Also last month, the editorial board of the student newspaper, the GW Hatchet, demanded that LeBlanc step down, writing that “LeBlanc’s plan for the future of the University and his past mistakes are out of touch with students and faculty.”
On Wednesday, the Faculty Association sent a letter to the university community doubling down on those complaints. “The crisis presented by the global spread of coronavirus, and the subsequent transition toward online educational continuity, should not detract attention from the institutional crisis that President LeBlanc has been creating since his arrival on campus in 2017,” the faculty members wrote.
The accusations of racism were sparked by a February encounter between LeBlanc and a first-year student, who asked whether the university would divest from fossil-fuel holdings and close a research center on campus if most students approved of doing so.
“Doesn’t matter,” LeBlanc responded. “What if the majority of the students agreed to shoot all the black people here? Do I say, ‘Ah, well, the majority voted?’ No.”
The exchange, captured on video, prompted an outcry from students and faculty members. LeBlanc apologized in a statement the next day.
“I attempted to emphasize a point and used an insensitive example that I realize could be hurtful to members of our community,” he said. “The point I was making — that majority rule should never suppress the human rights of others — was obscured by the example I used. I regret my choice of words and any harm I unintentionally inflicted on a community I value greatly.”
Since then, LeBlanc “has apologized in one-on-one meetings, in group settings and in public forums, including at the open session of the Board of Trustees,” university spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said in a statement.
Dissatisfaction with the president has been building over the past two years on several fronts, and faculty frustration with him is widespread, according to interviews with several professors. Others disagree, however, saying those views are not broadly held.
Much of their frustration stems from goals outlined by LeBlanc as part of a strategic planning process he’s leading. Faculty members say LeBlanc has ignored repeated requests to provide data that justifies his goal of reducing undergraduate enrollment at the university by 20 percent — or 2,100 students — over the next five years, while increasing the percentage of students in STEM programs from 24 to 30 percent.
Critics say LeBlanc’s plan will dramatically reduce revenue and decrease racial and socioeconomic diversity. Some faculty members also fear that a revenue cut could lead to cuts in teaching positions, though LeBlanc’s goals don’t explicitly address that. Separately, some faculty members have raised questions about funds spent on a training initiative for top university administrators run by the Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Institute.
In a letter to the university community Thursday, LeBlanc said that because of the disruptions created by the coronavirus outbreak, the Board of Trustees has approved his recommendation that “we pause the strategic planning process for the foreseeable future so we can focus on our immediate needs.”
Bernard Wood, a professor in the university’s Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, said he signed the petition because he was disheartened by the failure of university leaders to explain their actions.
“I’m not an agent provocateur, but I’ve been at GW for 23 years and I’ve never been as uncomfortable and I’ve never had so little respect for the university leadership,” he said in an interview.
Andrew Zimmerman, a history professor and the president of the Faculty Association, said the school’s leadership isn’t working in partnership with faculty members. He pointed to resolutions by the Faculty Senate, which is made up of elected faculty representatives, that twice called on the administration to be more forthcoming with information.
“What I see is a coalescing movement that’s saying, correctly, after years of complaining privately or protesting politely, enough is enough,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve got to do something about this.”
In response to questions about LeBlanc’s leadership, Nosal said in a statement that LeBlanc “has acted in good faith to respond to questions and requests for information from the Faculty Senate and Faculty Assembly and will continue to do so.”
Nosal also noted a letter sent by LeBlanc and Board of Trustees Chair Grace Speights to GWU faculty members, acknowledging “concerns about the sufficiency of the information and the data shared by the administration.” The letter announced the creation of a future enrollment task force to help address concerns and share information.
Some faculty leaders dispute the idea that there is widespread dissatisfaction with LeBlanc’s leadership. Sylvia Marotta-Walters, who chairs the Faculty Senate’s executive committee, said in an interview in March that the Faculty Association petition was not reflective of the entire faculty.
“They have a right to make their opinions known, but I don’t think it’s representative of what the majority of the faculty feel,” she said.
Marotta-Walters said that LeBlanc has admitted he and the administration could have done a better job of providing relevant data, and that he has made a commitment to start doing that. Reached Thursday, she said of the Faculty Association’s criticisms that so much has changed at the university since early March because of the coronavirus pandemic that “many of the points they make are now moot in the face of the crisis we’re in.”
Harald W. Griesshammer, an associate professor of physics, didn’t sign the petition calling for LeBlanc to resign. But he hopes the president hears its message that the faculty needs to be fully involved in the university’s decision-making, particularly the plan to reduce enrollment by 20 percent.
What is needed, Griesshammer said, is leadership that “listens and inspires us to follow — not because we must, but because we are convinced it is the right thing to do.”
LeBlanc should realize, Griesshammer said, that “stopping the process and heeding advice is not a sign of weak leadership. It is a sign of strength. Right now he says he is listening, but nothing actually changes.”