Student frustrations with Gottfredson grow

This was not some haphazard show of frustration where we all celebrated the fact that we’d caused a disruption. As reported in Diane Deitz’s May 31 article, we went so far as to apologize to Gottfredson for having to interrupt his ceremony during the microphone check. 

The fact is that it was one of the few times when we were even sure of where the president was going to be. Gottfredson has repeatedly ducked or avoided our groups’ requests for meetings. He has canceled scheduled meetings with campus workers after people had already shown up. 

To anyone who is familiar with our new president, none of this should come as a surprise. 

Not only has Gottfredson abandoned the interests of the students in proposing the tuition hike while raising administration salaries, but he has also abandoned the faculty of our beloved university (specifically sharing governance with them, and particularly on academic matters).

Jacklin’s LESST group’s website has more. Gottfredson’s public records office, which charged me $108 to see 6 months of his official calendar, is now trying to charge the students $240 for the most recent 5 months. Last I heard they were still trying to scrounge up the money. And the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is reportedly questioning the efforts of Assistant Dean of Students Chicora Martin to move the demonstrators from Knight Court to some sort of unconstitutional “free speech zone”.

Meanwhile Gottfredon’s new chief of staff Greg Rikhoff still won’t say who is on Gottfredson’s “Budget Advisory Group”, much less produce copies of their charge or minutes. It’s been almost 3 weeks Greg. Update: Rikhoff just sent me the list of members, but not the committee’s charge. I’ve got a request in to Moffitt and Shelton, who co-chair it, for that and the minutes.