GODDARD'S GREENE SAYS HE HAS NO PLANS TO STEP ASIDE
PLAINFIELD -- Goddard College President Richard E. Greene, who has been under intense fire from some students, faculty and staff for the past two weeks because of his management style, said he has no plans to leave the school.
Greene said during an interview Tuesday that he has no plans to step down as Goddard's president.
Faculty members at Goddard last week issued a vote of no confidence in Greene because they said his administration is "threatening the very soul of the college in placing its long tradition of progressive education in jeopardy."
"Furthermore, he is seriously mismanaging the finances and the operation of the college, and employing a 'management style' that is demoralizing staff, faculty, and students. We have no confidence in his leadership at this point and feel he must resign immediately," the faculty said in a letter it sent to Jane O'Meara Sanders, the chairwoman of Goddard's Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees however appears to be standing behind Greene, who was hired in July 1994 to straighten out Goddard's finances.
Sanders said the trustees have no plans at this time to call a special meeting to seek Greene's resignation.
The executive committee of the Board of Trustees has met to discuss the situation, and is trying to address some of the issues raised by the students, faculty, and staff about Greene's management style, Sanders said.
The executive committee has asked the faculty for more information, and is taking their concerns "very seriously," Sanders said.
So far, the Board of Trustees has not issued an official response to the faculty vote of no confidence, but Sanders said there might be one release sometime early next week.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees won't be held until June 14 and 15.
Meanwhile, a rally to "Support Democracy and Goddard" will be held at noon Thursday.
Katherine Kavanagh, an off-campus student, said the rally, which will feature the Bread and Puppet Theater, is designed to be a celebration of "what Goddard is suppose to be about."
Kavanagh, like faculty members, claim Greene has engaged in unfair labor practices, violated Goddard's democratic principles, and mismanaged the college's finances.
"As a community, I believe that we must come together to support our faculty and staff. It is your tuition dollars that are enabling these practices. Is this behavior that you choose to support?" Kavanagh said in statement members of the Goddard community.
Kavanagh said Greene was supposedly brought in to run Goddard more like a business, but has made some questionable decisions that have hurt the college's financial situation, and might force the school to lay off some personnel.
Students launched protests against Greene following the sudden resignation of Peter Burns, Goddard's director of admissions, back on April 10.
Burns' letter of resignation, which was widely circulated on campus, criticize Greene for his decision to hire an outside consulting firm to improve enrollment at Goddard.
Many of Burns' supporters said Greene made this decision to hire the consulting firm on his own without seeking input from either faculty, students, and staff.
But the protest, which resulted in some students violently banging on the walls of the school's Community Center building, has triggered a backlash.
Some members of Goddard's community now say they think it might be time for the faculty, staff, and students to take a hard look at themselves, and see if they might be partly responsible for some of the college's problems and heavy turnover of presidents.
Gary Sanon-Jules, a student representative on a committee that oversees Goddard's operations, recently told the college newspaper he didn't know if Greene's resignation would solve anything.
"I think you could bring another president in here, and because we have such a history of challenging authority, I think that we would end up in the same place," Sanon-Jules told the paper.
Goddard has had six presidents and several interim acting presidents during the past 20 years.
