“There’s something very sick at that school, and Art Vailas I think is at the core of it. I was shocked when I heard about the potential for a vote of no confidence. I talked to Art several times about it. Art is not a very good listener. He’s very stubborn. He’s inflexible. It is his way or no way because he thinks he’s right. I told him never to call me anymore.”-Jim Rodgers, major Idaho State University donor, and former chancellor of higher education in Nevada
Jim Rodgers is a major donor to ISU, and he’s not happy with what’s been happening there. The Idaho State Board of Education ended the faculty’s bargaining ability by suspended the Faculty Senate, at the request of President Arthur Vailas.
Vailas, and his administrators, have been busy trashing ISU ever since they arrived a few years ago. It’s looks like it’s part of a plan by the state to reduce ISU’s ability to provide higher education.
For one thing student tuition and fees have skyrocketed, and classes have been cut. The reason given is always lack of money, but just a few weeks ago ISU announced they were buying an old factory building that was used to make medical products (aka Ballard Medical building).
The suspension of the Faculty Senate prompted a vote by the American Association of University Professors. They voted to sanction ISU, the largest university ever to be sanctioned by the AAUP. The vote was unanimous.
Former ISU Faculty Senate Chair, Phil Cole, says AAUP sanctions should be taken seriously, because they act as a warning to potential employers, and graduate schools, that the education program at ISU is ‘suspect’, and that “there is a fundamental flaw in a university and it could collapse.”
This might be part of the State Board of Education’s plans to end ISU as a four year university (which many of the state employees at ISU believe is the intention).