2008 Woodie Awards
Decision to leave MS3 in PREE unfair to both faculty, students
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
I wish to express my disappointment for the recent decision of the SRU administration about leaving the sustainable systems program (MS3) in the department of parks and recreation/environmental education. Several months of meetings, discussions, negotiations, presentations, proposals, the geography, geology and the environment department consultation and vote served only to decide at the end of maintaining the "status quo."
What a waste of time! PREE emerges unjustifiably victorious from this diatribe, which started in Jan. 2004, when Mr. Bruce Boliver (PREE chair) attempted to seek the support of the faculty to place the program in academic moratorium. The rationale for such a drastic and reductionist vision is low enrollment in MS3 and Professor Steven Doherty and I are blamed to have failed to recruit students into the program. This is the simplistic formula that enlightened the decision-makers to resolve a 15-year old challenge (as MS3 was only temporarily housed in PREE due to the unexpected loss of its founder, Professor Robert A. Macoskey), in a way for which nobody may ever be blamed for making a wrong decision.
Dr. Doherty has been terminated and will not come back next fall. My tenure application could be rejected, but I may be allowed to remain for two more semesters to teach a couple of courses that MS3 students need in order to complete their curriculum. Then, I may be dismissed as well, as I was not recommended for tenure by the PREE chair and department earlier this year.
Once again, the appearance is that MS3 is preserved, Mr. Boliver and the SRU administration have succeeded in saving a unique curriculum at the end of its cyclical 4-5 year crisis, and that "the morale" will gain momentum again as PREE is planning new recruitment strategies for its graduate programs (but not for MS3 I am afraid!).
Well, this decision is extremely questionable to me and I never thought that this could have been enacted as the final outcome in support of "sustainability at the Rock" (especially after all the hard work of Dr. Doherty and I through the years, and our sincere commitment to give MS3 the academic credibility that it gained since fall 2000).
I wish to express my disappointment for the recent decision of the SRU administration about leaving the sustainable systems program (MS3) in the department of parks and recreation/environmental education. Several months of meetings, discussions, negotiations, presentations, proposals, the geography, geology and the environment department consultation and vote served only to decide at the end of maintaining the "status quo."
What a waste of time! PREE emerges unjustifiably victorious from this diatribe, which started in Jan. 2004, when Mr. Bruce Boliver (PREE chair) attempted to seek the support of the faculty to place the program in academic moratorium. The rationale for such a drastic and reductionist vision is low enrollment in MS3 and Professor Steven Doherty and I are blamed to have failed to recruit students into the program. This is the simplistic formula that enlightened the decision-makers to resolve a 15-year old challenge (as MS3 was only temporarily housed in PREE due to the unexpected loss of its founder, Professor Robert A. Macoskey), in a way for which nobody may ever be blamed for making a wrong decision.
Dr. Doherty has been terminated and will not come back next fall. My tenure application could be rejected, but I may be allowed to remain for two more semesters to teach a couple of courses that MS3 students need in order to complete their curriculum. Then, I may be dismissed as well, as I was not recommended for tenure by the PREE chair and department earlier this year.
Once again, the appearance is that MS3 is preserved, Mr. Boliver and the SRU administration have succeeded in saving a unique curriculum at the end of its cyclical 4-5 year crisis, and that "the morale" will gain momentum again as PREE is planning new recruitment strategies for its graduate programs (but not for MS3 I am afraid!).
Well, this decision is extremely questionable to me and I never thought that this could have been enacted as the final outcome in support of "sustainability at the Rock" (especially after all the hard work of Dr. Doherty and I through the years, and our sincere commitment to give MS3 the academic credibility that it gained since fall 2000).
