Rider Administration Reportedly Attempting to Gag Voices of Faculty Members

The following is an announcement at the faculty website: 

 http://www.rideraaup.net  

11/6/15
Dear Colleagues,
I have been informed that some members of the administration are warning faculty not to "scare students" by talking to them about the negative impact on the availability of majors, minors, particular courses, etc. due to the proposed layoffs and elimination of majors and minors.  Our Agreement is very clear that you have the academic freedom to speak the truth to students as you see it without the fear of retaliation. We all have the obligation of advising our students about their rights and providing them our best advise about the likely impact of the proposed layoffs and program eliminations. The AAUP will aggressively  protect those rights to the fullest extent and with every resource at out disposal.

If you have had any pressure placed on you by any member of the administration to avoid talking with your students or with others (including the press) about the administration proposals and its likely impact on the future of  Rider University  please contact me immediately.

Jeff Halpern, Chief Grievance office and Contract Administrator AAUP

Any attempt to gag the faculty at Rider University is a direct attack on student freedoms.  Students having a voice means they must have the ability to have unfettered conversations with whomever they want to dialogue with including and especially faculty. 

Therefore, interference by the administration with faculty expression, that is being reported, is direct interference with student expression.  Apparently the administration would prefer a dictatorship where it is the only voice on the matter of its unilateral cuts to majors, minors and graduate programs.

The administration attempts to silence faculty members is a sign of weakness.  The Save My Major Coalition got the drop on the administration and much of the media reports have provided a clear critique of administration action.  The coalition and student forces, the petitions, the faculty website, the letters being generated, the sentiment being expressed throughout the entire planet against these cuts has apparently taken the administration aback and it is trying to reign it in apparently by overreaching and trying to stifle the discussion, dialogue, debate and the freedoms of faculty and students.

More evidence of this is pressure that a dean at Westminster Choir College put on a student to irresponsibly change the language of a petition after over 1100 people already signed on to it.  The administration also provides coaching to students to “remain neutral” around topics of importance on the campus.  What that amounts to is not neutrality but support of whatever the administration is doing.  When things are in flux in a direction – neutrality implies support for that direction.  It is not an honorable position to take but a cowardly one.  Everybody needs to pick a side and advocate for their position.  The administration no doubt prefers if everybody rides the fence – then it can have its way!

It is absurdity beyond belief that the administration would try to silence faculty as it cuts the majors, minors and graduate programs that they teach.  It is quite the imperative for faculty to instill love for the field of study in the courses they teach.  To be silent while this is occurring would require a self loathing of ones chosen field of study and pedagogy.  It would be unfair to the students and send a message that their chosen major is as worthless as the administration is implying with these cuts.  How can you teach a subject without instilling pride in the discipline?  It is quite impossible.  

There is also a sense of arrogance by the administration that it would try to enforce any intimidation of faculty and it demonstrates a clear condescending attitude toward the student body.  The idea that students can be “scared” by faculty or anyone clearly taking a position on an issue means that the administration would like to coddle the students as if they are children.   Does the administration forget that student body is made up of fully responsible adults that must make decisions in their own interest every single day? 

 Does the administration believe that the students are not capable of evaluating competing information and deciding what side of the street to walk upon and which direction to go?  If so – then how can this administration even be in the business of education at all?  The very definition of the university is the free flow of ideas – some of them contradictory – so that the students who have different opinions to begin with – can adapt and change their opinions, reinforce them, modify them with the knowledge of new information that the university successfully delivers.

It is clear that the administration wants faculty and students to be divided.  The unity that has been demonstrated by the good work of Save My Major coalition and the faculty representative organization AAUP clearly threatens the design of the administration’s plan to undermine the university with these self destructive cuts.  The administration thus is attempting to drive a wedge between faculty and students.  

Students and AAUP are clearly on the same side of this issue.  While there might be nuanced variations on exactly what needs to be done at this point of time, only an alliance between students and faculty makes any sense.  Last year when students and families challenged the administration’s attempt to force a strike and seriously malign the quality of education, we adopted the slogan “Support Our Beloved Faculty” and together we saved the fall semester from the plan of the administration to force a strike and use scab rent-a-professors to “teach” classes.  We need to continue that unity now.

The only solution to this sort of attempt to intimidate and undermine student / faculty / family unity against the savaging of the missions of Rider University and Westminster Choir College by the Dell’ Omo administration is for there to be a unified panel discussion involving faculty, students and parents. 

Suggested panelists could be the president and head negotiator of AAUP, someone from piano department and other targeted departments, students from the piano and other targeted departments, students from the Save My Major Coalition and maybe a parent or two.  The administration can sit in the audience if they want and maybe ask a question or two.

And the administration better not stand in the way in the reservation of a sizable hall for such a meeting!

It is way past time for neutrality – it is the time for advocacy, for unity, for dialogue, for clear and open discussion and working together.  Faculty must feel comfortable to call on students to advocate for their own behalf and likewise students need to call upon faculty to assist in the full organizing and unifying of the student body.  

Expose  the administration and its attempts to stop the faculty from “scaring” students (by telling the truth about the disaster the administration is imposing upon Rider University) for the dismal failure that it is!