Top brass at UMD to leave
November 22, 2010 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Three high-level University of Minnesota Duluth administrators abruptly announced their resignation and retirement Monday in a move that clears the way for Lendley Black, who took over as chancellor this summer, to reorganize the campus and bring in new faces.
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I’m not at all surprised to see Bowman gone. At least now when he travels and stays at 5-Star hotels, it won’t be on UMD’s dime.
I was quite surprised to see Magnuson and Fox leave though. They have both done a lot of great things for the UMD in the past 2 decades. I guess it’s not too surprising though, since the majority of their Vice Chancellor careers were under Kathryn Martin. Naturally, when you bring in a new leader, they’re going to have different beliefs about how things are organized and what direction they’re taking the university in. Not that there’s anything wrong with Dr. Black, that’s just the way colleges operate.
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Agree….
and it’s not just the way colleges operate….it’s the same in government and corporations as well. New leaders want people close to them that share their philosophy and will make whatever changes they can for that to happen.
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House Clean’n
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I wish I didn’t have such a vivid imagination…..now I envision Merry Maids thoughout the campus….hehehe
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It sounds like UMD’s new leader will continue the tradition of employing two supervisors (special assistants, deans) for each person who actually benefits the students.
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Can’t say I empathize with Magnuson on this one. A year and a half ago I gave an hour long presentation in his office with my dept head, Bowman, and two other students about Bowman’s breaches in adminstrator ethics and the culture of fear that he created in SFA. I told Vince himself that since we were allowed to speak, I would drop the issue and leave it in his hands. 6 months later, Vince and Jack decide to retaliate by pulling me from UMD’s Lake Effect Vocal Jazz Ensemble’s tour to Beijing citing that because I accused Bowman of breaking administrator ethics, I was a danger to myself and the ensemble in China. They didn’t care that I was the ensemble’s pianist for many years, and had done many educational and recruiting tours with the group. Not to mention Vince threw everything I gave him away including a charge against a UMD PD officer that harrassed me for 3 hours in an effort to quiet me on the Bowman issue. The administration has used HR, the UMD PD, and academic retaliation to hurt and intimidate me thus far. I’m very pleased that the new chancellor isn’t a hostile aristocrat who solely wines and dines the rich in efforts to build new buildings on campus without focusing on the quality and substance of the educational programs at UMD. We all can thank Chancellor Black for weeding out the corruption. It seems like the students and faculty of UMD will enjoy better days under the watch of an administrator who may actually have integrity and ethics.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I remember having discussions with people on here back when the Bowman issue first appeared in the DNT. I couldn’t believe the way a couple of people were slamming UMD professors who spoke to the DNT anonymously. I said back then that I don’t blame them for not wanting their name out there because they don’t want to be unfairly punished it by an already corrupt dean. It sounds like decided to publicly take a stance against it, and you were unfairly punished. Good for you for standing up, but I’m sorry to hear what it lead to.
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And the subject that you bring up was the main reason why I chose to speak out. I first came to UMD in 2003 and even back then I was aware that professors and students could barely express any sort of opinion or disagree without a real threat of retaliation. Jack Bowman submitted false information on two professor tenure reviews including one that said that a professor “didn’t have enough international experience” despite coming from another country, running a music school in another country, and had done more international touring than many. The threat of retaliation that would prove harmful towards job security and student educational oppurtunities was real. My logic was, as a student, I couldn’t be fired as I was a paying customer of the university. If there was a breach in policy that affected my education and the teachers I studied under, then I had full right to demand the university take care of an issue that wasn’t my responsibility.
The pathetic thing about my story is, Vince and Jack used my department head as their personal flak jacket pinning the decision on him. Luckily I was informed of their plan months before it became official so when the word came out, I knew exactly who was responsible for taking away a musical tour of a lifetime from me.
While Bowman will be leaving SFA, he won’t be leaving UMD. It looks like he’ll still get to play in his own personal and very expensive fantasy world on UMD’s tab, but that may very well change. There are still issues that the DNT haven’t published, but I am pursuing recourse against UMD for what was done to me. I will be providing various outlets and officials with a copy of the full record and my knowledge soon enough if UMD doesn’t cooperate in providing me proper restitution. I’m just hoping that in light of today’s news, Chancellor Black will expect administrators to practice social responsibility instead of his predecessor who would just have a UMD police officer threaten a student for hours instead of spending a reasonable amount of time to listen and find resolutions.
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So two former VCAAs and the former Dean of Fine Arts will be hanging around, the former chancellor is hanging around, and there is a new administrative position being created in the middle of a university-wide hiring freeze … whew. The man has a vision (where administrators are kings and queens…)
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In the Dean’s defense, a man can’t live on a salary of over 100 grand a year, how is he going to fuel his Hummer?
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What will Rod Raymond do with no one to protect him now?
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There is no way I could possibly describe Bowman in this section without some severe profanity censoring going on.
While at UMD I never got to meet Magnuson, but I can say flat out that Fox’s departure is a HUGE hit for the UMD student population. He was definitely an advocate for the students.
After some trying times, I came to find out that UMD Financial Aid decided to lose all my financial aid information. The resulting chaos put me to the point of having no food and being under the threat of eviction, along with sanctions by the school for unpaid tuition.
Financial Aid would NOT work with me, surprise surprise. Finally I went to Mr. Fox’s office and asked for five minutes of his time. By the end of the five minutes he’d made three phone calls, including a Come To Jesus voicemail for the head of FA. He apologized for what was going on and offered to cover any personal expenses I had from his own personal checking account until I received my money from UMD.
You would NOT see that from many, if any other administrators.
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I too am sorry to see Fox go, he will be missed, but definitely not Bowman.
Thank you Duluth News Tribune and especially Jana Hollingsworth and Brandon Stahl for your investigative stories on the corruption in the not so fine arts. Also I believe Stahl reported on Raymond.
Why Rod Raymond is still there with the numerous incidents is beyond my wildest notions. But with a new sheriff in town, I suspect further changes are ahead.
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The only way that Chancellor Black will gain confidence is by cleaning house. Neither Fox nor Magnuson had the guts to stand up to the former Chancellor. The former chancellor and Fox and Magnuson lost their moral compass years ago. It became a tyranny, a dictator ship, abundant trips abroad and dinners out, and valuable, hard working, student oriented people cut. Good riddance. Too had they are all hanging around.
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Looks like the new boss will be holding his palms to the sky and wondering WHAT THE HELL HAS BEEN GOING ON AROUND HERE? WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO?
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Kathryn Martin was a mental patient surrounded by sycophants like Fox and Magnuson and Vince Repish. Good riddants to the lot. I just hope as someone is there to watch after Rod Raymond’s rod.
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