College of DuPage – Please, someone take away their shovel –

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

Rule #1 – when criminal investigations are going on, keep your mouth shut.

We know that the US Department of Education is investigating matters at COD and assume the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy is on their radar.  We also know at least one Senior Administrator has been questioned, however, we don’t know if that was by the FBI, State’s Attorney, or the US Dept. of Ed.  Investigators tend to be pretty tight-lipped.

Going on the belief that SLEA is the focus right now it would be worthy to know who is the person responsible behind the creation of the Crosswalk/Crossover process that was utilized as a means of manipulating credit hours for SLEA cadets.

As in any criminal investigation they have to get to the one responsible for the creation of such a program, not just those who implemented it in spite of faculty throwing red flags about it.   When the creator is identified, and then it is established that that person or persons were informed by faculty it was wrong and they did it anyway, then you can point to knowingly violating the rules, which may possibly point to fraud.

Faculty knowledge is the key element in this whole process and it has become ever so clear the faculty insisted what the Senior Administration was doing was wrong, and no one listened to them.

As referenced in this article, a communication from VPAA Jean Kartje stated, “After considerable thought and discussion with Dr. Collins, I have decided to continue the status quo until we get direction from ICCB and HLC.”

Yesterday that statement became priceless. 

(This is the part where someone should take the shovel away……as to stop the hole from getting dug any deeper)

The SuburbanLife.com reported on the SLEA matter yesterday and the fact COD is going to have to fork out some funds for the wrongdoing.  Ironically, Dr. Collins has provided feedback to them for that reporting.  Interestingly I got zero response to my questions, which was probably the smart thing to do considering his quotes in yesterday’s article.

“He said the school’s downfall came from not coordinating enough with faculty.”

Interesting choice of words – “the school’s downfall”.

As to avoid what appears to be yet another Breuder type spin on things, the SLEA event at COD is NOT a downfall of the school.  This tragedy, that was clearly avoidable, was one of administration’s own creation and it is those who created the policy that carry the burden of embarrassment and disgrace.  It is their downfall, not the school’s.

  “came from not coordinating enough with faculty”

No, that is a lie!  It came from not listening to faculty as numerous attempts were made to stop this mess and Mr. Maloney’s communications prove that.  No, this is not about not coordinating enough with faculty. It is about ignoring faculty and I am betting that is a position that faculty will back me up on.

“Only faculty can make the determination of (whether) a certain type of experience is worthy of college credit,” he said. “It’s my view that what the college needs now is a general healing and re-positioning of academics at the forefront of the college.”

Please, take the shovel away!

How can a person claim only faculty can make the determination referenced, and expect us to believe this was just a coordination problem with faculty?  If what Collins said is true, that only faculty can make the determination, then why on earth is he talking to VPAA Jean Kartje who let the wrong continue and awaited direction from the ICCB and HLC?  If Collins truly believes that only faculty can make the determination then why on earth was he not talking to faculty to let them do the very thing he says only they can do?

“what the college needs now is a general healing”

Once again, no Breuder spin please!  The college does not need general healing.  The college as an institution is doing quite well and will continue as long as they have faculty that continues to speak out when wrongs are committed and the public keeps listening!

General healing will be what you get after a surgical operation at the Administration level to cut out the infection that is responsible for this boondoggle.   Healing only comes after the infection is identified and cured.  Part of the cure of any illness is to first admit you are sick, or in this case, admit what you did was wrong.

The challenge now, as referenced, identify who it is that created this brain child.

“re-positioning of academics at the forefront of the college.”

Here we go again!  More proof the Breuder spin machine is contagious.  Academics are already at the forefront of the college.  The faculty members are the ones on the front line providing not only the education to the students but also throwing flags on the field for months and no one listened.   No, it’s not academics that need re-positioned.

What is in dire need of re-positioning is key members of the Senior Administration. 

Who those may be is yet to be determined and I am confident those doing the investigation will in fact be able to narrow down those responsible for allowing this chaos to grow to what it has.
The fastest path to put this mess behind COD?  The Administration, Collins or anyone else must stand up before the public and acknowledge the faculty was right and the Administration was wrong.

That is leadership!

Then, let the chips fall where they may with the criminal investigations.  They may find no criminal intent, however, even without that, someone should be held accountable for allowing this to happen, as somewhere deep in the hole being dug, there is a bottom.  Get to that and things will improve!
Who knows, maybe they already know Breuder is responsible for this creation and it will be used as yet another prong to justify his termination, an event that can’t come soon enough in many people’s eyes.