From another list. I have been following the story and the comments from the Sweet Briar administration have not made much sense to me.
Ken -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [CP] Sweet Briar college Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2015 12:55:21 -0400 From: Dan Gottlieb <[email protected]> Reply-To: Dan Gottlieb <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Dear Colleagues, Many of you have likely heard that the institution in which I work, Sweet Briar College, is closing. I am not worried about myself, I'll be fine, but I am worried about the ripple effect throughout higher education. I am working hard behind the scenes to do what I can to counter the narrative expressed by the President and Board that this was the inevitable result of unfortunate trends. It was not. It was a case of financial mismanagement, lack of vision, and too great a belief in the permanence of trends (Gambler's fallacy kind of thing or a failure to understand negative feedback processes at work). Insofar as the "this was inevitable" meme sticks, it will be detrimental to liberal arts education. For those who think that little research is accomplished at schools like Sweet Briar, let me counter that I have been productive and that I have trained a number of amazing students in the kinds of things we care about who are now in graduate school or are accepting their own faculty positions. Perhaps this will be the main research role for small liberal arts schools in the future, but it is not an unimportant role given the lack of funding and so lack of training in areas of importance, like our own. What I am asking is not much - just that, in little ways, in comments to colleagues and administrators, in Facebook posts, etc., you try and minimize the fall out by keeping Sweet Briar a topic of relevance and by trying to change a national narrative that is damaging to higher education. Sorry for the soapboxing, but for the first time in my life I have been thrust into somewhat of a political role, and I must play that out. Best, Daniel Gottlieb PS please feel free to repost this on other relevant message boards. I have only posted it on this one. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=43119 or send a blank email to leave-43119-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
