Comments on Owen Cargol and ABOR  (Web Exclusive)

 Flagstaff Tea Party invited some of its members to comment on the controversial selection of Owen Cargol as the new president of Northern Arizona University. We also asked members to comment on the coverage of this issue by the Arizona Daily Sun. The comments we received are reprinted below:

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The remarks of Board president Ulrich are entirely consistent with the corporatizing of universities which is almost a done deal. It will be complete if faculty follow the highly predictable advice of Daily Sun editors and just "get over it" Some of us just refuse to see that these Big Daddies know what's best.

Norm Wallen

Flagstaff

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I feel his salary, including the transportation and home allotment, is incredibly high for NAU's small university budget. My husband has said that the last President was more interested in cultural integration and programming than fostering higher academic standards and department curricula. What is HIS focus? Also, I would be interested in reading about Cargol's effectiveness at the last job he had in more DETAIL.

Irina Froning

Flagstaff

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Here's some thoughts concerning ABOR, the Daily Sun, and indirectly President Cargol. I am a professor of Humanities at NAU and a member of the faculty senate.

We live in an interesting time.  The world's population just reached the 6 billion mark, and it will soon be 10 billion; the World Wide Web is changing the way we get information and communicate; plants and animals are going extinct at the rate of 30,000 per year (up from the background rate of one species per year); trade barriers are falling around the world; the Soviet Union no longer exists (although many of its 6 thousand nuclear warheads still do); the United States recently awarded communist China most favored nation status; over half of the world's top economies belong to private corporations, not nations; and the Nile, the Yellow River,  the Ganges, and the Colorado River run dry before returning to the sea.  The world we live in today is very unlike the world in the past, and the world of the future, assuming that there is a human future, will be very different than today. In light of all of this novelty, what should the university look like--and more specifically, what should NAU look like-- and who should decide?

This to my mind is the big question that has been almost entirely overlooked in the recent hiring of NAU's new president. Should higher education focus on the new economy, or should it focus on the environment? 

Should it seek, first and foremost, on preparing students to enter the job market, or on becoming thoughtful citizens and complex human beings?  Should it focus on research or on teaching, and what kind of research and what kind of teaching?  These are matters that, to my mind, need to be openly debated and discussed.

I have seen little indication that ABOR has given these matters much thought or that they are interested in talking about them. Indeed, the impression given by regent's Ulrich recent tirade against the NAU faculty is that it is presumptuous and inappropriate for anyone to disagree with ABOR on any issue or to even bring matters to their attention for consideration. Surely this is not the best way to decide important matters.

The Daily Sun has, in my estimation, failed to understand the importance of what is being decided and has unfairly characterized the deep concern of NAU faculty members as simply a failure to understand the realities of politics or to bow to authority. 

We all wish President Cargol well in his new position, but what is less clear is what it will mean for him to succeed.  More students, more funding, and more faculty would be nice, but that in itself cannot be counted as success unless we are moving in the right direction.  ABOR has squandered the perfect opportunity to begin an important discussion, and alienated many of NAU's faculty in the process.

However, we must move forward.  It is now time for President Cargol and NAU's faculty to define the course of higher education at NAU. There is no more important task.

Marcus Ford

Flagstaff

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Here are my thoughts regarding Cargol's appointment in particular, and state university appointments in general:

I have lived in Flagstaff for less than two years, but I taught within the State University of New York for over 30 years, so I have watched the general direction of university systems over that time. I have seen universities drift from institutions of higher learning toward training schools as the work place has demanded more compliant workers and valued a well rounded liberal education less and less.

I have also seen the management of those university centers drift from leadership by true academics who are willing to take over presidencies, to "leadership" by supposedly "professional"  managers who often are brought in from outside and who usually stay just long enough to make the institution a bit less of a center for learning and a bit more a training academy.

But most disheartening, I have seen the right wing take over state regents and hire the least competent because  those are the easiest to manipulate. I have seen it in New York, and it seems to be true here as well.

I read the Daily Sun's description of the regent's outburst and I also read the follow-up letter from one of the professors who was there. Unfortunately the reporting of this event, like so many others which happen locally, is only superficial, and clearly has a particular bias.

Now we can all agree that bias is inevitable, but the continued bias of The Daily Sun's local reporting does help to explain why so few Flagstaffians bother to read it. Why is there such a low circulation saturation by the local daily? Perhaps the superficiality and bias of the reporting is the answer.

I confess I have a daily subscription to The Daily Sun, but sometimes poor, inaccurate reporting is better than none at all. I also support The Flagstaff Tea Party. I know that a monthly can not take the place of a daily. But at least the Tea Party goes into some depth on important issues. It's too bad there isn't enough financial support to make The Flagstaff Tea Party a daily. But then,  it's advertising dollars which drive our news, not the other way around. When you think of it, the media have gone the same way as our public universities--money is driving both systems, not  the desire for knowledge.

Richard Koepsell
Professor of English, retired
Erie Community College
Buffalo, NY,
now of Flagstaff

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Thank you for the arena in which to express my thoughts re: Owen Cargol's appointment.

First, I have nothing against Owen Cargol.  I do not know him and doubt our paths will often cross.

My thoughts regarding his appointment have to do with ABOR's ignoring the NAU faculty's choices, feeling and comments.  When I was in the working world I, too, faced the times when the "bosses" thought their opinions were more knowledgeable, important and substantive than those of us who worked directly with the situation at hand, and therefore laid the law irrespective of our firsthand knowledge and experience.  It is "big business ego" at its grandest!

The operative word here is "irrespective".  ABOR's choice shows nasty disrespect for those who will be working directly with Owen Cargol, or any NAU President.  The professor’s opinions and "gut feelings" should have come first before all else because it takes well aligned teamwork to create a great school, and a supportive teaching environment for the students who pay to attend.

The NAU Presidential selection process was rather like a championship football game being played and the team owners, ignoring the coaches, are calling all the plays from their distant backyards, yet they rarely if ever have been at the trainings or even in the locker room.

ABOR's ego has shone grandly.  I have confidence our NAU faculty has far more intelligence to overcome the affront than ABOR has shown in their selection process. 

Judy Jung 
Flagstaff