Special Assembly Feb. 28th Agenda

THE ASSEMBLY OF SHIMER COLLEGE

AGENDA FOR THE SPECIAL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 28, 2010

I Resolution, motivated by the Agenda Committee

Resolved:

Whereas the Board of Trustees adopted a statement called a
“mission statement,” written by President Thomas Lindsay, on February
19, 2010;

Whereas this statement is without the support of the faculty,
the students, the administrative staff, or the vast majority of alumni
who have addressed it, and is upheld only by 18 out of 34 Trustees;

Whereas the Assembly by overwhelming majority and the Faculty
unanimously have voted to retain the current mission statement at
least for the time being;

Whereas the statement approved by the Board does not meet the
criterion of the College’s academic accreditor, the Higher Learning
Commission, that “Understanding of and support of the mission pervade
the organization” (Accreditation Criterion 1c);

Whereas the statement, unlike all other mission statement
proposals, was never submitted to the Self-Study Group, or brought to
the Assembly, but was sent exclusively to Trustees, and only five days
before they were to vote on it;

Whereas the statement was approved by the Board under threat by
a major donor, delivered one day before the Board plenary, that
funding would cease if the statement were not adopted;

Whereas shortly before the Board plenary President Lindsay urged
the Trustees on the Executive Committee to resign if they would not
vote for his statement, and told another Trustee that he would “have
to go” or words to that effect if he did not vote for his statement;
and,

Whereas the statement was voted on by the Board without the
customary notification of a vote in the meeting agenda, after only 75
minutes of consideration, and without observance of equal time for
those opposed;

Therefore,

The Assembly of Shimer College does not recognize the legitimacy
or authority of this so-called “mission statement.”


II Resolution, motivated by the Agenda Committee

Resolved:

The Assembly declares that it has no confidence in the ability
of President Thomas Lindsay to lead Shimer College.


III Announcement from the Agenda Committee regarding future mission
statement proposals.


IV Other announcements


[The Assembly will convene at 4 PM in Cinderella Lounge.]

Background on Newly Appointed Board Members

This is information, originally from Michael Sussman, posted by Eric Badger and reposted with his permission. Michael took some time to look into the board members whose letters have been posted and which were read during the Nov. 15, 2009 Assembly.

The below comment was posted on my page by Michael Sussman. In a further effort to provide evidence for the current concerns, I'm reposting it here.

I'll just mention, for context, that Patrick Parker was the chair of the Board committee that hired Lindsay. At the time, I was told by other members of the committee that he pushed hard for Lindsay's hire, neglecting other applications, and both passively and actively ignoring the opinions of others on the committee as well as the overwhelming disapproval of the internal community.

As for the others who sent these messages, they are ALL brand new Lindsay appointees, none of them having more than a 6 months experience of Shimer. Pointedly, this means that NONE of them are speaking from experience when they interpret the May 2008 Constitution & By-Law revisions.

erik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, this is disheartening. The repeated use of the word "dysfunctional" in 4 of the 6 opinions expressed here makes these sound more like previously agreed talking points than sincere dialogue.

A little googling for background on some of these folks also proved somewhat disturbing:

Patrick Parker, the "second largest financial supporter" is also the president of the Aequus Institute, whose purpose is to promote free market economics and Christian Science teachings. He's also done quite a bit of work for the Department of Defense.... Read More

Bob Chitester is President and CEO of Free to Choose Media, a company dedicated to producing films ranging from an exoneration of Milton Friedman's free market economic theories to documentaries attempting to debunk global warming which feature Exxon-Mobil funded scientists.

Carson Holloway, a political science professor at U Nebraska, is a contributing author to the hard-right National Review Online and given lectures to the authoritarian Family Research Council concerning the immorality of sexual freedom. He's also published books concerning the "moral failure of Darwinism".

Matthew Franck, a political science professor at Radford, is also a contributing author of National Review Online where he argues against gay marriage, abortion, and the general "leftist agenda".

Michael McDonald, General Counsel for the NEH, also founded the conservative law firm Center for Individual Rights (CIR), which litigates affirmative action cases and defends public funding for religious groups. They also were involved with the US vs. Morrison case, in which a female Virginia Tech student claimed several football players had raped her...CIR represented one of the football players. Former staff of CIR includes the prestigious Ann Coulter.

Shimer, what kind of company have you been keeping lately?