Armstrong’s appointment of Cal Poly provost was ‘faculty-driven’ effort | Opinion
Cal Poly’s ‘shared goverance’
I frequently agree with the views of my valued colleague Neal MacDougall. However, I disagree with his framing in the Oct. 2 Tribune opinion piece, “Cal Poly president endangers shared governance with provost appointment.”
I grant that if a university president secretly hired an academic administrator, then this would be an autocratic breakdown of shared governance. However, the opposite happened in the case of Al Liddicoat’s appointment.
After months of uncompensated faculty workload and a half-million dollars in external consultant fees, it is not uncommon for the president to reject the faculty’s top picks with no reasons given after formal national provost searches. Is this “time-honored, inclusive process” really the best approach in all situations?
In contrast, Al Liddicoat’s promotion was an organic, faculty-driven effort unique to a particular combination of circumstances at Cal Poly in this moment. The idea started primarily from voices among the instructional department heads and chairs, who represented the views of faculty working in their departments. Cal Poly President Jeff Armstrong then consulted with the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate. Would a formal, national provost search have given faculty more agency? No, not in this instance.
So, if this sets a precedent for faculty having more power to select their academic administrators, it is a pattern I welcome. The faculty spoke and the president listened, which I view as a shared governance victory.
Thomas D. Gutierrez
San Luis Obispo
Editor’s note: The author serves on the Academic Senate Executive Committee, though the views he expresses are his own.
Be sure to vote
The League of Women Voters urges all eligible SLO County voters to get ready to vote in the upcoming special election on Nov. 4 by registering to vote, studying fact-based information on Proposition 50, and casting an informed vote.
Vote-by-Mail ballots for the Nov. 4 election will be sent to all active, registered voters in early October. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 20. Now is the time to make sure your voter registration is up to date. To change your registration information, or if you are new to San Luis Obispo County, to register to vote go to https://cavotes.org.
There will be a single question on the ballot. Voters are asked to vote yes or no on Proposition 50, which authorizes temporary changes to California’s congressional district maps. The temporary maps will be used through 2030 and the Citizens Redistricting Commission will resume enacting congressional district maps in 2031. If approved, the measure will also establish state policy to encourage the use of independent commissions to draw voting maps nationwide.
For more information on the Nov. 4 election and for unbiased information on Proposition 50 see the League of Women Voters Easy Voter Guide available at https://cavotes.org. To see how Proposition 50 will change electoral district maps go to the statewide database at https://statewidedatabase.org.
As with every election, your vote is your voice. Make your voice heard: register to vote and cast your ballot.
Janice Langley
Joanne Schultz
Jacquie Canfield
Wendy Brown
League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County
Biased news
I am extremely tired of hearing about Charlie Kirk. It appears that the news we receive is severely biased. Melissa Hortman, a former speaker of the house in Minnesota, along with her husband and dear family dog were all murdered in June of this year. She worked so hard for this country her whole life. After the initial news of her death, nothing more was said about her.
But because Kirk was a good friend of Donald Trump he is still in the news ad nauseum. He was a right-wing dimwitted “Christian” nobody.
Susan Dei
San Luis Obispo
‘Line jumping’
Trump border czar Tom Homan was recently asked why the Trump administration is deporting immigrants who have not committed crimes and whose only problem is that they lack legal residence status in the U.S. His answer was that these people “jumped the line” and that not deporting them would be unfair to those who have lawfully applied for legal status. If the Trump regime really wants to put America first, it should base its immigration policy on our national interests, not on the interests of non-residents waiting to come here. That policy would grant amnesty to most immigrants who live, work and pay taxes here for the simple reason that it is in our national interest. Deporting them is not in our interest because it is bad for the economy, breaks up families and requires billions to be spent on detention facilities, like Alligator Alcatraz, that could be better spent on health care and infrastructure. One problem with Homan’s answer is that white South Africans have been allowed to “jump the line,” unlike brown people from Central and South America. The reality is that Trump’s policy is not about putting America first, it is about keeping brown people out.
Christopher Toews
San Luis Obispo