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News, analysis and opinion on reforms being offered to improve schools, whether the ideas originate in Washington, Austin or Dallas. The online discussion will take education policy debates seriously, while it connects them to students from grade school through college. We welcome and read all letters from readers. Letters are selected for publication based on their clarity and brevity. They also are chosen to represent a diverse set of views on as many issues as possible. March 2010
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Main| UT-Austin: What about using more of its endowment? »
So far, no one — not Gretchen Bataille, not Chancellor Lee Jackson, not the board of regents — has explained just why Bataille is so suddenly and shockingly leaving the presidency of the University of North Texas. But in a letter sent Tuesday to board members of the UNT Foundation, which raises money for UNT, Bataille leaves some intriguing clues. "I am sure that over time the reasons for my resignation will become clearer," she writes. Specific enough to say we will in fact learn the truth, yet vague enough that we don't know when or how the truth will emerge. Jackson says they tried for over a year to improve their relationship. But Bataille writes, "Until the past week I was anticipating a long and successful tenure as president of UNT." Which begs the question: what very recent event triggered her departure? Still no details. Bataille (who has a PhD in English) simply writes, "As many of you know, things change — or as both Chinua Achebe and William Butler Yeats wrote, sometimes 'things fall apart.'" Read Bataille's letter and Jackson's comments below. And you can read some of our recent stories here and here and here. And here's why our editorial board thinks we deserve an explanation. And for one UNT insider's thoughts on what really happened, check this out. Comments |
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AKA: A giant scandal is about to unravel.
Some of you should add 2 + 2 on this and remember that the biggest significant change over the last few weeks was a request for state agencies to submit recommendations to cut 5% of their budget; it is quite coincidental that the deadline was Febrary 15th and obviously there were deliberations on this prior to submission to the State.
The bottom line is that for some reason there is something that was most likely submitted in the reduction package that philosophically went against the President's philosophy and she felt so stong about it that she decided to quite over it.
Finally, as a parent with a fourth year senior who has paid most of my son's college tuition, fees, and room and board I can say that academia is living on another planet right now and don't care about the struggling student and or working class families trying to pay the rising costs of tuition. My guess is that she was against the tuition increases and some things in the budget reductions and that was enough.
Probably some big bad tough man had a problem with a woman and ran her off.
that's what you get for hiring a woman to do a man's job.
Maybe those budget reductions would impact her GIGANTIC salary and nice compensation package.
Ahh, politics...seems clearly Jackson just wants his way. Why is he in academia anyway? Let's bring her back....she knows how to run a university, not him!
This all goes back to Rick Perry and his longtime friend, Lee Jackson. Jackson, like Kent Hance at Texas Tech, has no qualification to hold down the title of Chancellor. Perry has populated every Board of Regents with his cronies. First, they knocked off the President at Texas A&M. Now, they have knocked off the President of UNT. As a UNT alum with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, I find this very disturbing. It is urgent that we elect a new Governor. Senator Hutchison, where are you hiding?
Lee Jackson has a Napoleon complex. He worries that his is too short, especially as compared to Gretchen Bataille's. I say that only with respect to the observable and obvious.....their list of actual achievements. Lord only knows what else is troubling him.
One more link for you: DCEO editor Glenn Hunter scored this interview with Bataille on Tuesday: http://bit.ly/9MsHpc
As a UNT student I say good riddance, and take your stadium with you! I hope you go to the football school you always wanted.
Flymast wrote: "Finally, as a parent with a fourth year senior who has paid most of my son's college tuition, fees, and room and board I can say that academia is living on another planet right now and don't care about the struggling student and or working class families trying to pay the rising costs of tuition. My guess is that she was against the tuition increases and some things in the budget reductions and that was enough."
I would like to point out that it's not all academia, Flymast. I'm a staff member at UNT. The folks in my area haven't seen any kind of substantial raise nor any substantial job reclassifications in three years. None of us are six figure salaries...with the exception of my boss, none of our salaries are even close.
We're just as frustrated and angry about executive compensation here at UNT as you and the tens of thousands of parents like you across the state are, Flymast. Our workload increases yet our pay doesn't while we have an executive level of administrators who rake in six figure salaries for jobs that, for the most part, none of us understand nor see the need to compensate them so richly to perform.
Its time that Jackson needs to be run off and let someone competent run the Univ/Med Sch. Its all politics and a wanta be chanscellor