• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

First Class Mail U.S. Postage PAID Lancaster PA The College Reporter Permit 901 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF FRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016 LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA http://www.the-college-reporter.com VOLUME 52, ISSUE 19 Mount St. Mary’s faculty fired by president after opposing rentention rate plan BY STEVEN VIERA jective.” Senior Editor Rehm and others raised issue not At Mount St. Mary’s University in only with the plan itself, but also with Maryland, faculty opposition to a plan the language that Newman used to de- to improve the school’s retention rate scribe struggling first-year students. has led to multiple firings by Simon “This is hard for you because you Newman, president of the Universi- think of the students as cuddly bun- ty. These firings have drawn national nies, but you can’t,” Newman said to attention, prompting a debate on the the faculty. “You just have to drown importance of tenure and inspiring the bunnies…put a Glock to their protests by members of the higher ed- heads.” ucation community. Following Rehm’s dismissal, two David Rehm, provost at Mount St. other faculty were fired, including Mary’s, was dismissed from his du- Thane M. Naberhaus, former profes- ties as provost on Friday, February 5, sor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s although he retained his faculty po- University; Naberhaus was a tenured sition. According to the article “Pro- professor whose firing came without vost Loses Job After Opposing “Bun- photo courtesy of fredericknewspost.com any advance notice or professional ny-Drowning Plan” published on Simon Newman, president of Mount St. Mary’s University, dismissed three review. Newman, in his message fir- Inside Higher Ed, Rehm challenged faculty from their jobs over criticism of his plan to boost retention rates. ing Naberhaus, accused him of dis- Newman’s plan to bolster the Univer- so that they aligned more closely with “My short-term goal is to have 20- loyalty to the University for speaking sity’s retention rate. While Mount St. other small, liberal arts colleges. His 25 people leave by the 25th [of Sep- out against the president’s policies Mary’s retention rate sits above the na- plan included distributing a survey to tember],” Newman said in leaked and forbade him from re-entering the tional average—66 percent graduation first-year students, who would be told emails to the Mount St. Mary’s fac- campus. for six-year full-time first-time stu- there were no wrong answers, then ulty. “This one thing will boost our “I love this institution and what it’s dents and 78 percent of first-year stu- using their responses to determine retention rate 4-5 percent. A larger been and what it could be,” Naberhaus dents return for a second year—New- which first-years to encourage to drop committee or group needs to work on man aimed to increase those numbers out early. the details but I think you get the ob- see FIRINGS, page 2 National stipulations, confusion mark Fair Practices Committee explores controvery over Debate on Fraternities bias reporting system during forum BY JULIA CINQUEGRANI al headquarters and that individuals BY ERIN MOYER make a recommendation based on Editor-in-Chief should not be signing on to participate Senior Editor their study. The questions the Com- The national headquarters of sev- without the appropriate permissions. On Tuesday, the Committee on Fair mittee was currently exploring, An- eral fraternities and sororities at F&M The national headquarters of three Practices hosted a forum about bias thony said, were the pros and cons of have discouraged their members from of F&M’s seven social fraternities reporting. The forum, held in the Weis a bias reporting system and how one attending the “Debate on Fraternities” have prohibited their members from Great Room, explained the Commit- would be created. that is being hosted by F&M’s Debate participating in the debate. tee’s current work in exploring wheth- Anthony then outlined the Com- Team and will be held on Tuesday, “It’s not really an issue of er or not the College should have a mittee’s process in preparing a rec- March 1. whether individual people on this bias reporting system, and if so, what ommendation for the Office of the Stuart Umberger, director of Frater- campus do or do not want to be in- it should be like. Provost. Over Winter Break, the nity and Sorority Life, and the presi- volved, but the [fraternity] national Douglas Anthony, associate profes- Committee assembled a group of 30 dents of the Interfraternity Council headquarters saying no,” said James sor of history and chair of the Com- schools comparable to the College (IFC) and the Panhellenic Council Galasso ’17, president