I have been somewhat bemused by recent letters to the Daily Egyptian bemoaning the loss of collegiality, congeniality and mutual respect on this campus. These have presumably been occasioned by the ongoing negotiations between the faculty association and the administration.

The writers, in part, represent themselves as part of a silent majority who, God forbid, have been forced to break their silence. I must admit to being somewhat concerned that I don’t quite recognize the supposedly collegial and congenial campus where I have worked for so many years. However, I suppose that, if being collegial and congenial means sitting back and quietly accepting being disenfranchised and ignored by an ever-more powerful and increasingly centralized administration, then perhaps the writers are correct. In my view, the problem has been that the vast majority of the faculty and students have been an all-too-silent majority while their right to participate in the governance of this institution has been gradually eroded. The administration of this University has become so centralized in terms of real decision-making power that even the denizens of Anthony Hall have become almost irrelevant. this University is now run by a board, through its appointed president and staff, which has increasingly enlarged its mandate from oversight to operational control.

One of the writers suggested that Margaret Winters and Kay Carr should be allowed to draft a proposed contract in private get real! Do you expect a democratically run organization such as the faculty association, which was formed to protect the rights of its members, to allow one of those members, no matter how respected, to determine its bargaining position? As for the administration side, while I have the highest respect for Winters, does anyone think the board and its president would relinquish control of their bargaining position to her.

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The simple fact that these writers seem to forget is that democracy in action is often not a pretty sight. However, it is infinitely to be preferred to the idealized picture of a bunch of happy, contended faculty and students lifting their caps as their administration master strolls past. These letter writers must make Washington, Jefferson, and Martin Luther King turn in their graves and say, don’t they ever learn.

professor, chemistry and biochemistry