school, empowered by a Board who is beholden to a single donor. As one might expect, the students and long-standing faculty are trying to defend the College's traditions and its politically neutral image and atmosphere. To the contrary of Smith's implication, the Shimer community is not pushing an ideological agenda on Shimer College or President Lindsay. The reality is that Lindsay faces opposition to his attempt at unilaterally seizing control of our College and radically transforming it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Smith continues this effort to falsely depict Shimer's stance later in the article, when she writes, “What seems to be irking faculty and students are the President's classically liberal politics, which are out of tune at a campus that invited ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers to be a speaker in 2008.” Ayers, of course, was one of many guest lecturers that were invited to speak at Shimer. His lecture was on education and, as stated in <a href="http://shimer.edu/newsandevents/upload/statementonayers.pdf" title="a press release issued by Shimer"><span style="color: blue;">a press release issued by Shimer</span></a> shortly after Ayers' visit, "hearing and scrutinizing the competing views of others on important topics such as education is essential to Shimer's core mission." Smith's attempt to characterize the attitudes of the student body with the mention of Ayers' talk is an instance of irresponsible generalization and poor, propagandist journalism</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Had Smith been genuinely interested what's "irking” the students, her investigation might have incorporated the views of students. Students could have shown Smith the handbills that they distributed at the latest board meeting, which read, in part:</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">W</span><span style="color: #140201; font-family: Georgia, serif;">e strongly protest the poor management, intimidation, and disrespect offered to both the employees and the body of the College at large. This mismanagement has resulted in a general malaise within the College that affects the atmosphere that makes genuine discussion with the administration unlikely.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">If Smith were interested in what's irking the faculty, she could have read the faculty's collectively penned letter to the Board, which made no reference to the President's “classically liberal politics.” Rather, the faculty took issue with, for one, Linday's presumed entitlement to define the College's mission:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The Faculty and Assembly together, rather than President Lindsay by himself, have the standing to define the College's mission. [....] President Lindsay has maintained that he wants only to clarify the College's mission, not to change it. An unsympathetic redrafting of the entire mission statement is not a clarification. Further, his intransigent insistence on the rightness of his views on education, even in the face of considerate attempts to qualify them and to offer alternatives, only betrays how little he understands or adheres to the College's principles for cooperative dialogue.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">And in reference to Lindsay's conduct, the faculty wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">President Lindsay presumes to use his mission statement as a test of the Faculty's continuing commitment to the college. He has indicated to us that if the Board adopts his statement, he would ask us individually to confirm our support of it. The implied alternative was to seek employment elsewhere. Let us be clear: we reject with one voice such tests of our loyalty to Shimer College or to President Lindsay.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">While some of us do disagree with Lindsay's personal politics, our chief concern lies in his<i> </i>forceful imposition of his politics on our school and the consequences of that imposition<i>.</i> An honest look at the situation quickly reveals that students and faculty are dismayed by President Lindsay's disrespect for the College's long-standing traditions, mismanagement of the College, and his hostile treatment of the College community. (Smith makes no mention of <a href="http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/" title="overwhelming"><span style="color: #551a8b;">overwhelming</span></a> <a href="http://shimer-college-alumni-speak.blogspot.com/" title="alumni"><span style="color: #551a8b;">alumni</span></a> <a href="http://shimercollege.blogspot.com/" title="opposition"><span style="color: #551a8b;">opposition</span></a>, something worth considering since the President's primary responsibility is to cultivate donors.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Smith's article, along with misrepresenting the current struggle, misrepresents history. After an inaccurate summary of the Assembly's inception, Smith misrepresents recent history when she claims that:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">At the time [when Lindsay was hired], Shimer faculty, staff and students were eager for Mr. Lindsay to join their tiny school, which enrolls about 100 students, and lead it to happier times. Less than two years later, many of the same people who once cheered Mr. Lindsay's arrival now denounce him as a "conservative menace," calling him "authoritarian" and "autocratic."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Smith neglects to point out that after the entire Shimer community chose and evaluated three final Presidential candidates, trustee Patrick Parker slid Lindsay in for an interview during the Summer, when the majority of students and faculty weren't able to meet him. We weren’t “eager” for Lindsay to join us; in fact, we already had three capable candidates and most of us had never heard of Thomas Lindsay. Nevertheless, Smith depicts Shimer's community as indecisive and accusatory ideologues who flip-flopped – in “less than two years” – from “cheering Mr. Lindsay's arrival” to condemning his character.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">It's telling that in a discussion of the Assembly-supported mission statement, Smith deems the term "responsible action" a "1960s buzzword," as it is apparent that Smith is unconcerned with responsible journalism. Smith leads the reader to believe that our criticisms of Lindsay lack substance by omitting our actual criticisms and fabricating others. Despite irrelevance, Smith quotes President Lindsay at length discussing his opinion on the ideal views of “liberals,” while our criticisms of Lindsay's action are summarized in two-word sentences or sentence fragments. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Smith’s journalistic dishonesty, however, shouldn't be a surprise, considering that in writing this article, she faced a serious conflict of interest. Though this particular article was published by the Wall Street Journal, the organization that employs Smith <a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/organization/Collegiate_Network/funders" title="is partially funded by Barre Seid"><span style="color: #551a8b;">is partially funded by Barre Seid</span></a>, Shimer’s formerly anonymous donor, a businessperson and philanthropist who funds all of the newly-appointed board members that support Lindsay. It's clear that Smith's article was no attempt at journalism but propaganda, characterized by the same dangerous combination of ignorance and arrogance that fuel President Lindsay and his supporters. Nevertheless, we can remain hopeful, for their dishonesty will lead to their loss.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-2819783747769095762010-03-13T13:12:00.000-08:002010-03-13T13:19:41.077-08:00Comments Published in the Reader<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">On Thursday, March 11th, 2010, the Chicago Reader <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/letters-and-comments-march-11-2010/Content?oid=1515401">published</a> two of the comments that followed the Reader's <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/shimer-college-neoconservative-great-books-marsha-familaro-enright/Content?oid=1467327">last article</a> on Shimer, one by trustee <a href="http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joseph_Bast">Joe Bast</a>, and another by a Shimer alum. Here they are in full, starting with Joe Bast:</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); "><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">I'm Joe Bast, the person who came up with the "Tired of Political Correctness?" slogan for the Shimer ads, one of the newer trustees on the Shimer board, and a person who urged Marsha Enright to offer a class on capitalism at Shimer. At the risk of causing some heads to explode, I'd like to respond to some of the statements made by others in earlier comments.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">I'll start by thanking Deanna Isaacs for correctly quoting me in her article. But as others pointed out, in this article and her previous one on Shimer, she is mis-framing the conflict at the school. There is no "conspiracy" to take over the college, only an infusion of new trustees and new funding to attempt to grow the college and improve the educational experience for its students.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">New trustees were elected by current trustees and are well qualified. President Lindsay is a highly qualified administrator and a scholar in his own right. Shimer's donor base is healthy and growing.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Current students and faculty obviously do not like what is taking place, but the president has devoted many hours to talking with them and their opinions have influenced his decisions, including the wording of the mission statement. Sometimes, dialogue doesn't result in your getting everything you want from the other party.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">The "political correctness" ad that the </span></span><span class="BodyItalic" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Reader</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"> chose to reprint has been running for free in one of the Heartland Institute's five public policy newspapers, "School Reform News," for the past three years or so, before President Lindsay came on the scene. I picked the title, the text came from a Shimer flyer, and a graphic designer picked the photo of students.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Outside the hothouses of college campuses, political correctness is generally recognized as short-hand for the cult of victimization and attempts to rewrite history as a series of class, race, and gender power struggles. William Lind called it "cultural Marxism" and traced its roots back to the early 1900s in an interesting 2000 essay, [quoting] Marxist theorist George Lukas saying in 1919, "Who will save us from Western Civilization?" Lukas, according to Lind, "theorized that the great obstacle to the creation of a Marxist paradise was the culture: Western civilization itself." Which suggests to me that political correctness is an ideology at odds with what the Great Books College of Chicago should be teaching.