After having talked with several folks who have a personal knowledge of Larry Rice, President-Designate of RSU, I am willing to give the man the benefit of a doubt. In short, his work will speak for itself.

A university president sets the tone and the atmosphere for the whole institution. I had the pleasure of being both student and staff member at OSU (on two campuses) when James Halligan was President & CEO of the OSU System. One could neither imagine nor ask for a better atmosphere in which to learn and work. Talk about culture shock when I entered the world of Wiley, Hedrick, and Carroll at RSU!

I may be a political and religious conservative, but in many ways I am a classical liberal. I believe in free speech. I believe in free expression. I believe in academic freedom. I believe universities should be true marketplaces of ideas (it just so happens that I think conservative ideas and ideals win the day when they are openly discussed and debated).

I also do not like the notion of a public institution being used as a personal fiefdom and persons seeking educational or employment opportunities being used as disposable pawns when they are called upon to tell the truth. That has happened at RSU, without a doubt.

One of the casualties of the Fellman lawsuit was Peter Williams. Peter and I joined RSU at approximately the same time. He was director of Distance Education and I was Assistant Director of Distance Ed. I had my fill of the Wiley Cartel very quickly and returned to OSU at the first opportunity. Peter stuck it out, though I know he had to struggle against the machine just to perform the duties he was hired to do. He was later named as a witness for Fellman, who would be called simply to tell the truth (Peter is as honest a man as I know). It just so happens that the truth was not favorable to RSU’s case. The documents naming Peter as a friendly witness were filed on a Friday at approximately 4:30 PM. Peter was called into the administration building the following Monday shortly after lunch, informed that his contract was not being renewed, and escorted back to his office for his personal belongings and then off campus. Peter is a well-qualified and highly educated professional. He had moved his family to Claremore and purchased a home. Though the working conditions at RSU were less than ideal, he kept at it, attempting to perform his job as best he could. His reward was that he was fired for being willing to tell the truth. It should not have happened. Period. One of the best moves the Rice administration could make would be to convince Peter Williams to lend his expertise and professionalism back to RSU. Peter and his family still live in Claremore, so it should be easy enough.

And though I agree with many of RSUProf’s comments on my last post, I would take exception to this one:

[Wiley] generally treated faculty members with respect.

Maybe he did (though I am sure some would disagree). However, it is a bit short-sighted to grant a pass to an administration that, by his/her own expression has

a punitive streak that rivaled Nixon

just because one was never a target of that punishment. Just be glad you were never in Wiley’s sights, because inherent in the power of a higher ed administrator is great power…enough to greatly damage reputations, careers, and families if it is abused.

And so, enough about the past. I am sick of having to be one of a very few publicly to point out the problems with Wiley’s RSU (yeah, Claremore Progress, I’m talking about your silence on all things critical of Wiley and RSU). And I hope people have understood that my comments and, yes, criticism have come out of a desire to make RSU better. It’s bigger than one man; that is why I hated that, in my humble opinion, Wiley was making it smaller by his leadership, or lack thereof. It’s a new day for two universities.

I say “Welcome!” to Larry Rice. I hope you turn out to be as excellent as many people have told me you are. Your work will show it if you are. You have my full support.

And, Freed-Hardeman U, I’m praying for you. Wouldn’t hurt if those who love you started now, too.

And one last thing, RSUProf, some of my best friends are Democrats.