of the IFC. mittee on Fair Practices, mediated the who do have bias reporting systems in (PHC) cited concerns about the struc- The IFC, which is comprised of forum. He began the discussion by place. The Committee members then ture and content of the debate as the leaders of F&M’s fraternities and pro- explaining the Committee’s current distilled the list of 30 colleges into a reasoning behind some Greek organi- motes fraternal best practices and en- work. As Anthony explained to those list of ten worth examining in more zations’ discouragement of members’ forces policies, has not reached a deci- in attendance, the College does not depth. The Committee has since begun participation in the debate. sion yet on how involved they want to have a formal system in place with to interview the colleges whose sys- In an email sent on Monday, Feb- be in the debate. The Debate Team has which members of the campus com- tems they are studying. As of Tuesday, ruary 8 by Umberger to sorority and invited fraternity members to partici- munity may report incidents of bias. the Committee had had several sub- fraternity leaders, he wrote that events pate in the debate’s pro-fraternity side The Office of the Provost had asked stantive conversations with the other of this nature require review and ap- the Committee to survey the bias re- proval from an organization’s nation- see DEBATE, page 2 portings systems of other colleges and see FORUM, page 2 Inside this Issue... Opinion & Editorial Arts & Entertainment “All-White Oscar nominees One cooking channel, hold spark ire on social media” the diversity, please page 4 page 7 Campus Life Sports Vagina Monologues brings Campus athletic facilities feminist discourse to F&M found wanting page 6 page 10 Page 2 News The College Reporter Page 3 The College Reporter Hunt’s Crime Watch Firings: Professors overwhelmingly call for Opinion & Editorial president’s resignation, faculty reinstated This week, The College Reporter was unable to secure the crime logs Staff Writer Commentary from the Department of Public Safety (DPS). We apologize for the incon- continued from page 1 down to 10. On F&M’s campus, the venience, and we will have the logs published as soon as possible! said in response, as reported by the ar- local AAUP chapter drafted a petition ticle “Purge at the Mount” published and called for professors to sign it. Letter to the Editor: on Inside Higher Ed. “I think I’ve “As a university, it is bound by the The College Reporter Corrections Policy been loyal to the Mount. Who deter- standards that govern any such insti- Dean of the College responds to diversity concerns of Greek life mines that I’m not loyal? And how? tution in respect of its faculty,” the pe- College Reporter article where across campus. we can achieve our shared goal The College Reporter welcomes comments and suggestions, as well as information about substan- How can you fire someone this way?” tition reads. “We call for these faculty tive errors of fact that call for correction. Contact us via email at [email protected] or at (717) BY MARGARET HAZLETT he encourages his fellow Greek Meanwhile, my door is always of making Franklin & Marshall a 291-4095. The other individual fired was Ed- to be reinstated immediately, and the Dean of the College members to work collaboratively open to work with students on more welcoming and respectful The College Reporter Story Idea Submission Policy ward Egan, an alumnus who had been administration held accountable for [email protected] with a broad and diverse group these and other issues of diversity environment for all students on The College Reporter welcomes story ideas from the college community. If you have or your serving as faculty adviser to Mount this violation of their rights.” and inclusion. Working together, campus. organization has an idea for a Reporter story, email it to us at [email protected] with the subject St. Mary’s student newspaper, The However, in the week following the o the Editors of The College of student organizations across heading “Campus Story Idea” by Monday at noon the week before publication. Story ideas will be Reporter: campus, which also points out the accepted at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Mountain Echo. According to “Purge firings, Newman reinstated the faculty T at the Mount,” last month, The Moun- he dismissed, although Rehm will not As most of us on campus value of creating social spaces for Full Staff Opinion tain Echo published details surround- return to his position as provost and know, the Franklin & Marshall all students. Are you interested in writing about ing the debate over retention rates Naberhaus has vowed not to return as community currently is engaged At the same time, it is We Are Who We Are: along with Newman’s comments.

Load more

  6

Copy Link