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">If current students don't recognize the difference between political correctness and Western Civilization, then there is some basis for worrying about what is being taught at Shimer. The fierce opposition to the new mission statement, apparently because it identifies individual liberty as one of the most important themes of Western Civilization and the American founding as an important event in history, is further evidence of a problem.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">President Lindsay and many of the trustees have considerable knowledge about the texts that belong in a Great Books curriculum, more indeed than students who have just begun what will be a life-long learning process. To label their considered opinions and suggestions as some sort of plot to add, rather than remove, politics from Shimer classrooms is clever rhetoric, perhaps, but untrue.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">A comment asked for the readings assigned for Marsha Enright's "Morality of Capitalism" class. It's a long list of authors that includes Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Mill, Marx, Engels, Carl Menger, Max Weber, Herbert Croly, Veblen, Schumpeter, Hazlitt, Mises, Rand, Rawls, and Nozick. As survey courses go, this one may try to cover too much too fast. But nobody can say the list is stacked in favor of one perspective.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Student opposition to Enright's course is just one more piece of evidence that something is amiss at Shimer, and it's not to be found in the office of the president.</span></span></p></blockquote><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Shimer alum's response: </span></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p class="BodyNoIndent" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p class="BodyNoIndent" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Mr. Bast: Your organization, the Heartland Institute, has received over $1 million from the Barre Seid foundation, Shimer's former anonymous donor. Apparently, he's your largest all-time donor. He's also a major donor to many of Lindsay's recent trustees, as well as the employer of two. If connections like these don't compel your imagination that there's a conspiracy, perhaps we should talk instead about "conflict of interest." Did you, perchance, acknowledge this conflict when you filled out your disclosure forms for becoming a trustee at Shimer College? Are you capable of independent judgment while so powerfully beholden to to such an interest?</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">I'm not interested in your arguments on the subject of political correctness. To me they are simply a smoke screen for the real issue Shimer faces: Tom Lindsay and his radical trustee cronies' attempt to remake Shimer to suit their particular ideological image with no concern for the character, history, traditions, and community which have defined Shimer until now. Lindsay can have as many open meetings as he'd like, but until he learns to listen to the community rather than his pre-established ideological vision of higher education, he will fail as Shimer's president.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">As a Shimer alum I've had classes with people like Lindsay: people who thought so highly of their own opinions that they were unable to hear what others were saying; people who couldn't help but reinterpret everything anyone said through their own narrow ideological lens. If they were too stubborn, they would eventually quit the college as it became increasingly clear that they were boring their classmates and nobody was interested in hearing their repetitive, predictable comments. Many times, typically by the second or third year, they'd learn to question their own opinions and presuppositions, and thus open the door to a more substantial and authentic understanding of what it means to dialogue. They'd cultivate a sense—dare I say like Socrates?—of humility and, therewith, the ability to really learn.</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">The reason Lindsay has failed as Shimer's president is because he doesn't understand this. He has and continues to arrogantly disregard the opinions of the faculty, students, and alumni, making it impossible for him to manage the institution effectively. This might not matter somewhere else. But at Shimer it does, and it should.</span></span></p></blockquote><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="margin-top: 1.12em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.12em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;color:#000000;"><br /></span></p><p></p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-35820371086662641392010-03-08T10:15:00.000-08:002010-03-08T10:22:44.762-08:00Are We Willing to Fight Like Animals?<i>The following is an open letter to the Shimer Community from David Koukal. David is a 1990 Shimer alumnus, long-time Shimer financial and moral supporter, Associate Professor of Philosophy at University of Detroit Mercy, Director of UDM's Honors Program, and most recently, was one of the 6 "tabled" alumni candidates to our Board of Trustees. Our dear thanks go to David for contributing this encouraging and inspiring letter. </i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"></span></i></span></p><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p style="display: inline !important; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Dear Fellow Shimerians,</span></span></p></span></i><p></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I am a 1990 Waukegan alumnus who discovered Shimer College by complete happenstance. Shimer is where I met one of my best friends (Bill Paterson ’89) and my wife of eighteen years (Sharon Vlahovich ’89). My chance encounter with the College also led me to go on to graduate school, and I have been a teacher of philosophy for almost twenty years. It is neither an overstatement nor a cliché to say that Shimer changed and immeasurably enriched my life.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I presently teach at the University of Detroit Mercy, where I also direct the honors program. Over the ten years I have been at Detroit, I have been very active on campus, serving on several committees, including a union negotiating committee, a college mission statement committee, as well as a core revision committee and the faculty assembly. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Despite these qualifications, and the thousands of dollars my wife and I have donated to Shimer over the years, I am one of the six nominees to the board of trustees whose nominations were tabled in January 2010. Because recent events at the College have convinced me that my nomination has virtually no hope of coming before the full board for a vote any time in the near future, I want to speak frankly and openly about the situation in which the College currently finds itself.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I once spoke with Mr. Lindsay on the phone, not long after he assumed the presidency of the College. I can report that we spoke for 20-30 minutes, and that I found him to be collegial, personable and reasonable. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, and after hanging up, I felt reassured that the College was in good hands. Given this conversation, I cannot square the president’s recent actions with the person I spoke with on the phone some while back. But as Aristotle intimates, it is more prudent to judge someone by their actions than by their words.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Putting aside for the moment the ideology with which the president and his supporters seem to want to align the College, let me focus on the genesis of the new mission statement and the immediate aftermath of its adoption by a narrow majority vote of the board of trustees.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The revision or replacement of a mission statement is a serious undertaking, no matter the educational institution. Typically, this is given over to a task force or self-study committee populated by the major stakeholders across the institution—faculty, students, administrators, alumni, trustees and staff—who </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">collectively</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> begin a deliberative process that is fraught with difficulty because it goes to refining or re-defining the very identity of the institution. It is not unusual for this process to take a year or more, especially in older, established schools. This task must be undertaken with great care, because the mission serves to unify the institution. In short, if there is a situation within academia where one wants to foster as much consensus as is humanly possible, this is it.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Unfortunately, this did not at happen at Shimer. The president offered a series of “guideposts” for revising the mission in October 2009, but did not offer his own draft of the mission until February 2010. Even then, he submitted this draft not to the relevant stakeholders but only to the board of trustees, who—three months ahead of schedule, according to the timetable Lindsay set down in his own “Overview of the Strategic Planning Process”—voted to adopt this draft by a narrow vote of 18-16, despite the manifest opposition of the vast majority of the College’s stakeholders.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Such unilateral re-definitions of a school’s mission statement simply do not happen in academia. To put it bluntly, in this instance the president failed to subscribe to standard academic good practice. Instead of engaging in a good faith dialogue with all of the College’s constituencies that would have allowed him to better acquaint himself with the community he is charged with leading, he relied solely on his narrow support among the trustees to foist his mission on the College, thereby passing up an opportunity to unify the community behind his vision for the College. Some might consider the president’s action an act of strength, but to my mind it testifies to his weakness as a leader, and suggests that he wants to establish a monopoly in the marketplace of ideas that is Shimer College.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Then, compounding his error in judgment, apparently the president intimated that if individual faculty did not confirm their allegiance to his new mission statement, they could seek employment elsewhere.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Set aside, for the moment, the glaring contradiction between this infringement on academic freedom and the following sentence from the president’s own mission statement: “The Shimer community recognizes that the intellectual liberty it pursues depends on its being situated in a system of political liberty.” Set aside how offensive a loyalty oath is to freedom of conscience. Set aside the conceit of a college president who mistakes himself for the college. Focus instead on the breathtaking audacity it must take to question the loyalty of these faculty—</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">these</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> faculty—who have achieved so much more than what most college faculty achieve in their careers. Focus on the great personal and professional sacrifices these faculty have made to shepherd the College through countless crises over a period of decades. Focus on what these faculty have given up in order to sustain an ideal exceedingly rare in higher education. These are truly noble people. To threaten them with the loss of their calling is the deepest cut, and profoundly indecent.