Dictatorial Chancelor

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANNOUNCED POLICLY OF CLOSING CAMPUS TO A POLITICAL ASSEMBLY.

                I have  studied the rules of the University of Colorado as published by the Board of Regents. Chancellor DiStephano is either intentionally ignoring them, arrogantly bypassing them, or receiving assurances that his position is what the Regents really want, but to maintain a position of deniability.

               The conduct of the administration is a blatant violation of stated principals.  Not only that, but the administration’s rationalizations are insulting.  Any administrator who is unaware of the number of classes being taught at 4:30 on a Friday is incompetent, deceptive or ignorant.  Additionally, a short rally cannot conceivably be interfering with any research, let alone be disruptive.  The administration wants the public to believe speech is free unless it is inconvenient or controversial.  I write this critique with the hope that the regents will review the conduct of the administration and that the faculty will call for a vote of no confidence.  It has been 50+ years since I first enrolled in the University, which at that time was striving to be the Harvard of the West, in spite of McCarthyism.  I weep now to see the institution once striving to be the General Motors Institute of the west plunging toward trade school status.  Hopefully, someone will be courageous enough to change things.

               The following is from the rules and regulations of the University of Colorado.  My comments are in Bold face print.

MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

The University of Colorado is a public research university with multiple campuses serving Colorado, the nation and the world through leadership in high-quality education and professional training, public service, advancing research and knowledge, and state-of-the-art health care.

Each campus has a distinct role and mission as provided by Colorado law.

(Laws of the Regents, Article 1, Part C. Adopted 02/11/2010.)

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Article 1, Part C of the Laws of the Regents establishes the mission of the University of Colorado. Consistent with the legal obligations and responsibilities of the University of Colorado community, the university will:

1. Encourage and provide access to the university for all qualified students within the university’s capacity.  A blockade certainly can’t fit this principal.  I rather suspect that many of those who plan to attend the assembly are probably more qualified intellectually and certainly ethically than the current chancellor’s office.
2. Maintain a commitment to excellence. .  Is the 21^st Century the equivalent of book-burning excellence, or is it a dive into mediocrity or worse.  It is calculated to pander to the business interest that give money to the university?  Is this any different?
3. Promote and uphold the principles of ethics, integrity, transparency, and accountability.  There is no way the closing of campus upholds the principals of ethics and integrity.  It is a transparent ploy for publicity to propagandize a false image at the expense of the students, rather than  buying advertising, showing a judge Judy, zero tolerance, totalitarian response to a reasonable debate is arbitrary and contrary the tradition of the University.
4. Be conscientious stewards of the university’s human, physical, financial, information, and natural resources.  Spending funds to police students exercising rights, promoting an expensive concert as an attempted bribe to the students, thereby insulting their integrity, and improper stewardship of its human resources.  Threatening to wreck their futures with exposure is unconscionable.
5. Encourage, honor, and respect teaching, learning, and academic culture.  There is no way closing of the campus forwards any of these legal obligations and responsibility to the university community.  It is destructive and divisive to any sense of community.  The actions show disdain for the concept of respect for teaching or academic community, making a mockery of such.
6. Promote faculty, student, and staff diversity to ensure the rich interchange of ideas in the pursuit of truth and learning, including diversity of political, geographic, cultural. How can there possible be an exchange of ideas , culture, political, intellectual and philosophical perspectives, when divergent ideas and views are banned?  This is particularly insulting when brought in the name of class instruction and research. 
7. Encourage and support innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels of the university including research and creative activities.  Closing campus certainly doesn’t support research and creative activities.
8. Strive to meet the needs of the State of Colorado, including health care, technology, work force training, and civic literacy.  The needs of Colorado is to promote an intellectual climate that attracts thinking persons, not robots.
9. Ensure that the university is an economic, social, and cultural catalyst.  The ban is contrary to the concept of such a catalyst.
10. Support and encourage collaboration amongst departments and campuses, and between the university and other educational institutions to improve our communities.  Promoting totalitarian authoritarian edicts against Constitutional Assembly cannot improve communities. Stigmatizing some students is divisive and harmful to the student and the University.
11. Provide an outstanding, respectful, and responsive living, learning, teaching, and working environment.  The in your face policy of the administration is certainly not respectful of any of these.  It is bigoted and anti-intellectual.
12. Focus on meaningful measurable results.  I suppose cracked skulls, tickets and police expenditures are measurable results, but are they meaningful?

(Regent Policy 1.B: University of Colorado Legal Origins, Guiding Principles, Principles of Ethical Behavior. Approved 02/11/2010; revised 06/24/2010.)