Conservatives Trying Their Best To Take Down a Liberal College.

[20score]

From the inside. This college is my wife's Alma mater and I have been hearing for years about the emphasis put on critical thinking. If the right succeeds in its bid to take over, this 150 year old institution will, for all intents and purposes be gone.

Why Thomas Lindsay Must Step Down
by Samuel Henderson - Tuesday, 23 March 2010, 04:05 AM
Please read the following, then sign the petition.

General Summary of President Lindsay’s Tenure

Thomas Lindsay assumed the presidency of Shimer College in January 2009.<1> Lindsay was not among the three candidates recommended by the search committee, and there are no public records as to the process by which he was chosen.<2> Since taking office, Lindsay has repeatedly violated the administrative procedures of the school in order to advance a his own agenda and place his associates in positions of importance.<3> In order to preserve their narrow majority, Lindsay's allies on the Board, who for the most part lack any connection to Shimer College, have blocked the candidacy of qualified alumni.<4> The most recent transgression by Lindsay and his allies has been the abrupt, wholesale alteration of the College's mission statement, over the unanimous objections of the faculty.<5> There is abundant reason to believe that the faculty and curriculum of Shimer College are in serious peril. <6>

Primary Issues of Concern:

Stacking the Board

For all his many faults, Lindsay would not pose a credible threat to the College if he did not enjoy the support of a majority on the Board of Trustees. At the moment that majority is quite narrow: Lindsay's mission statement passed by only two votes in the February meeting of the Board. This narrow majority was only obtained by flooding the Board with new members over the past two years. Almost none of these new members have any prior connection to the college. The impression of a hostile takeover is confirmed by the refusal of the Nominating Committee, on which these new members now hold a majority, to confirm any of the six eligible alumni candidates who have been put forward.

Mission

Lindsay and his appointees on the Board have used their narrow majority to push through an ideologically-loaded rewrite of the mission statement. This was done under false pretenses and against the express, nearly unanimous disapproval of the faculty and student bodies. Approximately half of the student body came out on a freezing Saturday morning, in February, in Chicago, in order to calmly and peacefully express their objections to the Board's planned action.

Curriculum

Lindsay has expressed a desire to remove what he views as "political correctness" from the curriculum. This suggests that he will press to remove the many works by women and persons of color that are currently included in the Core. It may also suggest a desire to remove non-canonical works, keeping only the historical Great Books. Furthermore, by unilaterally removing "citizenship" from the mission statement of the College, Lindsay has stricken out one of the three pillars of Great Books education as articulated by Robert Maynard Hutchins. This bodes extremely poorly for his future intentions, which remain in shadow.

Intimidation

Lindsay has threatened faculty <6> and members of the Board with removal if they do not support his agenda.

Personnel
President Lindsay has fired skilled, professional staff members – notably Elaine Vincent, who modernized Shimer's admissions and achieved impressive gains in enrollment – in order to hire people he knows will support him. In this instance, he went against the express will of the committees that normally oversee personnel issues. Lindsay subsequently refused to discuss the rationale for his highly suspect firing of Ms. Vincent, even after a formal request by the faculty that he explain himself. <1> Elaine Vincent was replaced by a remarkably under-qualified Director of Admissions, Amy Pritts. In flagrant disregard of Shimer hiring procedures, Mrs. Pritts was re-inserted into the pool of applicants after three rounds of selection by the Administrative Committee per Lindsay’s directive. Mrs. Pritts had previously worked at the University of Dallas in a non-managerial capacity, further heightening suspicions of cronyism.

Governance
Lindsay's actions disregard the established, documented administrative institutions and procedures of Shimer College. His actions are most flagrantly in violation of the model of self-governance – reaffirmed by the Board as recently as 2008 – that has kept the college alive for so long against such incredible odds. But they also violate basic principles of sound management; Lindsay has made no effort to keep the community on board, or even to keep key stakeholders informed of his planned actions. In the process he has done the nearly impossible: united the Shimer community.

