Newman was on campus for a student rally Monday morning and thanked the students for their support.
Senior Stephen Witkowski said he and another senior made fliers praising Newman’s tenure for things such as a multi-year contract with a maker of athletic apparel, a program that brought speakers to campus to discuss issues such as racial injustice and the refugee crisis, and his support for courses that would make students “more marketable” such as cybersecurity and forensic accounting.
Newman, who had worked in finance, was appointed president of the 2,300-student private university in 2015. He has promised dramatic changes and some have described tensions between people loyal to the school’s 200-plus-year-old caring, Catholic, liberal arts traditions and those who feel it must put more emphasis on marketing, increase enrollment and add more career-focused courses of study.
Newman’s presidency has been extremely controversial this year, with many criticizing an effort they say was designed to force out struggling freshmen in the first weeks of school to improve rankings — and Newman says is part of a multi-pronged effort to retain more students, which didn’t result in any students leaving.
Many were shocked by cruel language that he used to describe students in discussing that plan.
And they criticized the sudden firing of two professors, one with tenure, one who had been the adviser to the Mountain Echo, the student newspaper that broke a story critical of Newman. University officials said the terminations were not retribution for opposing the president, but thousands of scholars across the country decried the actions as a violation of academic freedom and called for their reinstatement. Shortly before the faculty voted to ask Newman to resign, he announced that he had offered to reinstate them.
Opponents have been vocal for weeks now, but as the deadline the faculty set approached over the holiday weekend, some supporters stepped forward publicly as well.
Three alumni, Kate Marshall, Jim Becraft, and Philip Zulli wrote an open letter about some of the things Newman had discussed with the Advisory Board for the College of Liberal Arts, which read, in part:
President Newman addressed challenges facing the Mount: a perception among parents and students that a liberal arts degree lacks value, a concern that Catholicism is no longer the ‘driver’ that it once was in recruiting students, and special needs within our student population, from learning issues to mental health concerns such as depression. He identified these as challenges that need to be addressed, and we agree that they do.We did not hear the President say that he wanted to downplay the liberal arts, but rather rebrand them so that more 21st century prospective students would understand the value of a liberal arts education. We did not hear him say that he wanted to soft-pedal our Catholic identity, but that we can no longer rely on it to persuade students to attend the Mount. We did not hear him say that students with special needs should be eliminated from our student population but that we must determine how we can be responsive and address their needs in the context of the entire student community.Finally, we did not view President Newman’s comments as showing either disdain for or hostility to our beloved Mount, only a realistic determination to identify, confront and resolve the issues that it must grapple with at this time in its history.Coming from the world of business, and not academia, President Newman’s approach is more blunt, straightforward and pragmatic than we are used to. He used a harsh and insensitive metaphor to get his point across, and one that we find offensive. But we choose to look beyond this language and focus on whether he can fulfill the mission for which he was hired: to use his financial acumen and expertise to bring the Mount growth and stability over the long term, and to ensure that the Mount endures, through this decade and through this century. We strongly support his efforts to do so.
Some still had trouble looking past Newman’s words. “I have very strong feelings regarding the treatment of freshman arriving at a very exciting, in some respects frightening doorstep, that with the proper care can launch a student into a rewarding and meaningful future,” Ronald Smith, whose daughter graduated from the Mount in 2006, wrote. “… there is no place for the coarse thoughts rendered by President Newman, at the Mount I know and love. I led my Catholic daughter to the Mount because of the care and attention the Mount community traditionally afford our freshman children.”
McCarthy said more about Friday’s faculty vote calling on Newman to resign. “Our vote was by secret ballot after much deliberation. Ninety faculty voted out of the roughly 110 full-time faculty members at the Mount. Our decision was based on what we think is the best way for the university to move forward.
“When we were deliberating, some faculty members wanted to make sure that, regardless of the outcome, some of the initiatives that President Newman has started would be continued. This point was received with wide agreement. We hope for growth and positive change.”
