Here you will find short pieces on topics of importance to those who want to see CUA flourish. We welcome submissions. If you have an article you would like us to consider, please email SaveCatholic@gmail.com.
We hope that the articles will encourage discussion, so please do leave your comments below.
- After the Vote (June 6)
- Message Sent to Trustees (May 30)
- Executive Bonuses! (May 29)
- What the Senate said . . . and how the President and Provost spun it (May 28)
- Lies, damn lies . . . and statistics at Faculty Luncheons (May 25)
- Follow the Money (May 22)
- Enrollments, Revenues, & Demographics (April 25, reposted May 20)
- Update after Senate Action (May 14)
20 Comments
On conflict of interest in the arts, the arts at CUA should be so lucky as to receive even a touch of favoritism of any kind. They have been struggling valiantly for decades with little institutional support. Obviously, I do not support unfairness of any kind towards any academic area at the BOT level, but it has to be admitted that the BOT and administration will need to start thinking very hard about music, art, and drama if they want them to survive at all. The arts faculty rosters have been gutted by Academic Renewal and by years of previously unreplaced retirements. Has the Catholic Arts Council been raising funds?
In response to those with questions about the new Dean of the Rome School: The search was started long before the consolidation of the new Rome School was final. The new Dean knew about the consolidation before accepting her offer, although exactly when she was told is not public. The search committee was on the large side and included faculty and administrators, from both inside and outside the arts areas. A search firm was used, which is pretty standard for executive-level searches.
We don’t exactly see today as a clear victory, although we are of course disappointed that the modified Academic Renewal proposal passed. Please see our June 6 update, “After the Vote.” Thank you.
– Save Catholic
Hello I graduated from CUA in 1982. I am appalled to learn what the Garvey administration has done and what is intended for the future. I wanted to suggest that since CUA has canonical status and Pope Francis sympathizes with labor, social justice and Catholic education, direct this matter immediately to the Vatican. Talk to the canon lawyers on campus. Devise a strategy to communicate. Publish an ad to Pope Francis about the crisis at CUA. Demand Garvey be removed.
Today was a clear victory for Garvey and Abela. The Board endorses “Academic Renewal,” expresses its support for Garvey, and the president and provost get what they wanted through “voluntary” departures, without having to spend a cent on litigation. Meanwhile, the transformation of CUA into “Koch University” proceeds apace, with the University inoculated against criticism by virtue of its ostensible commitment to serving Latinos in the Southwest.
The funniest thing about the music, drama and art school — in light of the ascendancy of the Catholic uber-conservatives — is that the school, at least for now, is still named for a Jew.
You are obviously privy to information not widely known to the rest of us. Please, do let us know when Mr. Warsaw joined the BOT and when he became aware of the Academic Renewal proposal. Also, please, inform this website when the search committee for hiring a new Dean for a not-yet-approved school was formed and who was on that committee. Were the Depts. of Art and Drama and the School of Music consulted? Because I do recall that, in early May, the tenured faculty of the Music School invited the Provost to a meeting so he could explain to them how the consolidation the Music, Drama, and Art would save money or renew the university. The Provost had no answers for them.
https://communications.catholic.edu/news/2018/06/bot-academic-renewal.html
Sure, and there was a second gunman at the grassy knoll. What is the incentive for the 20-plus other Trustees, who are not married to this woman, to make such a “deal”? Have you checked when Warsaw went on the BOT in relation to when the “academic renewal” proposal was announced and when the music school deanship became open?
Do you really suggest that her appointment is purely coincidental and not linked to her husband’s position as a Trustee? To me, it actually looks like a “quid pro quo” situation more than anything else. The BOT confirms the right of the administration to lay off tenured faculty and, in exchange, one of them “gets” a nice job for his wife. In the past few months, many people asked how the consolidation of music, art, and drama into a single school was going to save money or even lead to the “renewal” of the university. There was no answer from the administration. The answer is now apparent.
This “conflict” is hypothetical, speculative, and trivial. At most, it might require the husband to abstain from votes directly affecting his wife, but such questions at the Board of Trustees level will be few and far between, if they occur at all. Come on, guys, this is petty. Nobody is saying she lacks the professional credentials for the job.
Why should president Garvey alone receive the credit of the fundraising? Donors support us for many reasons, including passionate teaching and research of other regular faculty members. I do not think donors support us because of excellence of Garvey.
In addtion, is fundraising as hard as receiving a federal research grant? I do not think so. Then, why should president Garvey receive a huge bonus for such an easy task?
Thank you very much for letting us know about the CONFLICT OF INTEREST of the new coming Dean of arts. It sounds like an unprecedented level of conflict of interest.
Even more irregular and improperthan the nature of the hiring process for the new dean of the as-yet unapproved School of Music, Drama, and Art (were the Drama and Art departments in Arts and Sciences, which are to be folded into the new school, involved in the search or in any way consulted?) is that, however qualified Dr. Leary-Warsaw may be, she has a huge conflict of interest. She is the wife of Trustee Michael Warsaw, the CEO of EWTN. Of course, this fact was not disclosed in the announcement (see below). Mr. Warsaw will have to recuse himself from any votes pertaining to her or the school, but that’s hardly a remedy to the conflict of interest. Who on the Board is going to vote against the wife of a co-Trustee or issues pertaining to the School she will run? Against EWTN? This is the soviet style of the current leadership.
https://communications.catholic.edu/news/2018/05/new-arts-dean.html
FYI, The 2016 990 is for the fiscal year, not the calendar year. It goes through April of 2017.
Look at the increase in fundraising.
From the WaPo June 1 story about the “no confidence” vote, a reference to “the university in Northeast Washington.” In other words, “The” Catholic university of America is obscure enough that readers of its hometown paper need to be reminded where it is located.
Although the Board of Trustees has yet to meet, President Garvey already announced a new Dean for the yet-to-be-approved School of Music, Drama and Art. He couldn’t even wait for the formal approval of the Academic Renewal proposal.
Two more thoughts:
1. How was the new Dean hired? Was there a search committee? Did she articulate a vision for the new school? How was she evaluated?
2. President Garvey has been absent throughout this period of turmoil for the university although he has found time to publish frivolous posts like the one he advertised in a recent communication. This explains his bonus.
https://www.catholicherald.com/Opinions/Columnists/What_s_so_funny_/
That may be, but the 990 with the 2017 incomes won’t be available to the public until next spring. What I find amazing is President Garvey’s BONUS of over $100,000. What did he do to earn a bonus well beyond the base pay plus benefits for the average faculty member?
What about the current 990 from 2017. Why has it not be filed? I am assuming that all of senior management gave themselves a raise last year while the rest of the university suffered.