Letters
11/30/04
Dear Colleagues:
My time at Colgate was an incredible all around educational experience. My Greek involvement helped round out academics with a "real-world" leadership component that I use every day as a team lead, project manager, and non-profit board member. I (and many others) have outlined the many reasons why I think the Greek system is an extra-ordinarily important one to Colgate - and I don't want to take up your time to hit on these same points. Suffice to say, I do not think it is possible to gain this kind of complete education in hosted environments sponsored by the University. At this point in time, I'd like to comment on the current state of affairs.
Let me first say I am not against some reform to the Greek and university system but it is my belief that this reform should be carried out in an open and honest manner by three bodies that make up Colgate - students (current and former), the board, and the administration. I'm a change management consultant - there are clear best practices for implementing institutional change. The change management on this effort was a complete failure. I know that the alumni and students were not consulted in a real sense, and Rebecca Chop told me at one of the "alumni education events" that the administration had little input, so I must say I am shocked at the Board's hubris in deciding upon these mandates in a vacuum.
I believe that the people are one of Colgate's core strengths. For the Board and Administration (they have agreed to implement this) to now marginalize our outrage at this proposal frustrates me further. The Residential Plan "information session" in NYC (and many other localities) was the most highly attended off-campus alumni event in history. The audience was clearly predominately against the fraternity component of the new Residential plan. They should know directly how strongly we feel and how much we care about Colgate. When will they channel this involvement and energy into productive negotiations rather than dismiss the alumni and students as ill informed and incapable of participating in key decisions in a democratic matter? Can we at the very least provide input and some influence? We are not asking for much at this point are we?! I understand that there simply has not been any budging on the core issue - "Colgate has been unwilling to include any clause that guarantees the future continued existence of the fraternity or sorority."
The Board's refusal to negotiate in good faith only confirms to me that we are experiencing a clear abuse of power. After all, this is a liberal arts college - a place where every stakeholder should have a voice, and honest open debate precedes any major decision-making.
I think it is wrong to use university funds to be sending out communications that are clearly not balanced but represent only the perspectives of the Board and Administrations. The fact that we have no means to organize ourselves as alumni in mass - is clearly being used against us. I think the sa4c website is a great start! I have already begun to withhold donations to Colgate - it hurts to do so - but I cannot support these inflexible decisions and a governing body that is unwilling to listen to reason and debate.
I think we do need reform at Colgate. And perhaps we should begin to look at the Best Practices on governance at other academic institutions and begin to reform ours. I for one, and I think many in the administration may agree, that our current Board's use of power is not in the best interest of Colgate. Let us see some give and take!
Sincerely,
Kent N. Zelle 1999