The rest of the petition:


http://www.petitiononline.com/cgi-bin/mlk?http://shimerians.com/

[47of74]

1. An educated populace is a threat to conservatives

Because an educated populace tends to vote progressive.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. As a former college professor, I hope the AAUP is on this case

The search for a new president is usually pretty transparent. I've been through two such searches at two different schools, and at both places. the faculty's opinion counted for a lot.

[DoBotherMe]

3. Sounds like he's putting in place

The pieces for a cover up to steal money from the college. He won't last long. Must be some corrupt board member/s also involved. Dana ; )

[LiberalFighter]

4. Who was behind his hiring? Those are the ones that need to be removed.

[ihavenobias]

5. # 9. n/t

[suede1]

6. Petition Signed

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the DU community.

From what I have read on from the link you provided and additional research I did I think this country needs more schools like this one. I hope they get Lindsay and his cronies out before they destroy it.

[laughingliberal]

7. Signed. nt

[madrchsod]

8. nooo not shimer.....!

i have fond memories of shimer during the 60`s. 99.5% of the students did some form of drugs. the school had two major drug dealers who were well connected into the upper class in this country. so well connected the fbi told us to tell them to clean up cause dea was going to bust the school....i guess the times have changed...:hippie:

they moved the school to chicago and it seems things have gone down hill..it`s a shame shimer is under attack by a guy who has no vision. i guess i`d better sign the petition.

[suede1]

9. As of 2007, Shimer ranks in the top 1% of the 3,478 U.S. colleges and universities in doctorate prod

Read the full Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimer_College

Organization and administration
Following the move to Waukegan in 1978-79, Shimer College formally adopted a system of self-governance, whereby the school's dialogical approach to education was applied to its internal operations. The management of Shimer's administration, finances, and curriculum were vested in the Assembly, a governmental body made up of Shimer's faculty, students, administrators, and trustees. The Assembly votes democratically, is administered by a Speaker, and is governed in accordance with traditional parliamentary procedure. Committees chosen by democratic election within the greater Assembly are vested with the administration of particular areas of the College, e.g. a Finance Committee that drafts a budget to be formally ratified by the Board of Trustees, an Academic Planning Committee that evaluates the College's curriculum and its students' academic standing, and a Grievances and Appeals committee that offers recourse to committee members presenting a personal grievance or seeking a reevaluation of an administrative decision.<3>
Recently, the College's tradition of self-governance has been called into question by some members of the Board of Trustees citing bylaws amended in May of 2008. The issue has been the subject of heavy debate since that time. <4> <5>

[20score]

12. That's why they are targeting this college. It's small and a great school. (It's even better than

I thought it was.)

[suede1]

10. The mission of Shimer College

The mission of Shimer College is education —education for active citizenship in the world. Education is more than the acquisition of factual knowledge or the mastery of vocational skills. It is the process leading away from passivity, beyond either unquestioning acceptance of authority or its automatic mistrust, and towards informed, responsible action.

[20score]

11. I signed.

[suede1]

13. Shimer is facing a grave crisis of ideologically driven mismanagement

Here, we will provide you with:
An explanation for why you should be concerned
An explanation for why you should be concerned, NOW
An archive of relevant documents
Suggestions for how you can help
Up-to-date information about the unfolding conflict

http://www.petitiononline.com/cgi-bin/mlk?http://shimerians.com/

From the Shimer Alumni Allaince:
"The reason for the April 10 date was because on April 11th Parker's foundation - the free-market "Aequus Institute" - was having a board meeting. The suggestion was clear enough: vote to change the mission or lose any future funding from Aequus and be in breach of a legal contract."

Aequus Institute: http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=iwave&grantType=grant&npoId=138975&gotoNext=/reports/partners/iwave/showGrants.jsp&grantSortBy=amountOrg&grantPageNum=1

Grants Awarded:
HERITAGE FOUNDATION Washington, DC 2007 $100,000 (And the same amount for years 2001-2006) (You really should look at the rest of their recipients) http://www.heritage.org/

SHIMER COLLEGE Chicago, IL 2007 $190,000 (and $50,000 in 2006)

[Hannah Bell]

14. The wingers have been taking control of liberal colleges or getting rid of liberal profs for

the last twenty-odd years.