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">These actions have created a great deal of disharmony within the College, but on another level, they have had a unifying effect—they have unified opposition to the president’s leadership. The faculty, courageously and unanimously, rejected the president’s loyalty oath. The Assembly has overwhelmingly rejected the president’s mission statement, and demanded that the board vote on the tabled nominations to that body. I have special praise for the Shimer student body: you have been magnificent, and conducted yourselves with integrity, dignity, reason and—all the more remarkable under the circumstances—good humor. You have exemplified the democratic responsibilities that the president only talks about in his mission statement. Chief among these responsibilities is assuming a state of perpetual vigilance over those in power, in order to assure that this power is not abused. I admire you deeply, and I pray that your vigilance doesn’t waver.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Viewing this alarming situation from a distance, I wouldn’t dare second-guess the strategies the Assembly and faculty have adopted in resisting the president’s abuse of power, as they are closer to the conflict. So what I offer here should be construed only as another perspective on this situation, as possible food for thought.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">To the extent that Shimer has embraced his pedagogical method for decades, it would perhaps be permissible to say that Socrates is the de facto patron saint of the College. And throughout the present conflict, the larger Shimer community has repeatedly manifested the Socratic devotion to rational discourse, though, it seems to me, the same cannot be said of the president and his allies on the board. This small faction has made it clear it has no use for the Assembly, and routinely ignores its resolutions. This begs the question of whether there is a duty to dialogue with the willfully deaf. We may valorize Socrates’ way of life, but remember how it ended. In my eyes it would be no consolation at all if the College was to martyr itself in a similar fashion. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It seems to me that Thucydides’ account of the Melian dialogue has something useful to contribute here. On this account, the neutral Melians offered every good faith argument to avoid war with the Athenians, only to be forced, in the end, to fight for their independence. After a long siege the Athenians prevailed. They then executed every adult Melian man, sold every Melian woman and child into slavery, and colonized the depopulated island. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">This episode is instructive because it more starkly portrays the confrontation between reason and naked power. More specifically, I take the Melians to represent the discursive Shimer community, and the ruthless Athenians to represent the president and his allies. Is this comparison born of overwrought hyperbole? I would remind the reader of the president’s threat toward the College’s faculty. What is this but an attempt to depopulate the College of a significant source of opposition? Once the faculty are gone, I suspect that many if not most current Shimer students would understandably continue their education elsewhere, in schools that actually respect freedom of inquiry, leaving the College to be “colonized” as the president and his allies see fit. But I think the main lesson to be drawn from the actions of the Melians is that once dialogue failed, they fought.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Let me be quick to add that I understand that dialogue is a form of opposition. But its efficacy is negated if one’s opponents reject reasoned discourse as a means of settling a conflict. Where dialogue fails, other forms of resistance must be adopted. Here the playbook is </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Prince</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, not Plato’s dialogues, and despite his nods toward liberty and virtue, the president’s leadership style seems to owe far more to Machiavelli than to Aristotle.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Prince</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> is devoted to the pursuit of power, not wisdom. Chapter 18 is especially noteworthy, where Machiavelli praises the ruler who knows how to employ cunning to confuse and disorient and overcome those who place store in integrity. Here Machiavelli stresses the importance of being a “clever counterfeit and hypocrite” who only needs to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">appear</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> to have the qualities of reliability, sympathy and honesty. But most important to my present point, Machiavelli plainly states that there are two ways to fight: by the rules, like a man, or no holds barred, like an animal. In this connection, he says that a ruler must know how to be both a man and an animal, but even more importantly, to know </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">when</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> to act like a man and when like an animal.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It is growing increasingly clear to me that the president and his allies are not fighting by the rules—at least not by the principles of shared governance embraced by the rest of academia, and certainly not by the rules that have governed the College for the past forty-some years. Can there be any doubt, after the threat to our faculty, that the president and his allies are fighting like animals? Can there be any doubt that they are antagonistic toward the College’s traditions and ethos? And can there by any doubt, after our faculty have been menaced with loss of livelihood, that unless we too start fighting like animals, the College will be savaged and mauled beyond recognition? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">About the president’s mission statement I will only say that any move to privilege some texts over others is contrary to Shimer’s long pedagogical tradition, and flirts with the establishment of an orthodoxy. For quite a long time now, Shimer’s mission has been about the pursuit of wisdom in the broadest sense. This pursuit cannot be bounded by any dogma; it must be allowed to wander freely. In the article that recently appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Shimer was described as “fiercely independent.” If we understand this to denote intellectual independence, then I think this is a quality worth preserving because it fosters an education (to paraphrase Plato) that begins and is sustained in wonder. This wonder nurtures a healthy questioning of the endoxic that allows for the emergence of truly independent and liberated thinkers. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">By way of contrast, orthodoxy, according to Orwell, is “the absence of thought . . . it is unconsciousness.” The orthodox do not to need to think because they think they already have the truth, and Orwell’s </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">1984</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> vividly illustrates the terror that can result from those who have sworn blind allegiance to a dogma. History is awash with cases of cruelty and absurdity in the service of a dogma or orthodoxy—the mutual slaughter of Catholics and Protestants during the Thirty Years War, the denial of heliocentrism by the Church hierarchy, the Holocaust, the imposition of historical materialism onto Soviet science, the killing fields of Pol Pot—the list is endless. Behind every indecency is a dogma waiting to be exposed by truly liberated minds, including the indecency of a college president who threatens his faculty over a matter of conscience, which by itself disqualifies Mr. Lindsay from holding the presidency of Shimer College, or that of any other institution of higher learning for that matter. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Contra totus dogmata</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">—against all dogmas—and against all dogmatists!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In the end, I think the main question we have to confront is this: are we willing to fight like animals to save this school? How far are we willing to go to save Shimer College? I feel sure we have enough fertile and devoted minds to take up the whys and hows of these questions, but I think we must move quickly because time is not on our side.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I will help in any way I can.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Most Sincerely,</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">David Koukal</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></p></span></i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-79208086083970745902010-03-04T12:45:00.001-08:002010-03-04T20:16:30.364-08:00The Category of the Legal<i>The following is another guest post from former faculty member Jack Sigel. Thanks again to Jack for this powerful piece. </i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span></span></p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><blockquote>"Shimer must craft a charter to establish the mission and practice of the College as an institution that embraces the great books of western civilization, uses the Socratic method of open dialogue, and continues its adherence to the Hutchins plan."</blockquote> </span></span><p></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Thus reads the key statement from the agreement made between Shimer College, Patrick Parker, and the Aequus Institute, an agreement which has the status of a legal contract. This agreement was fundamental to the deliberations at the Special Assembly on Sunday 28 February. Although a copy of the agreement was not available, former president Bill Rice is said to have accepted a contribution from the Aequus Institute and agreed to the stipulations as stated.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Having served as a major gifts fundraiser since leaving Shimer in 2000, let me first point out that a cardinal rule of fundraising is not to accept money that comes with strings attached. Since it was stated at the Assembly that this agreement exists and that it was signed by Rice, his action in doing so is both regretable and censurable. His Shimer legacy will include his major responsibility for the college’s current plight.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">But since it is unlikely that the $190,000 can be returned and the agreement renounced, Shimer is in fact contractually obligated to meet its terms.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Reports from the Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday 20 February indicate that Parker disclosed this agreement for the first time, three years after it was made. That this was done in order to compel passage by the trustees of Lindsay’s proposed mission statement constituted legalized blackmail (whether or not Lindsay’s mission statement itself satisfies the contract).</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The principle point I want to present here is that such a move on Parker’s part is both reprehensible and part of the zeitgeist. Our current national politics are dominated by a widening chasm between what is moral or ethical and what is legal. The corporate state, under the nominal control of the dysfunctional two-party system, determines the major initiatives of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. As Gore Vidal has pointed out, without much exaggeration, what the US and England have in common is one political party with two right wings.