The President Has Spoken, and Edinboro U. Is Reeling

H. Fred Walker, president of Edinboro University, said recently that he knew he would never be able to reason with his faculty. That will be a lot harder to do now.

In the wake of a Chronicle article published on Sunday, faculty members and students at Edinboro, a financially struggling public university in northwest Pennsylvania, say that the president may have irrevocably fractured trust with the campus.

The Chronicle’s article laid out the details of what the president described as an orchestrated news media campaign to gin up support for a series of painful program cuts and possible faculty layoffs.

In a series of interviews, Walker described the university’s unionized professors both as allies to be won over and as obstacles to be worked around. Walker did this, he said, by delivering grim treatises on the future of the institution, all part of a “boot camp” strategy that was designed to break the institution down to its lowest level before trying to build it back up.

The president has apologized for his remarks, but there is talk on campus about a possible vote of no-confidence in him. Students have created a petition calling on Walker to resign.

Marc A. Sylvester, president of Edinboro’s faculty union, said he was dismayed by Walker’s comments.

“If my university president is saying in no way can he reason with the faculty, it makes it very hard for us to move forward and get to a position of trust,” Sylvester said. “There were things that struck a chord with me that are very difficult to swallow. When I read the article, I was really shocked.”

In an initial statement about the article, Walker said that he had intended to highlight the positive developments at Edinboro. Instead, he said, “my own words created the story.”

When asked Wednesday about how he planned to rebuild trust, Walker provided another statement to The Chronicle, taking issue with the article.

“There was a significant lack of balance and accuracy in the initial story,” Walker said. “In particular, there was no information provided about the progress that has been made in ensuring a vibrant future for Edinboro University. We have made strides to stabilize the university and ensure future growth. The primary focus must be on doing what is best for the university and our students, which means continuing our forward momentum.”

Walker’s blunt style is part of his public brand, and in some quarters it is seen as an asset. Edinboro’s enrollment has dropped by 35 percent over seven years, and demographic projections for students of traditional college age are bleak. So a bit of straight talk about hard choices seems in order. At the same time, professors say, Walker’s comments convey a distaste for the faculty that had previously gone unspoken.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Sylvester said. “Look, I’m under no false illusion that this president was an incredible fan of working with the union, although he often suggested he was. I could see there was stress in being in this kind of environment, but some of the comments he’s made are things I’ve never seen before.”

‘Wag the Dog’ Strategy

According to three sources with direct knowledge, Walker privately described his publicity campaign as part of a Wag the Dog strategy, referencing the 1997 film about a spin doctor who concocts a fake war that is played out on television. The sources asked for anonymity to describe private conversations with Walker, who later told The Chronicle that he had referenced the film only as an example of the power of the news media in shaping public opinion.

Now, public opinion is a problem for Walker. The president’s remarks have generated local news coverage and reinvigorated debate about double-digit program cuts at the university.

Edinboro’s faculty members plan to meet on Thursday to discuss how to respond. Sylvester declined to say what the options might be, but other professors have mentioned a no-confidence vote or letter of censure as possible outcomes.

Throughout his tenure, Walker has preached a policy of hyper-transparency. He involved a broad base of professors and administrators in a process of expedited program review, which led to significant program eliminations. But his comments about crafting public perception and outmaneuvering professors have only exacerbated concerns that the collaborative process was for show.

“There have been a lot of working groups and task forces that have been a lot of busy work, where it was claiming to create transparency,” said Elisabeth Joyce, an English professor. “But it felt to me like the outcome was predetermined.”

“I would say trust is pretty much out the window at this point,” she continued. “There wasn’t a lot of trust to begin with. At this point it would be a miracle if he regained our trust.”

Walker’s comments have consumed the faculty, Joyce said, for whom “work stopped this week.” His apology appears to have done little to mollify the campus.

“He’s not apologizing for his strategy, where he was trying to play us,” Joyce said. “He was apologizing that he was so open. I don’t think he’s going to change anything about how he treats us.”

Board Holds Its Tongue

Despite consternation among students and professors, Edinboro’s Council of Trustees, the governing board of the university, has not publicly criticized Walker. Dennis R. Frampton, chairman of the council, issued a statement on Wednesday that praised the work of the university without any specific mention of Walker or the office of the president.

“Important aspects of the Edinboro University story were omitted from the article,” Frampton said. “When faced last year with financial and other challenges, many of which are the same that most institutions of higher learning are facing across the country, the entire Edinboro University community came together to both identify the scope of our issues and to develop a plan to address them. Our approach was one of working in partnership with all members of the academy and our stake holders to tackle the challenges head-on.”

The university’s statements on Wednesday challenged the accuracy of The Chronicle’s report rather than responding to Walker’s direct quotations, which are the source of the controversy on campus.

When asked to clarify any inaccuracies, Angela Burrows, a university spokeswoman, took issue with The Chronicle’s assertion that Edinboro had “raided” reserves, when it would have been more accurate, she said, to say that the university had “dipped into reserves, but not significantly.” (The university, over the past three years, has run deficits of $3.2 million or 1.2 percent of revenues, she said).

Burrows also said that The Chronicle, in describing the program cuts at Edinboro, neglected to state that some programs had been “transitioned” to other majors that met “market demands.”

The state Board of Governors, which has hiring and firing authority over university presidents, has made no public statements about Walker’s remarks. The state system’s media-relations office did not respond on Wednesday to a request for comment from Karen M. Whitney, interim chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

Kenneth M. Mash, statewide president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculties, the union that includes Edinboro’s faculty, said that he did not see how Walker could lead effectively at this point.

“My individual reaction when I read it was, ‘Boy you need to resign,’” Mash said. “How do you recover when you come out and say I can’t reason with my faculty? How do you ever return to the level of trust that is really important for leadership? It raises a lot of questions about his future at the university.”

Mash said he had expressed his concerns privately to Whitney, but declined to discuss her response.

“I would hope that there would be some indication coming from the leadership at the state system of higher education that this is not appropriate behavior at the very least, if not some personnel action,” Mash said.

Burrows, the university’s spokeswoman, did not respond to a question by email about whether the Council of Trustees plans to meet about Walker.

Michelle M. Vitali, an art professor at Edinboro, said that Walker had brought unnecessary turmoil to an institution that has had more than its fair share of turnover at the top. Walker is Edinboro’s fifth president in the past decade.

“My own reaction was definitely heartbreak and deep frustration, and I guess exhaustion,” Vitali said. “This is just exhausting, because we work incredibly hard.”

Several professors said that they were particularly disheartened by comments that Walker made about a student, Dylan C. Hollingsworth, who had helped to start a petition to save the music program, which was among the eliminated majors. Walker, who has since apologized to the student, questioned whether Hollingsworth had sincere motivations for opposing the cuts or simply sought a distraction from a recent death in his family.

“I don’t think there is a faculty member that I have spoken with that did not bring up the comment about the student,” Vitali said. “People were nearly apoplectic at that one quote. I’m shaking as I’m talking about it to you. It was devastating to all of us. I can also say the students are in revolt mode.”

At the time of publication, an online student petition calling on Walker to resign had generated more than 500 signatures.

Jillian R. Melchitzky, a music-education major who organized the petition, said that students are fed up with what she described as Walker’s “fear-mongering.”

“He has repeatedly compared the university to a business,” she said. “And if we are the customers, then we want him to know that we are unhappy.”

Jack Stripling covers college leadership, particularly presidents and governing boards. Follow him on Twitter @jackstripling, or email him at jack.stripling@chronicle.com.