It's part of a strategic assault on all institutions, not a one-off.

[suede1]

15. That's true...

It seems to me they probably picked this one because it's small and obscure. Still tragic, from everything I know of it now it seems like a pretty special place. Self governance, dialog, discussion. Not the usual classroom situation, rather a place where members actively participate in learning with each other and learn to communicate and think critically.

[Hannah Bell]

37. yep. but the stealth takeover of institutions is a tragedy regardless of the particular

merits or dismerits of any particular institution.

and it continues below the radar, with little in the way of pushback.

[20score]

16. Yes, David Horowitz has made a career of trying to destroy colleges lately.

[Hannah Bell]

38. more like "for decades".

[Hawkeye-X]

40. Me and Alan protested that schmuck when he came to my college

And we gave him the silent treatment.

[20score]

17. When a group or an individual tries to change reality, whether it is because of religious reasons -

or as in this case, rationalizing greed - it should infuriate all thinking people on the planet.

[flyingfysh]

18. My wife went to Shimer!!

She's out at the moment, I'll have to show this to her when she gets back.

[20score]

19. Let me know what she thinks, please. I know my wife is extremely upset.

[flyingfysh]

26. My wife says the right-wing tried the same thing earlier

When she was a sophomore (around 1970 or so?). That is why the school went bankrupt and had to move to Waukegan. She says the right-wingers left in disgust.

[Shimerco97]

36. all the more reason to get involved

She's right. but the right then and now are different animals. they're still nuts, but they're way better organized. Technically the school never went bankrupt, but oh, so close. If you remember the blizzard of '79, that's the winter (and during the storm) that they moved.
The right wingers actually tried to close the school. that is when the school, without a Board of Trustees, decided to create the Assembly, because legally they needed a governing structure which ought to have been a board.
We are trying to prevent a repeat of that near death experience, the school has been through worse but at such incredible cost. The Assembly is our safe guard. It ensures that the College remains both academically and intellectually free from the whims of donors and loonies. In the 80s, just after the move, the professors, many of them are still on the faculty, chose to simply live on the leavings of tuition, after operating costs were met. This was desperately little money, especially since the student body was absurdly small (maybe 2 dozen in a good year, and I don't mean an entering or graduating class, I mean total student body. I graduated in '97 in one of the largest graduating classes in maybe 20 or 30 years. there were 12 of us).
One of the problems that all small institutions must deal with is the threat of personalities and selfishness. Shimer has done amazingly well in this regard, but we are tiny. The only defense we have is our vigilance.
In the end, i don't believe they right wingers left in disgust. i think they left in confusion. If we had had such a reputation, perhaps they wouldn't have come back. On the other hand, well, perhaps they're just stupid and don't know what they're getting into. Either way, the only way Shimer survives this is by standing together.

[murielm99]

20. I was well acquainted with Shimer when they were located

in Mt. Carroll. It was a great place in the sixties. It is still one of the best schools in the country. I better sign.

[KamaAina]

21. One of my very best friends is a Shimer alumna

she used to tell me stories about how the college would pack box lunches for students who were on their way into Chicago for a protest!

She also told me that, back in the day, Shimer was ranked as the second most radical college in the land, behind only Columbia (and ahead of Berkeley, etc.), thus sparking chats of "We're No. 2! We're No. 2!"

Apparently this isn't the first time Shimer has been up against it; Suz also filled me in on the whole story involving the move from Mount Carroll to Waukegan. And now, here we go again... :grr:

[20score]

39. That's great! I'm retelling that story.

[KamaAina]

22. Apparently IIT is mixed up in this

ironically, the very place where I took my GREs.

Maybe someone needs to ask them why they're allowing cross-registration with Patrick Henry College Jr.

[Shimerco97]

34. IIT

IIT is not mixed up in this, as far as we know. Shimer is only renting space from them. There is no institutional connection except that Shimer students have the option to share dormatory space with IIT students and IIT students can take classes at Shimer.