</span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Since the corporatists are a minority, central to their system of control is the need to legalize their own depredations while criminalizing those who oppose them. Here is a short list by way of illustration:</span></span></p><ul type="DISC"><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Bush and many in his administration plunge us into war in Iraq and Afghanistan based on lies. They are war criminals, but the war is legal.</span></span></li><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Clinton passes NAFTA, legalizing the systematic immiseration of Mexico’s peasant farmers by American agribusiness and then declares that those who come to the US seeking their basic human rights to food, shelter, and work are illegal immigrants.</span></span></li><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Banks and financial institutions arrange for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, thereby making legal our present economic debacle. The consequent suffering, degradation, and misery visited on our country and worldwide will result, we may assume, in none of those responsible being incarcerated. Bernie Madoff serves as a scapegoat. Those who cannot pay their mortgages or become homeless are criminalized.</span></span></li><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The long-pursued objective of the right wing to repeal Roosevelt’s New Deal is being implemented as state legislatures from Springfield to Sacramento are forced to make draconian cuts due to the legal requirment to balance their budgets. (Recommended reading: Naomi Klein’s </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.)</span></span></li><li><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Health care companies and insurers are permitted legally to deprive millions of citizens of the basic right to healthcare, cause suffering and death, and enjoy their profits.</span></span></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><div>Unfortunately, the possible examples are all too pervasive. That Parker and his foundation and the Lindsay 18 are utilizing their money and their resultant power to engineer a takeover of Shimer College is simply an outgrowth of this larger process of legalizing malefaction.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here at Shimer the countervailing strategies need to include initiatives such as that articulated by Don Moon to hold the Board of Trustees accountable for their fiduciary responsibilities. We also need to know whether, should the Lindsay 18 provoke a crisis, the IIT administration will keep hands off and regard the situation as a dispute internal to Shimer, or will they allow campus security to intervene. The corporate forces in our country have a long history of employing the police (as well as military) to do their bidding. In the end, will the Shimer faculty, students, and members of the administration be criminalized? Will the Lindsay 18 continue to be part of the Category of the Legal?</div></span></div><ul><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p></ul></span></i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-89635027467797740532010-03-01T18:12:00.000-08:002010-03-01T23:00:18.216-08:00Sunday's Emergency Assembly<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">As previously posted, the Assembly held an emergency meeting this past Sunday, February 28th in response to the results of the last board meeting. Here are the resolutions that were passed: </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Motivated by the Agenda Committee: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Resolved:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the Board of Trustees adopted a statement called a “mission statement,” written by President Thomas Lindsay, on February 19, 2010;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas this statement is without the expressed support of the faculty, the students, the administrative staff, or the vast majority of alumni who have addressed it, and is upheld only by 18 out of 34 Trustees;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the </span></span><span class="il"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Assembly</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> by overwhelming majority and the Faculty unanimously have voted to retain the current mission statement at least for the time being; </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the statement approved by the Board is not consistent with the criteria</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the College’s academic accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, that “Understanding of and support of the mission pervade the organization” (Accreditation Criterion 1c);</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the statement, unlike all other mission statement proposals, was never submitted to the Self-Study Group, or brought to the </span></span><span class="il"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Assembly</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, but was sent exclusively to Trustees, and only five days before they were to vote on it, in evident disregard of more than 30 years of Shimer’s traditions and procedures;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">statement was approved by the Board</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">after a major donor said, one day before the Board plenary, that funding would cease if a new mission statement were not adopted;<b></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas shortly before the Board plenary President Lindsay urged the Trustees on the Executive Committee to resign if they would not vote for his statement, and told another Trustee that he would “have to go” or words to that effect if he did not vote for his statement; and,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the statement was voted on by the Board without the customary notification of a vote in the meeting agenda, after only 75 minutes of consideration, and without observance of equal time for those opposed;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Therefore,</span></span></p><span style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> The </span></span><span class="il"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Assembly</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of Shimer College does not recognize the legitimacy or authority of this so-called “mission statement."</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Motivated by David Shiner, Erik Badger, Barry Carroll: </span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The </span></span><span class="il"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Assembly</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> will endeavor to provide a mission statement enjoying broad support from the community, including the board, staff, faculty, students and alumni of Shimer College by March 21, 2010.</span></span></span></span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The vote of no confidence was tabled indefinitely. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I am pleased with the results of the Assembly. The first resolution accurately conveys and formalizes our grievances against Tom. Its specificity helps to more effectively convey the position of the Assembly. The second resolution illustrates that, though the Assembly supports our current mission statement, we are in favor of revising it -- as long as it has wide-scale support. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Previously, I was in favor of passing the vote of no confidence in Tom. But the more I discussed that option with people, the more I was convinced otherwise, and I voted in favor of tabling the option. There are two reasons for my change in position: first, after speaking with more than one member of the faculty, I learned that officials from the HLC and AAUP both, along with most everyone outside the community who has knowledge of the common repercussions of no confidence votes, strongly advised that we abstain from the vote. Often, it was reported to us, votes of no confidence result in the death of schools. It usually takes more than one vote of no confidence and similar gestures to get a board to respond, and by that point we would have gone beyond the point of no return.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">More importantly, I have yet to hear a single argument in favor of the no confidence vote that carries any weight. The fact that all of us at Shimer have no confidence in Tom is already known. The question that has yet to be answered convincingly, in my view, is how a no confidence vote would have helped us. Though we have more than enough </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">reason </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">to vote no confidence, we would probably just turn more trustees against us -- and give more ammunition to the people who are steadfastly against us.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px; font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-1098533165172496792010-02-26T21:22:00.000-08:002010-02-26T21:40:56.652-08:00Report from Weekend Student Trustee<i>The following is an open letter from Robert Carpenter ('11), weekend student and trustee, to his constituency, the weekend students. Thanks to Bob for contributing this letter. </i><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 14px; "><br /></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Weekend community-<br /><br /><br />I thought it would be prudent to share with you some of my experiences in the board meeting that occurred yesterday.<br /><br />Firstly, I would like to extend my thanks to the Weekday & Weekenders who attended the demonstration and acted with remarkable grace. Numerous board members spoke to me with glowing words about the action. Many of these trustees were alive to see extreme student protests from our nation's troubled past; they were astonished at the measured and controlled reaction of the student body. I would pass on their compliments and thanks to all of you who were present.<br /><br />As for the main matter to come before the board, the vote on the mission statement, I have a few remarks that I hope will shed clarity on the position of the board and why the decision happened as it did. For those of you who are unaware, the board voted 18 to 16 in favor of adopting Tom Lindsay's proposed mission statement. That the board was so divided I think speaks volumes to the influence we have had thus far. Had this vote taken place at the last meeting, I am certain we would have been defeated by a landslide. Unfortunately the majority carried it yesterday, but this vote gives me hope for the future - hope for the strength of brilliantly logical argument and its ability to deliver results over time.<br /><br />The supporters of Tom Lindsay, while vocal, had little of substance to back up their claims. Their arguments were tenuous at best and I am certain they can be counted upon to remain this dim in the future. Unfortunately, the trustees who were obviously on our side seemed genuinely reticent to speak out against Tom's camp. Your student and faculty reps did an admirable job taking up the fight on your behalf. But it is clear to me that a more active role is needed from not only myself, but from the other trustees who I feel confident are with us in this fight. To this end I plan to get more active in organizing these trustees for the next meeting.