We don't believe there is anything that we can do to stop the administration of Alfred State College from dismissing this blog. From what we've seen, ASC president Uma Gupta will dismiss anyone who does not fit within her warped view of reality -- hence the departure of a host of senior administrators since her arrival in Alfred.
We are not worried about what Gupta or Bob Albrecht or Steve Tyrell or Deb Putnam or any of the other members of the president's cabinet say about this blog. At this point, their comments are meaningless.
What's important -- and what gives this blog credibility -- is the participation of staff and faculty members either anonymously or publicly as Dexter Davis did. Obviously, if more faculty and staff members were to identify themselves publicly when they comment, it would disarm those critics who might try to diminish the impact of this blog.
But we aren't concerned about that.
What we are concerned about is the willingness of ASC faculty to take a stand when the fall semester starts and take action to move Albrecht back into the classroom.
No one is going to ride to the rescue of Alfred State until the faculty makes it absolutely clear that Gupta made a mistake when she appointed Albrecht as Vice President of Academic Affairs (interim or otherwise) and that she is expected to correct that mistake immediately.
Forget about anyone else taking on Gupta and getting her to remove Albrecht as VPAA and returning him to the classroom until he retires.
The College Council had the opportunity in April to ensure that Gupta did no further damage to the college, but for political reasons decided to turn its back on the faculty, students and staff of this institution. According to our sources, the College Council asked for and received a full briefing from Jim Grillo and Karla Back about the problems with Gupta's leadership. Our sources have confirmed that much of the information we have pieced together over the past few weeks and presented here on the blog had, in large part, been known by the College Council for quite some time.
For example, the College Council was given a list of names that Gupta had identified as people she wanted to get rid of -- the rumored hit list that Gupta denies.
The College Council was aware of the Florida trip Gupta took at college expense and her inexplicable refusal to pick up a $10,000 check from a donor.
The College Council was aware of how Gupta had alienated donors, alumni, the community and destroyed long-standing relationships the college had with many, many people.
The College Council was aware of the serious shortfall in donations, the chaos in the institutional development office and Gupta's inability to raise funds.
The College Council was aware of many, many other problems at the college.
But for some inexplicable reason, the College Council turned its back on the well being of Alfred State and decided to issue a statement of support for Gupta.
We can't expect SUNY to ride in and solve the problem for us either. While there is no love for Gupta in Albany, they will likely continue to take a hands-off approach to the whole problem until either the faculty comes forward with a vote of no confidence, Gupta decides to find a job elsewhere, or the whole college is in such deep trouble that no other options are available.
In our view, the vote of no confidence is the quickest way to end ASC's misery. The odds of Gupta finding a presidency else were are, in our opinion, pretty slim given the mess she has created here and the fact that she had not one, but two votes of no confidence at the University of Houston, where she was dean. (By the way, we hear from our sources that the Provost who refused to move her out of the dean's position was later removed from office -- something the folks in Albany really should consider.)
The option of waiting until Gupta does so much damage to this college that Albany feels it must finally step in is not much of a choice. Should we as a faculty decide to wait until this happens, we can expect that the very future of this college might be in doubt -- as would the careers of most of the untenured faculty and perhaps even a number of tenured faculty as personnel and program cuts are made in order to balance budgets and salvage what is left.
While we have made it clear that we see Gupta as the source of the problems at ASC, we also have known Albrecht long enough to recognize that he needs to be removed from the office of VPAA immediately. Leaving him in place even a few more months will cause many individuals and the college as a whole tremendous harm.
Therefore, we reiterate our earlier proposal (with a little more detail) on how to handle the current crisis at Alfred State:
- Have the faculty senate call for Gupta to remove Albrecht from the position of VPAA by August 31, 2005.
- Have the faculty senate forward a written request to SUNY Central in Albany requesting they appoint an individual from outside of ASC as interim VPAA until a national search can find a permanent VPAA.
- Have the faculty senate call for a vote of no confidence in both Albrecht and Gupta for the first week of September if she does not remove Albrecht from the position of VPAA by August 31, 2005.
Only when we display our resolve will Gupta understand the depth of our concerns and only then is she likely to change her behavior.
The first step to helping her change her behavior is getting rid of Baghdad Bob.
So mark August 31 as the date for his departure and be prepared to take a stand if Gupta refuses to take the action we have requested.