[KamaAina]

35. Nice second post!!

:sarcasm:

What if it were, say, Georgetown "only renting space" -- and cross-enrolling -- with Patrick Henry?! Surely a good progressive Shimerite like yourself would be up in arms!! :sarcasm:

[Arugula Latte]

23. This reminds me of the Khomeini extremists taking over liberal Iranian universities in '79

[Shimerco97]

24. Shimer College

Thank you all for your support. If anyone would like a bit more information please look here: http://shimeralumnialliance.blogspot.com/
It's a web site created by and for Shimer Alumni and friends of the College.
To reply to several of the comments, in the spirit of self governance, the Shimer Community's body politic (the Assembly) hired Thomas Lindsay, we can't get rid of ourselves. If he and the new Board of Trustee members we trying to fleece the College, well, they should have picked a college with a bit more money, in its more than 150 years Shimer has never had an endowment and has relied on the generosity of donors, alumni and sheer tenacity.

Some history:
Shimer was founded in 1853 by 2 young women in Mount Carroll, Illinois, Frances Wood (later Frances Wood Shimer) and Cinderella Gregory. They created a school of equals in the middle of nowhere. When they needed something, like a campus, rather than ask for it, they literally built it with their own hands and the hands of their students. Originally, students who couldn't afford school, could help build it to pay their way. The original campus is still there in Mt. Carrol, IL.

Our school's motto, "to serve rather than be served," is a good description of the spirit of our founder and one of the most important values our alumni carry with them. For example, Frances Wood Shimer, after founding and serving our community for 5 decades, went to work in an orange grove to help fund the school.

Every member of our community chooses to be there. We are all considered equals because we make the choice to commit ourselves to an examined life and the betterment of others through dialogue and shared inquiry. When we graduate, we lose our voting rights in the Assembly, but we are still a part of the community in a significant way.

This commitment and this choice are truly what is as stake for our community. Thomas Lindsay simply doesn't care about this. In his brief association with the college, he has not been on campus much and either doesnt know or care about our history, our ethos or our values (we count both left and right among our grads, but we all respect the fundamental ideals of mutual respect and dignity without which no dialogue is possible)

If anyone would like to help us please feel free. Please send your sons and daughters and yourselves to our school (No, I do not work for the admissions department). If you would like to donate to the school, please do, but with the condition that you won't give without this awful situation being resolved. If you want more info please get ahold of us. if you know somebody in the media, please pass this story along to them. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you know an alum, please turn them on to this story. We know there are about 5000 living grads, but we only have direct contact with a few.

Also, if you want to see a bit of our school and hear our song (it's a good one) look up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnJHPzFvB0 or Shimer Slideshow on you tube.
Again, Thanks for your concern and your help!

[JDPriestly]

25. Info on Thomas Lindsay the new appointee

introduction

Thomas K. Lindsay, Deputy Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has been named President of Shimer College. Tom joined the NEH in 2006 to direct the We the People program and went on to become NEH’s Deputy Chair and Chief Operating Officer. At the NEH, Tom has been responsible for implementing Picturing America, a program that employs great works of art to help students better understand American history and culture. Prior to joining the NEH senior staff, Tom served on the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board to the NEH.

Bruce Cole, NEH Chairman, remarks that “In Tom Lindsay, Shimer has brought on a president who not only is a premier scholar and teacher, but also possesses impeccable personal integrity and the deepest passion for liberal education.”

Tom has served in higher education for more than 25 years as a professor and administrator. He began his academic administrative career in 1999 as Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Institute of Philosophical Studies at the University of Dallas where he also served as Provost.

http://www.shimer.edu/newsandevents/lindsaypresident.cfm

His inaugural address includes multiple references to the Federalist Papers. Nothing wrong with that. I read them myself. But the right-wing tends to be obsessed with them.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

I want to take this time to give special thanks to our anonymous donor, who has been so generous these past three-plus years,
and has most recently given Shimer an additional half-million dollars to launch my presidency. As Shimer students read and
know, Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, calls generosity of such a magnitude, megaloprepeia, which is Greek for “magnifi -
cence.” Such rare individuals as our anonymous donor, Aristotle writes, are “artists of expenditure,” for they understand and
act on the principle that wealth fi nds its highest purpose in the service of nobility. I believe that Aristotle is correct, and that
our anonymous donor perfectly fi ts Aristotle’s famous description of nobility in action.