<br /><br />As for the thinking from the board, I think I can sum up their position thus: their main reason for adopting the statement was the desire to give Tom every chance possible to succeed at his job in delivering new donors and endowments. <i>[Editor's note: For instances of Tom explicitly saying that the mission statement is not a marketing tool, see <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQFB34kmGusjZGhwemJqOGNfNTBjNTl3Y2tnag&hl=en">this Promulgates interview</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWM1XjbXEXk">this clip</a> of Tom talking with the community about the mission statement.]</i> It is now their position that Tom has the authority to control the shaping of his staff and his vision for the college, and that this vote signals their willingness to support him. While this is certainly troubling given Tom's unilateral approach to management, it also means that if he screws the pooch, he's got no get out of jail free card (this inference was drawn from statements made by Chris Nelson, Board Chair). A small light to be sure, but the endless oubliette that was our plight has been slightly mediated by the enormous responsibility Tom carries. With so many board members unsure of Tom's abilities and style (as evidenced by our 16 supporters in the vote) I feel the chance is high that Tom's continued pursuit of this management avenue will lead directly to his own demise.<br /><br />The student and faculty trustees are not done with this fight. I welcome continued input from those of you who have been forthcoming thus far, and entreat the rest of you to bring your ideas to myself or any of the other internal trustees.<br /><br />As for my personal feelings in the wake of this debacle...I will say that my vision is clear. The fortitude and magnanimity we have thus far displayed has been above reproach. Our efforts at reconciliation have been heroic. We have been met largely by disdain and deaf ears from the Lindsay camp - they have chosen to fight with obstinacy and intractability. Thus I am resolved to meet any threat to our way of education with no less than my full cunning and creativity. When I look at the school, the community, the curriculum and the professors I am surrounded by, I am blown away by the value of the experience. It's worth defending...<br /><br />Thank you for your time Weekenders, I know you are busy people.<br /><br /><br />-Robert Carpenter</span></span></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-44513798344340722482010-02-25T11:48:00.000-08:002010-02-25T12:02:39.742-08:00Emergency Assembly This SundayIn response to the atrocious slap in the face that was the Board meeting, the Agenda Committee of the Assembly has called an emergency Assembly meeting for this Sunday, February 28th. Along with announcements on the possibility of motivating a community-revised mission statement, the Assembly's agenda consists of two resolutions, both nominated by the Agenda committee. The first resolution reads: <div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Resolved:</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas the Board of Trustees adopted a statement called a “mission statement,” written by President Thomas Lindsay, on February 19, 2010;</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas this statement is without the support of the faculty, the students, the administrative staff, or the vast majority of alumni who have addressed it, and is upheld only by 18 out of 34 Trustees;</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas the Assembly by overwhelming majority and the Faculty unanimously have voted to retain the current mission statement at least for the time being; </span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas the statement approved by the Board does not meet the criterion of the College’s academic accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, that “Understanding of and support of the mission pervade the organization” (Accreditation Criterion 1c);</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas the statement, unlike all other mission statement proposals, was never submitted to the Self-Study Group, or brought to the Assembly, but was sent exclusively to Trustees, and only five days before they were to vote on it;</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Whereas the statement was approved by the Board under threat by a major donor, delivered one day before the Board plenary, that funding would cease if the statement were not adopted;</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas shortly before the Board plenary President Lindsay urged the Trustees on the Executive Committee to resign if they would not vote for his statement, and told another Trustee that he would “have to go” or words to that effect if he did not vote for his statement; and,</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whereas the statement was voted on by the Board without the customary notification of a vote in the meeting agenda, after only 75 minutes of consideration, and without observance of equal time for those opposed;</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Therefore,</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Assembly of Shimer College does not recognize the legitimacy or authority of this so-called “mission statement.”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p></blockquote><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The second resolution reads: </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Resolved:</span></p><p> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The Assembly declares that it has no confidence in the ability of President Thomas Lindsay to lead Shimer College.</span> </p></blockquote><p></p><p>I intend to vote in favor of both resolutions. There's an obvious complication, however, with the second one: Tom can fire the administrative staff whenever he damn well feels like it. Carrying out a vote of no confidence puts the staff -- especially those who work closely with Tom -- in a very awkward position. It seems likely that because of this, most of the staff will abstain from voting, unless the staff votes unanimously. It's a tricky situation, and I don't necessarily know what the correct course of action for the staff should be (and besides, they will likely decide this themselves). Either way, it's an issue that ought to be addressed thoughtfully, and most importantly, very quickly. See you at Assembly. </p></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"></span><p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-27331497489314763472010-02-25T08:31:00.001-08:002010-02-25T08:40:12.306-08:00What We Missed<div>Three noteworthy pieces of literature on Shimer politics appeared in the last week: </div><div><br /></div><div>1) <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/shimer-college-neoconservative-great-books-marsha-familaro-enright/Content?oid=1467327">The latest</a> in a now 3-part series on Shimer politics by Deanna Isaacs in the Chicago Reader, now including the uncovered ties between Tom's cronies and the anonymous donor.</div><div><br /></div><div>2) The newest publication to join the discussion, <i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i> published a <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/At-a-Tiny-College-an-Epic/64368/?key=QG53clk9MHlKZSBkKHRAfXReOiZ6IU4sbHMSMn0aYFBc">well-researched article</a> that also references the fiscal relationship between Seid and the cronies.</div><div><br /></div><div>3) <a href="http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-hell-just-happened.html">A straightforward answer</a> to Jack Garvin's ('12) question on Saturday, "How the hell did this happen?" written by our friends at the Shimer Alumni Alliance Blog. </div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-63211512173893733742010-02-24T18:52:00.000-08:002010-03-09T15:14:14.909-08:00Disappointment for Shimer Students, Alumni at Saturday's Board Meeting<div align="justify">Last Saturday I was one of many Shimer students and alums to attend, and demonstrate at, the meeting of the school’s board of trustees. We—most of the weekday students and a contingent of weekend students and graduates—were there in force, before eight a.m. on a Saturday, in the snow, in hopes of saving the mission statement of the school we love from a radical change. Preserving the mission statement was our immediate concern, not only because the alternative was a suspiciously worded and widely condemned statement from President Thomas K. Lindsay, but also because such a change would directly contradict the expressed position of the Shimer Assembly and indicate a drastic power shift in the governance of the college.</div><div align="justify"><br />So we got there early. We huddled for warmth. We wore specially-printed Shimer Student Alliance T-shirts, with the first line of our mission statement emblazoned on them: "The mission of Shimer College is education—education for active citizenship in the world." (Highly appropriate for student action!) We brought signs, too, which stated succinctly just why the board should take our feelings seriously: "We are 71% of the Budget"; "Listen to Your Shareholders." (This refers to the unusually high proportion of annual funds which Shimer garners from tuition.) As the trustees filed into the building, we gave them hand-outs stating the student position:</div><br /><div align="justify"><blockquote><p>Shimer students are significant stakeholders in the College; our tuition and fees make up about seventy-one percent of the budget. We are well within our rights to involve ourselves in Shimer college processes. </p><p>We express support for the six recently tabled alumni candidates for the Board of Trustees. </p><p>We acknowledge the Board's responsibility to review the college's Mission Statement, but protest the notion that changing the Mission, over and above the prevailing sentiments of the student body, could possibly constitute good, responsible management. </p><p>We strongly protest the poor management, intimidation, and disrespect offered to both the employees and the body of the College at large. This mismanagement has resulted in a general malaise within the College that affects the atmosphere that makes genuine discussion with the administration unlikely. </p><p>We support our faculty, and their support of the current Mission Statement.</p></blockquote></div><p></p><div align="justify">We did everything we thought appropriate—everything we had planned out in earlier meetings via Shimerian dialogue and democratic decision-making—and displayed to each trustee our position and our dedication. But we lost.</div><div align="justify"><br />The final vote was close, with eighteen trustees voting for Lindsay’s new statement and sixteen for keeping the old one. When the news broke, the assembled students and alumni milled quietly around the anterooms of the board chamber, shocked and devastated (we had finally been allowed inside the building only after hours outside and negotiation with campus security).