Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Editorial: Radford still must cut
Administrators reverse course on two firings, but the hard work remains ahead.
From the RoundTable blog
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Radford University last week offered to rehire two administrators it had fired just a few weeks before. That reversal comes from an administration that seems to be reeling in the face of massive state funding reductions.
Michael Dunn and Marc Jacobsen led Radford's New Student Programs and Services Office until the university put them on administrative leave, the first step toward firing them. Their terminations came unexpectedly, and the administration handled it with a distinct lack of compassion and courtesy.
The campus community rallied around the duo. Now the school has shuffled their program into another department and offered them their jobs back.
After such shabby treatment, it would be hard to blame them if they declined.
Meanwhile, President Penelope Kyle said the firings surprised her. That reflects poorly on her and her team. Did a lone administrator go off half-cocked? Are internal avenues of communication so poor that the president was really out of the loop on controversial firings?
Virginians should wonder whether this public university's leadership has the skills and the administrative culture to deal successfully with the $6.4 million worth of cuts it still must make. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and taxpayers all await a comprehensive plan.
Whatever cuts Kyle's team chooses will certainly be difficult.
Indeed, Dunn and Jacobsen's positions might exist once again, but they must be on the table like everything else. Despite what has happened, they are not special. Kyle's administration must look dispassionately at the options and eliminate spending.
The goal now is to minimize harm to students. Uncertainty and second-guessing decisions do not help.
