I am currently serving on two committees that are grappling with how parts of Miami might need to change–perhaps profoundly—in response to the emerging conditions in higher ed and at Miami. I am convinced that those challenges are real and serious. And to be frank, I am worried. This is not a manufactured crisis. The seriousness of those challenges is what make me very concerned about the proposal to suspend this faculty committee. And I’m worried for two reasons.
First, if Miami is going to succeed, it will need effective and creative leadership from every level of our administration more than ever before. The idea that Miami would, at this very moment, end a process in which those leaders get feedback from the people they are leading seems terribly unwise. It suggests serious fragility of leadership, not strength.
To “end a process in which those leaders get feedback from the people they are leading…suggests serious fragility of leadership, not strength.”
Second, to respond to the challenges we face, Miami will also need all hands on deck. Innovation—the kind Miami desperately needs—will not come from administrative fiat. To think that it could is a destructive fantasy. Faculty will be part of the process one way or the other and to silence or marginalize faculty input at this particular moment in the way this proposal does, is terribly unwise.
“If faculty and administration work together—if we all see each other as partners—we will have a better chance of succeeding.”
I urge Miami’s administrative leaders to see the energy and passion that led so many faculty to attend this meeting as a resource and sign of hope for Miami’s future, not a road block. And I would say the same thing about the energy and passion behind the union. If faculty and administration work together—if we all see each other as partners—we will have a better chance of succeeding. In fact, that may be our only chance.
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