This letter, authored by Fr. Fessio, just appeared on the Ignatius Press website:
This morning, (Monday, July 20th) Dr. Jack Sites, Academic Vice President of Ave Maria University, flew from Houston, where he was attending a meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, to San Francisco, to inform me personally that I was being dismissed from Ave Maria University. Our meeting was amicable and Dr. Sites, as always, acted as a Christian gentleman.
He said that the reason for my dismissal stemmed from a conversation I had in November of 2008 with Jack Donahue, then chairman of the board of AMU. At that time I felt it an obligation to speak to the board chairman before the upcoming board meeting, to make sure he was aware of the urgency of the university’s financial situation. After I had informed him, using projections based on publicly available documents and statements, he asked me what I thought was the solution. I told him that there were policies being followed that were at the root of the problem, that the present administration was irrevocably wedded to those policies, and that without a change of administration the university was at great risk.
Dr. Sites said that Jack Donahue related this conversation to Tom Monaghan, and it was decided (I don’t know specifically by whom) that the university could not have a faculty member making these criticisms of the administration and thus undermining the university.
Dr. Sites told me that there were unspecified others who had similar substantive concerns that I was undermining the university.
I continue to support the university. I pray for its success. I have great admiration for the faculty, students, and many of the staff. I do disagree with some of the policies of the administration. This seems to be the reason I was fired the first time, in March 2007, since the official explanation was “irreconcilable administrative differences”.
Nevertheless, I think it is an accurate summary to say that I am being dismissed as a faculty member because of a private conversation with the chairman of the board in which I made known my criticisms of the university administration; and because of allegations which have not been made known to me and to which I have not been given an opportunity to respond.
I will continue to recommend AMU to students and parents. And I will continue to think my dismissal is another mistake in a long series of unwise decisions.
July 20th, 2009 | 11:14 pm
The AMU situation is rather sad, the Catholics of this country have invested an enormous amount of money and energy into AMU. The administration seems to be squandering it with their heavy handed management style.
July 21st, 2009 | 8:50 am
What is the “heavy-handedness” of the administration? To much Orthodoxy?
July 21st, 2009 | 9:56 am
No, not at all. Many orthodox Catholics have been critical AMU. Fr. Fessio, for one, can’t be accused of being wishy-washy.
July 21st, 2009 | 2:02 pm
[...] Links as they appear – Fumare 1, 2; American Papist; National Catholic Register; Inside Higher Education; Miami Herald (AP); Miami CBS 4; Sun Newspapers; comments from Ave Maria Town resident; Sun-Sentinel; USA Today (via AP); Inside Catholic; Fr. Z – WDTPRS; Free Republic; The Blue Boar; WKRG News 5 Pensacola; Les Femmes – The Truth; Mark Shea (suggested); First Things; [...]
July 23rd, 2009 | 2:02 pm
Horvath – no, the heavy-handedness is not a matter of ‘orthodoxy’. For example, TAC and Christendom have administrations that both promote and protect orthodox Catholocism and yet are rarely accused of heavy handedness.
The heavy-handedness has to do with poor administration, micro-management of academic affairs by people with no academic experience or understanding, and a total lack of humility and unwillingness to consider even charitable, gently offered criticism. Also, there is a horrible lack of accountability – the power is all in the hands of Tom and a few hand picked favorites (who, it should be noted, are on several of his other enterprises and are reliant on his goodwill in one way or another).
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