SLU Sit-In Protest 2012
Channel: Macthecamp
Date: 31/10/2012

TL;DR: Version is at the bottom.

"He has created a culture of fear over the past 25 years. He has driven the school into the ground. In 1996, our ranking was 54. Today it is 92. His administration wants to make 30% of your classes online and still charge you as much, if not more, tuition.

They close and move around schools and programs at will, without consultation with faculty or students. This is against the rules established for shared governance principles. When faculty or administrators speak out or otherwise criticize Biondi or his politices, they are quietly removed from their positions the next semester. Biondi talks out of both sides of his mouth and moves money around as if he owns the place. The issues with the law school were much more serious than the "he-said she-said" manner in which they are being portrayed. The dean's resignation and the attack on tenure were merely the most recent examples of a long history of such behavior.

Students need to educate themselve
s on this issue. Faculty is afraid to teach you about it.

The fact that faculty are afraid, three-fourths of them have been or will be seeking employment elsewhere, and department chairs break down in tears knowing that Biondi can ruin their careers when all they really care about is the students and the school...

That is why Biondi must go.

http://www.slu.edu/x64320.xml

Professor Don Brennan devoted his life to this institution. When he began to criticize Biondi and his policies recently, Biondi had his office moved into the basement storage closet. Literally.

Professor Brennan tragically passed away 6 months later.

I am not suggesting Biondi killed this man. But you judge. Would your heart break if the school you gave everything to treated you like that?

Also - for those of you who do not know how school rankings work, it is much more complex than funding for research. The metrics analyze several things, including tenured faculty, faculty salaries, student aid, alumni donations, so on and so forth.

Our endowment, which basically measures alumni donations, is stagnant. If you talk to alumni, they don't want to donate and several of them will cite Biondi by name as the reason.

This, my friends, is a battle over the soul of Saint Louis University. It is an epic conflict that will determine whether or not this is the kind of school we want SLU to be.

Choose your sides. Because this has been brewing for a long time and is about to explode.

To you undergraduates - Biondi didn't frequent soccer games or visit res halls until recently. He knows what is going on and he will fight back. He always fights back.

This will be a case study of institutional power in the future. This is how one man can completely control an institution and do as he pleases. He has control of the body that is supposed to control him - the Board of Trustees.

You are attending a school that is run by an authoritative dictator.

Get mad."

-Kellen Gracey

TL;DR: Vice President of SLU attempted to kill Faculty Tenure, which was the last straw for the faculty. They filed a no-confidence vote against the Vice President and attempted to get him fired, but the President refused to fire him. The faculty, fed up with their lack of pay raises in over thirteen years, the pervasive culture of fear that they may lose their jobs if they speak their opinion, and the wasteful spending of thousands of dollars on things like Tulips and a hotel (lol wut) caused them to unite against the administration in order to demand change to the status quo. The students, also fed up, are increasingly joining forces with the faculty.

This is the first wave of the war to come.