(My comment: So, did some anonymous wealthy individual find out Shimer needed money and make a deal: You appoint Lindsay; I give you money? Just asking. I do not know, but it might be worth finding out.)

(In his speech, Lindsay asked a number of questions that sound like a resurrection from one of his old first-year government course examinations.)

What is the meaning of human equality as articulated
in the Declaration’s assertion that “all men are created
equal”? Equal in what respects? What view of human
nature does this presuppose? Does the Declaration
mean to include African-Americans, as Abraham Lincoln,
along with Frederick Douglass and the Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insisted?

. . . .

(Here is an interesting one. It is a good question, but why ask it in a speech at your inauguration into the presidency of a college?)

What economic conditions make American democracy
possible? Why does the Constitution protect property
rights? Why do its critics, such as Marx, believe private
property to be the root of injustice? How would Madison
and Hamilton have responded to Marx’s and his
followers’ critique?

. . . .

(And another puzzler:)

Why does the First Amendment of the Constitution
protect, among other things, speech, religion, and the
press? Why did Hamilton argue in  e Federalist
that the fi rst Amendment—along with the nine that
followed in 1791, all of which only years later came to
be called the “Bill of Rights”—was unnecessary?
Implicit in these questions are a number of fundamental


http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/images/editor_documents/Symposiums/Symposium_09SpSpecial.pdf

[Doremus]

27. K&R to shine a light on the cockroaches. n/t

[dems_rightnow]

28. Here's the mission statement

http://www.shimer.edu/upload/PressRelease-Mission-Statement.pdf

What's conservative about it? I'll grant you that required study of the Constitution, declaration, and Federalist isn't "normal" required study, but I've no problem with it. I think they'll have a much better understanding of our country.

[suede1]

29. Here is the Mission Statement that was approved by the Assembly

and not just by the president.

If you bother to look, you'll see they are considerably different.

Further, if you had bothered to read any of the information here, let alone gone deeper into any of the multiple websites dedicated, you'd see for yourself what the problem is.

As always, if you don't really know what you are talking about you should refrain from commenting.

[dems_rightnow]

30. Sorry

Let me know when there's something to be concerned about.

[20score]

32. .

[20score]

41. I'm going to get into this back and forth between you and

my wife. (It's my post, so why not.)

There is a lot more information than just the mission statement. The petition alone tells of how serious this is. And with slightly more research you will find out that the takeover is backed by a right-wing, libertarian that stands to profit by more of the country buying into deregulation. The attack on colleges is just as real as what the Texas Board of Education has done recently with text books.

The opposition to this, by people who have nothing to gain monetarily, is nearly unanimous. When you don't know all of the facts about a certain situation, please, either learn a little more, or at least give the people involved a little credit.

Thanks.

[20score]

31. .

[BolivarianHero]

33. Ridiculous...

A bunch of Tories almost took over our student government...Once they failed they became much more open about their Conservative connections...hahaha`

[Lorien]

42. Signed. nt

[smoogatz]

43. No doubt the "intellectual" right wing sees this as a test case.

If they can take over tiny little Shimer through cronyism, bullying and buying their way into power, can Yale and Harvard be far behind? While I'm actually kind of a fan of the St. John's style "great books" curriculum, especially compared to the theory/diversity-driven dog's breakfast liberal arts students are often force-fed these days, trying to enforce some right-wing version of it over the objections of students and faculty is unacceptable, as is the lack of transparency with which Lindsay seems to prefer to operate when it comes to the hiring/firing process. Wingnuts like their hierarchies rigid and air-tight--it's the corporate model, my way or the highway. Universities aren't supposed to work that way, and things get very weird very fast when individuals try to impose their will by fiat rather than following established protocols and processes.