2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Forum
- Page 1 of 1
Dear Guilford Community,
Last week I decided to resign a year earlier than expected from the college. I had planned to stay through the spring of 2008 to assist the History Department in its search for my replacement (and to collect my full Social Security), but have become increasingly concerned about the direction in which the College has moved over the past several years.
Although very pleased with long-needed improvements in the physical plant which have made the campus beautiful, there has been a growing tendency toward hierarchy and authoritarianism, qualities that we publicly do not espouse and which have resulted in the decline of morale among a significant number of faculty and staff (admittedly not all).
Several administrative decisions about international programs, made without consultation with those involved, have affected me personally. One was the decision to undo an effective, coordinated structure for our international programs, a structure recommended by an outside evaluator and later approved by the corporate faculty and the Board of Trustees.
Most recently, a decision was made to move a major Asian Studies grant from my direction to that of another faculty member without notifying me.
In the larger scheme of things, I am unimportant; but the trend of some administrators to make significant decisions without notifying or allowing consultation is worrisome to Guilford College as a Quaker institution.
In addition, I have become progressively more dismayed by the culture of fear I perceive on campus, especially among junior faculty, by a kind of emotional abuse used to repress alternative ways of seeing, and by the fact that there is often no avenue to redress grievances.
These are the reasons for my unexpected resignation.
Dorothy V. Borei
Professor of East Asian History
Last week I decided to resign a year earlier than expected from the college. I had planned to stay through the spring of 2008 to assist the History Department in its search for my replacement (and to collect my full Social Security), but have become increasingly concerned about the direction in which the College has moved over the past several years.
Although very pleased with long-needed improvements in the physical plant which have made the campus beautiful, there has been a growing tendency toward hierarchy and authoritarianism, qualities that we publicly do not espouse and which have resulted in the decline of morale among a significant number of faculty and staff (admittedly not all).
Several administrative decisions about international programs, made without consultation with those involved, have affected me personally. One was the decision to undo an effective, coordinated structure for our international programs, a structure recommended by an outside evaluator and later approved by the corporate faculty and the Board of Trustees.
Most recently, a decision was made to move a major Asian Studies grant from my direction to that of another faculty member without notifying me.
In the larger scheme of things, I am unimportant; but the trend of some administrators to make significant decisions without notifying or allowing consultation is worrisome to Guilford College as a Quaker institution.
In addition, I have become progressively more dismayed by the culture of fear I perceive on campus, especially among junior faculty, by a kind of emotional abuse used to repress alternative ways of seeing, and by the fact that there is often no avenue to redress grievances.
These are the reasons for my unexpected resignation.
Dorothy V. Borei
Professor of East Asian History
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