Keynote Speaker, Blindside

She appeared so sweet and kindhearted at the training. Sitting with her hands folded, she appeared to be as polite as a well-trained princess. Little did everyone know, she was going to betray the whole department very soon. Her keynote speech was full of trite comments and expressions. She misspoke a few times, but everyone excused her readily, keeping their attention alert.

Advisor trainings were supposed to be informative, full of connecting with people at other campuses, and lighthearted. Why was there a need for a keynote speaker? Why did they choose one of the college board members to be the keynote speaker? The springing questions tickled the cubicles of my brain. It was a good thing that I’d gotten more coffee. More coffee at any kind of training was always a great idea.

The board member finished her keynote speech and then sat down next to the dean of enrollment management. This particular dean had been a strong leader for the department for over a decade and little did everyone know, but she was going to resign a couple months later.

Sadly, a couple months after this advisor training, that included five campuses, across two counties, the dedicated dean of enrollment was going to be stabbed in the back by the keynote speaker who was the chair of the college board of trustees.

On top of that, the president of the entire college was blindsided and asked to resign by the board. He had moved from Texas for this position as president of the college. He had been chosen by the board and worked for a little over a year and then he resigned. The students, faculty and staff were in shock. How could this happen?

Of course the news articles ignited faster than a bullet train. The reputation of this poor man had been shattered. How had he truly been given a chance at all? How much can someone do in the course of a year at that level? What on earth was the board expecting from him? The report that negatively reflected retention numbers had nothing to do with the president’s performance.

Blaming the department of academic advising for lower retention numbers was asinine and humiliating. Did they forget that one of our core values is excellence, and excellence certainly does not include blaming one department for the large number of problems of an entire institution! Did the board consider the challenges of the ERP system and dozens of newly integrated systems when they saw the numbers and skewed data? Did they consider anything holistically at all?

It didn’t matter to them and that became more and more clear as the board listened to staff speak up in another meeting. They were placating the employees and it was getting worse and worse. An email from HR went out to the employees reprimanding people for the poor response they’d displayed during the board meeting when the president had resigned. What were we… a class of misbehaving third graders? Patience was growing thin in the faces of most employees. The work environment felt tense. Many of the employees developed a positive mantra and attitude, “We’re doing this for the students.” Yes, it was all for the students.

An email came out to all the employees that the college attorney was going to become the “acting president,” with “additional abilities.” The questions simmered more than ever. The college attorney was not liked by most of the employees at all. He felt sneaky. Everything felt off…

The “acting president” had been at the capital quite often. Was he getting all of his tips from the governor himself? Was the governor moving the state college presidents around like a game of checkers?

The spring graduation was scheduled for tomorrow. It was bound to be interesting. Would it feel icy and politically charged? The faculty and staff would need to plaster on their smiles and focus on the students, just as always.