</div><div align="justify"><br />Demonstrators stayed on to greet the trustees after the meeting and to attempt to engage with them in open discussion about the mission statement change. They determined to do this by discussion and vote, in the Shimer tradition, and despite threats of force from the campus security force. Tensions ran high and many board members proved unsurprisingly reluctant to deal with student concerns.</div><div align="justify"><br />Since the weekend, the illustrious Mr. Lindsay has threatened the positions of the board’s executive committee which has thus far acted to support him, and which he has no authority to fire (which, in fact, has the authority to fire <em>him</em>). Lindsay has also requested the resignation of alum and trustee Ed Walbridge, president of the Alumni Association, due to Walbridge's disapproval of the changed mission statement. The Shimer Assembly meets this Sunday to take a vote of no confidence in Lindsay’s presidency; so the question of the day is, how far will this executive coup be allowed to proceed? </div><br /><br /><p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4XvCt3_CMI/AAAAAAAAAAM/RH7tvdGxWaQ/s1600-h/ssa1"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442018554700302530" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4XvCt3_CMI/AAAAAAAAAAM/RH7tvdGxWaQ/s400/ssa1" /></a><br /></p><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4XvXkc4NII/AAAAAAAAAAU/fRRHFGBo3qo/s1600-h/ssa2"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 266px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442018912947942530" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4XvXkc4NII/AAAAAAAAAAU/fRRHFGBo3qo/s400/ssa2" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4Xvd5Z7AuI/AAAAAAAAAAc/IowrwjfZOT0/s1600-h/ssa3"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442019021651903202" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_At1XQtnRZH4/S4Xvd5Z7AuI/AAAAAAAAAAc/IowrwjfZOT0/s400/ssa3" /></a><br /><br /><div align="left"></div><div align="left">More pictures available <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/wordymusic/ShimerProtest#5440427974051501682">here</a>. </div>Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12949129346190727439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-78613490708880316812010-02-24T15:20:00.001-08:002010-02-24T15:24:31.095-08:00Democracy, Liberty, and Orwell<i>The following is a guest post written by Jack Sigel, faculty member from 1982-2000 and supporter of the Shimer Student Alliance. My deepest gratitude goes towards Jack for contributing this excellent piece. </i><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-size: medium; "><p style="display: inline !important; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-size: medium; "><p style="display: inline !important; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“What’s the big deal?” asked trustee Frank Buckley. He was addressing the students gathered outside the meeting room where the Board of Trustees had just voted 18-16 to approve Tom Lindsay’s mission statement. The question at once indicated a profound failure to understand or appreciate Shimer.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></p></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-size: medium; "><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In responding to Frank Buckley’s question as well as commenting on Tom Lindsay’s mission statement, I first want to acknowledge the many insightful analyses already brought forth by members of the Shimer Community. I seek in what follows to add some thoughts and ideas to that corpus.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” is an essay we included in the past in the IS1 core texts, and it has also been utilized for the writing placement exam. In the section “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Meaningless words</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">,” Orwell writes:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><ul><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The words </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">democracy</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p></ul><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Orwell’s commentary illuminates Lindsay’s mission statement. The word “democracy” is intended to evoke the same kind of universal praise Orwell describes happening with political regimes. Let me add that I believe the word “liberty” can also be included in Orwell’s list.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">So once we catch ourselves and avoid a knee-jerk acquiescence to these key terms in Lindsay’s mission statement, we might then look to the actions of the statement’s proponents to see what if any correspondence there is between their words and their actions. Frank Buckley together with the other trustees entered the board meeting with the knowledge that the faculty had unanimously supported Shimer’s current Mission Statement and that the students similarly supported it—and I would add many of the administrative staff also support it. For 18 of the trustees to then reject the current Mission Statement in favor of Tom Lindsay’s made manifest that their commitment to the word “democracy” was merely to use it “in a consciously dishonest way.” The members of the Shimer community may have had the “liberty” to dissent, but the 18 trustee’s allegiance to “liberty” is akin to Thrasymachus’ view of justice in Plato’s</span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Republic</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> as the advantage of the stronger.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In Orwell’s </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">1984</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, the Ministry of Truth regularly promulgates three slogans in order to colonize minds and limit thinking:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p align="center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">WAR IS PEACE</span></span></p><p align="center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">FREEDOM IS SLAVERY</span></span></p><p align="center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Based upon the actions of the Lindsay 18, I would add the following slogans:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p align="center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">DESPOTISM IS DEMOCRACY</span></span></p><p align="center"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">DOMINATION IS LIBERTY</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For those seeking to understand Tom Lindsay’s mission statement and the motivations behind it, this is where I would begin. To those who might object that I am prejudging the Lindsay 18 and associating them with the far right that has acted so destructively both here and abroad, my response is: By their actions ye shall know them.</span></span></p></span></i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-30843589288336613502010-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:002010-02-24T17:54:37.027-08:00President Lindsay Threatens Faculty, They Firmly Declare Stance<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Given that this weekend was so stressful and filled with important events and information, I think that to cover everything with one voice simply wouldn't do the story justice. So, in the next few days you loyal readers should be seeing stories and commentary from at least a few different perspectives. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I'd like to open this series of Board Meeting Coverage with the voice of the Shimer College Faculty, who in a collaboratively penned letter presented to the Board of Trustees on Saturday, firmly declared their dedication to our school's people and traditions. The Faculty today passed this letter on to the Shimer Student Alliance. Among the most striking points is confirmation of the rumor that President Lindsay told the Faculty that after the Board meeting, he would ask each one of them individually to declare their loyalty to the statement and his authority to define it. I commend the Faculty for, in the face of a ruthless tyrant whose power threatens their jobs, their brave and unwavering commitment to our College.</span></div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To the Board of Trustees of Shimer College: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The faculty supports unanimously the Assembly's recent vote to uphold the current mission statement of Shimer College. In doing so we confirm and uphold our responsibility for the College's mission itself: in a word, education.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Faculty and Assembly together, rather than President Lindsay by himself, have the standing to define the College's mission. As Chris Nelson [chair of the Board of Trustees] recently wrote, the Faculty and Assembly have for decades labored against "almost insuperable challenges" to save the College itself and greatly enrich its incomparable instructional program. But President Lindsay turns his back to this history, revealing just days ago a proposed mission statement restating "guideposts" that have been resoundingly rejected by the internal community and alumni both.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">More trying still, President Lindsay presumes to use his mission statement as a test of the Faculty's continuing commitment to the College. He has indicated to us that if the Board adopts his statement, he would ask us individually to confirm our support of it. The implied alternative was to seek employment elsewhere. Let us be clear: we reject with one voice such tests of our loyalty to Shimer College or to President Lindsay. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">President Lindsay has maintained that he wants only to clarify the College's mission, not to change it. An unsympathetic redrafting of the entire mission statement is not a clarification. Further, his intransigent insistence on the rightness of his views on education, even in the face of months of considerate attempts to qualify them and to offer alternatives, only betrays how little he understands or adheres to the College's principles for cooperative dialogue. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Such betrayals strike at the heart of our educational mission. Students complain rightly that they are admonished just to study, while their studious efforts to defend and clarify their sense of the College's mission are repeatedly dismissed. And we hear more and more from alumni troubled by the lack of harmony gripping an institution they helped build on mutual support. For our part, the Faculty has grown increasingly dismayed at the President's and even Board's seeming reluctance to affirm our necessary authority over the College's core educational program and to assure the security and freedom we must have to protect and enhance it. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We understand entirely the Board's need to support the powers necessary to the President. But to define the College's mission unilaterally and without broad approval is not one of these powers. We therefore state again our unanimous backing of the Assembly's present will to uphold the current mission statement. And we trust the Board will help in enlisting President Lindsay to this general will for the greater and lasting good of the College. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Faculty of Shimer College</span></div></blockquote><div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Legitimate College Boards don't vote against the collective will of their institutions. The gloves are off.</span></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-70477165727290901702010-02-20T15:28:00.001-08:002010-02-20T17:30:57.830-08:00Today's OutcomeI am posting this quickly, but there will be more details and feelings shared by hopefully not just me at another time. Right now I think we all need to decompress. <div><br /><div><ul><li>A large group of students assembled outside of the building in which the board would meet starting at 7:30a.m. this morning. Students held signs that read "We are 71% of the budget," "We want dialog & transparency," "Listen to your stakeholders," and "No Tuition without Representation," and remained outside until the meeting began.</li><li>After negotiations, the board of trustees allowed students to sit in the lobby next to (but separated by a wall) where the board was conducting their meeting.</li><li>The board voted 16-18 to pass Tom's mission statement.</li><li>While the board had understood that the students would relocate after the meeting so that they could eat by themselves if they chose, the students voted as a group to remain seated and conduct our own discussion about the outcome of the meeting. Campus police were called and we were threatened with the use of force, but we remained seated and continued to discuss. After this, the board expressed that it did not oppose our presence and as a result, the campus police left. </li></ul></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-30199877238988568352010-02-19T14:26:00.000-08:002010-02-19T23:22:08.657-08:00Countdown to the Board Meeting<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As expected, the Shimer floor today has been filled with anxiety. People are buzzing around having quiet conversation after quiet conversation, frantically trying to figure out exactly what's going on and what's being planned. No one I've spoken with -- including several trustees, both internal and external -- is certain what will happen during tomorrow's meeting. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One of the reasons for this uncertainty is that the Agenda is vague. One faculty member expressed that this was a good sign, mentioning that there are no items on the Agenda about governance and that whether the mission statement would be voted upon was also uncertain. Some others, like s</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">tudent trustee Heath Iverson, feel quite differently. According to Iverson, the agenda really doesn't say much of anything, which leaves room for potentially dangerous votes to be called to order. Trustee Patrick Parker is one of several trustees who have suggested that the board should -- some say </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">must </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">-- vote on the mission statement. Additionally, board chair Chris Nelson (who sent a factually inaccurate nullification of the Assembly's power to the last Assembly meeting) has expressed that he feels that internal trustees should not have voting power on the board. Even worse, certain staff members and trustees I've spoken with, who I am unable to name because of the dangerous climate Tom has created, fear that even more destructive plans may be in the works for tomorrow. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There's no question that we're all deeply worried. But students have had no trouble making light of the situation by making fun of the people who are actively working against us. Comparisons to Star Wars and </span></span><a href="http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/5240/22433126547832865215805.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the response to Tom's repeated use of Chairman Mao's words</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> have continually gained popularity, but one particular event has been just delightful to watch: certain trustees' reactions to a flyer that students have been scattering around the floor, and watching them disappear as quickly as we put them up. The flyer reads: </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b></b></span></span></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Barre Seid is the "Anonymous" Donor. </span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">These are the organizations (that we know of) to which new Shimer board members belong as well as the amounts of money they have received from the Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation. </span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Center For Individual Rights (Michael McDonald) - $60,000</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Congregation Shaare Tikvah B'nai Zion (Dennis Katz) - $401,000</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">George Mason University (F.H. Buckley) - $2,547,000</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Heartland Institute (Joe Bast) - $865,477</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Palmer Chitester Fund (Bob Chitester) - $660,000</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sam Adams Alliance (Eric O'Keefe) - $850,000</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This data can be verified by looking at </span></span></b><a href="http://www.eri-nonprofit-salaries.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=NPO.Form990&EIN=363342443&Year=2010"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the foundation's 990 forms. </span></span></b></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mr Seid also employs the following Board Members:</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Charles Lang (CFO of Tripp Lite Manufacturing. Barre Seid owns this company.)</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Jon Marineau (Employed by Fiber Bond, another company owned by Seid.) </span></span></b></span></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It sucks when your undisclosed conflicts of interest are put out in the open, doesn't it, guys?</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-64949743674244522562010-02-15T13:22:00.001-08:002010-02-15T20:54:07.902-08:00Tom Crafts Mission Statement that will likely be voted on by Board of TrusteesAs expected, Tom finally released a mission statement which will likely come before the board for approval. Take a deep breath, clear your head, and prepare to be infuriated.<br /><br /><blockquote>Founded in 1853, Shimer College, The Great Books College of Chicago, is an independent, nonsectarian institution whose mission is liberal education. The word “liberal” in “liberal education” has the same root as the word “liberty.” Liberal education at Shimer is an education for and through liberty. Agreeing with Socrates that the “unexamined life is not worth living,” Shimer finds the highest liberty to consist in the freedom of the mind; that is, in freedom from unexamined assumptions, for example, swings in intellectual fashion, partisan politics, and ideology. Liberty at its peak is thus identical with the pursuit of truth. To this end, Shimer students and faculty engage in close study of the Great Books of Western Civilization conducted through the Socratic Method. By the term, Great Books, Shimer refers to those works of world-historical significance in the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Included in the Core Curriculum are the seminal works of Plato, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein, among many<br />others.<br /><br />The Shimer community recognizes that the intellectual liberty it pursues depends on its being situated in a system of political liberty. That is, Shimer’s cultivation of free minds simultaneously transcends and depends on the political freedom enshrined in the American Constitution. This dependence, along with the College’s commitment to enhancing its students’ self-knowledge, leads it to require of all students the serious study of the Founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and The Federalist—as well as the other original sources that both informed the Founding and reacted to it.</blockquote><br /><br />It's obvious that this proposed mission statement is even more appalling than the guideposts, but given that I already wrote a lengthy article against Tom's guideposts for the mission statement and all of my arguments apply to this final proposal, I'm going to keep my commentary to a handful of bullet points:<br /><br /><ul><li>Here we see confirmation that Tom purposefully abstained from proposing a mission statement that could be officially rejected by the college. By solely disseminating "guideposts" and holding perfunctory "discussions," Tom appears to have taken our view into consideration and there will be no record of community rejection of his proposal by the time of the board meeting (February 20th). It's clear that the community stance is not anywhere to be found in his proposed mission statement, but nonetheless he will make the argument that he "consulted us." Tom did not submit any mission statement -- or even officially submit his guideposts -- to the self-study committee of the Assembly, nor did he submit a mission statement directly to the Assembly for the meeting in which we voted on a mission statement. </li><li>In the past, the Board's responsibility was simply to approve a community-approved mission statement. This makes sense, since to retain accreditation, the HLC requires community-wide support of the college's mission.<br /></li><li>Tom has said in the past that "at a school where Karl Marx and Adam Smith receive equal attention, it's impossible to have a political bias." Regardless of the outright falsity of that claim, Tom will reference the fact that he named Marx as evidence that this mission statement is "not political."<br /></li><li>The first sentence of Tom's proposed mission statement is factually inaccurate since <span style="font-style: italic;">the mission of Shimer College, </span>according to everyone at Shimer College other than Tom, is <span style="font-style: italic;">education</span>, not "<span style="font-style: italic;">liberal education." </span><br /></li><li>The first sentence of the second paragraph is also factually inaccurate, since the Shimer community overwhelmingly voices opposition to not only describing our education as the pursuit of "intellectual liberty" but also to the idea that our discourse is "situated in a system of political liberty." </li><li><span style="font-size:100%;">In a letter to the Board, idiot and trustee Bud Vesta commended Tom Lindsay for all of his "consultation." He wrote, "</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:11;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I therefore encourage and ask you to take the current mission statement, all the helpful, indeed constructive, comment and input you have received (some of which appears already to be reflected in your current revised statement) and then using your “guide posts” as principles, prepare a final draft for approval at our board meeting next week. "</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:11;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Tom Lindsay, and everyone who supports what he is doing, are morally reprehensible people who must be stopped.<br /></span></span></span></li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-54899984555739242942010-02-09T19:26:00.001-08:002010-02-09T19:28:17.742-08:00Resolutions Passed at the February 7th Assembly<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 19px; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">1. The Assembly voted to "urge" the Board of Trustees to bring to a full vote and induct the five most qualified alumni trustee candidates from the six who were tabled on January 18 by a split vote of the nominating committee.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">2. The Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm Shimer's current mission statement.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">3. The Assembly voted to agree to participate in the "Joint Task Force" to examine the May '08 changes to the Assembly Constitution and Board ByLaws under the revised terms offered by the Board Chair, Chris Nelson. Taylor Buck (student), Ann Dolinko (faculty) and Marc Hoffman (staff) were elected to serve on the task force; Albert Fernandez (faculty and speaker of the Assembly) will also serve as stated in the terms negotiated by Fernandez and Nelson. </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788233792777883860.post-2659989382953488562010-02-08T14:26:00.001-08:002010-02-16T23:26:58.257-08:00Tom's Problems with the Mission Statement<div><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div>By this point, most of us have heard Tom's main arguments for rewriting the mission statement. "A mission statement," Tom repeats like a broken record, "should say three things: who we are, what we do, and why it matters." With that in mind, his problems with the mission statement are threefold. First, there is his Aristotelian qualm; that phrasing "education for active citizenship" implicitly places our education in the service of something else, thus marking its inferiority ("...in the way that all means are inferior to their respective ends," says Tom). Secondly, "active citizenship," to Tom, is a "catch-all" phrase that could be taken to mean anything and also precludes the possibility of the "contemplative life." Thirdly, he sees "liberal education" as the quest for "intellectual liberty" or “freedom of the mind,” that is, freedom from unexamined assumptions, and he wants our mission statement to reflect that. The naming of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Federalist in our mission statement is motivated by the assertion that "to be true to our quest, we examine the context in which our inquiry takes place." The truth is that I could go on and on about any single sentence that comes out of Tom's mouth, picking apart every single problem that I have with his claims, the way he appropriates general (and often mis- or selectively interpreted) ideas in the Great Books, and even his word choice. But since I can't focus 100% of my time on resisting Tom's takeover, here I will discuss some of the arguments that have come up against his mission statement suggestions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whether or not you're a fan of Aristotle's causes -- or their sloppy application to political issues -- what's clear is that Shimer does indeed define its education in relation to a larger picture. Part of the evidence of this is the recent report released by the Assembly's self-study committee, which was charged with evaluating the community stance on the mission statement. According to their report, every submission either supported the current mission statement or suggested only the need for minor revisions. Of the suggested mission statements that were submitted, all of them included the terms "responsible action" or "active citizenship." While many expressed “strong opposition to changing the mission statement,” not a single submission expressed support for Tom's “guideposts.” And of course, in a near-unanimous vote, the assembly recently affirmed support for the current mission statement. </div><div><br /></div><div>Though the vote at Assembly was a conscious political move, the loud and clear community support of our college's mission statement is not superficial. In his open letter to faculty member Stuart Patterson, faculty member and trustee Steven Werlin writes:</div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div>[Our mission statement] both links us to our long history and says something about a view of the role of dialogical education that's worth sustaining. It links us to our history by proposing "active citizenship" as a way to understand that Shimer tries to teach us "Not to be served, but to serve." Shimer's motto [the preceding quote] specifies a certain type of engagement with the world around us as being at the heart of what we do. We are to serve, or to learn to serve. It frames the role of our College very differently, for example, from the way the motto of our siblings in Annapolis and Santa Fe frames theirs. St. John's asserts through its motto that it makes young people free. Shimer is different. Our motto is a goal, not a statement of what it is we do, and that goal is service.</div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, mission statements and traditions that coincide with Werlin's sentiment date back a very long way. Part of Shimer's uniqueness is the fact that despite our arguably dated approach to education, we think of our education as just one part of our role in society.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, Tom refuses to acknowledge or come to know what makes Shimer unique. When I asked what he saw as the mission of Shimer at Tuesday's meeting, Tom replied, "I agree with the first line of the mission statement -- that the mission of Shimer is liberal education." I had to correct him right away, since the mission statement's first line uses only the term "education," not "liberal education." The major issue, as Tom made explicit during the meeting, is that "Shimer" and "liberal education" are indistinguishable ideas. The first time this issue hit me in the face was when Heath and I interviewed Tom for our newspaper “Promulgates,” during which he said that our distinguishing features are our previous employment of the Hutchins plan and our ability to cross register at IIT. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's pretty obvious – to us at least – that Shimer sets itself apart from other Great Books colleges. If Shimer was just a B-grade version of St. Johns, why would anyone come here? Without going into every single trait that distinguishes us from other colleges, I can say that framing our education towards "active citizenship" is one of them – something that's solidified in our college's democratic governance. The latest edition of our newspaper, "Promulgates," includes a section of open letters by alumni who powerfully support the value of the college's Assembly. In his letter, alumnus, former staff member, and one of the 6 "tabled" nominees to the board, Erik Badger, writes,</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>When you put it all together, a Shimer education reveals itself not only as an academic or intellectual project. It is a political and social one, too. At our best, we not only introduce students to powerful, liberating ideas, but we cultivate the habits and skills that prepare them to meaningfully participate in and, if they see fit, transform their world. In this way, Shimer education offers not only a theoretical, but a practical education in democracy. For some time now, this has separated Shimer from other so-called “great books” programs. Indeed, it's what makes us unique.</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>But regardless of the historically and community backed ideas in the mission statement, Tom feels entitled to change it based on his own specious philosophical grounds. According to Tom, anything could be considered active citizenship -- but he also feels that the phrase excludes the possibility of the “contemplative life.” It doesn't take a genius to see that these two problems are contradictory, since if the term is all encompassing, then it would include the "contemplative life." More importantly, Shimer doesn't educate people so that they can sit in an ivory tower, “wallowing in their truth,” as student Erik Boneff put it during Assembly -- but this is how Tom thinks of Shimer. You can hear that every time he describes “liberal education” as the “superior education,” or refers to people who haven't read Aristotle as “mere culture-beings.” And just take the way he describes “freedom of the mind,” for example. When explaining “freedom of the mind” – which he also calls “the highest kind of freedom” – he often references the allegory of the cave, in which the philosopher emerges from the cave, “free of unexamined assumptions.” But as alumnus Bill Arnold pointed out at Tuesday's meeting, the allegory doesn't end there. The philosopher goes back into the cave to live amongst the “unenlightened.” While incredibly important to us, Shimer is a tiny school, and unheard of by many. To think of our education here as a mark of our superiority over the rest of society, one that turns us into some sort of free-minded super-beings, is not only arrogant but preposterous. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally is Tom's argument that including the founding American documents in the mission statement provides context. But citing the founding documents in a mission statement to the exclusion of the rest of our core has significant political implications, as those provide only one specific context and appeal to people who understand U.S. politics a certain way. Were he possessed with a greater familiarity with the Shimer curriculum and method, Tom might understand that Shimer's discourse isn't directly situated in America's founding documents. Were he less vehemently opposed to post-modern analyses of discourse, he might also understand that there are more aspects to the political context in which we live than the words penned by the founders. Regardless of how Tom supposes the mission statement will be read by an external audience, name-dropping the U.S. documents is contrary to our entire approach to education. We don't privilege one single context – or one text, for that matter – over others; we take as many viewpoints as possible seriously and evaluate them on their own terms. Name-dropping the U.S. documents in our mission statement would simply misrepresent Shimer. </div><div><br /></div><div>These are just a few of the ways that you can pick apart Tom's arguments. Unfortunately, the debate itself isn't the issue at hand. At a school where sincere dialog is our highest ideal, we find ourselves being swiftly trampled on by a President, anonymous donor, and fraudulently recruited trustees who aren't interested in listening. If Tom wanted to craft a mission statement that reflects who we are, what we do, and why it matters, he should have listened to the students, faculty, staff, and alumni sitting around him, vehemently opposing his proposed changes. Any student that has attended Shimer for a week has sat in the classroom for longer than Tom has, and it shows -- he has yet to make a single credible argument in support of how his mission statement suggestions would better reflect the college or garner any community support. This is on top of the fact that he has yet to substantially draw funds from anyone other than the anonymous donor -- who either funds the organizations of or employs all of Tom's recruited trustees. Tom's philosophical quibbles with our mission statement are simply time-buying tools that glaze over his malicious plan to dominate and transform Shimer College. While he isn't interested in a collaborative effort to further our school's mission, he is interested in our charter and accreditation, and he is establishing the power to steal them. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1