The Pendragon's Hall

Pope Charming and the Pendragon have certainly had our differences over the years, but on the matter of Houghton College's dealings with Professor Brad Beach our thought runs together. You see, Dr. Beach was hired by Houghton College six years ago as a tenure-track professor. But at the end of last semester he was not only denied tenure but informed that since Dr. Fisher (a man I greatly respect) wanted to return to classroom teaching, Beach's position was being eliminated and he would not be rehired for the next schoolyear. This news came in December when pretty much all the teaching jobs for next year would be filled. When the news was announced there was an outpouring of rage from the tenured faculty and the student body. Professor Beach is a well-respected, well-liked teacher. Two students on campus organized a Save-the-Beach campaign mentored by some of the faculty. This generated the support of at least 3/4 of Houghton students, all the tenured faculty (and this is most of our professors), and many others as well. The justification given, as well as the lack of a need for four faculty members to teach the ten philosophy majors here, was that Houghton needed to balance its budget. Even in the midst of the uproar, however, the College President (who having led the college well during his first twenty-nine years apparently feels the need to botch it all up for his last year here and stick it to the incoming president) assured the College that its finances were in order, something backed up when nearly two dozen new faculty members were hired, including a man whose sole job is to attract black students to a rural college with a lousy engineering program, and the beginning of sweeping building projects, which include a $4 million addition to the library to house a graduate school of theology, and a renovation of the chapel to seat 1400 students, a number which the powers that be have randomly decided we are about to reach, despite falling enrollment in recent years. After all the outcry, the Board of Trustees decided to review the decision and took their sweet time about it too, releasing their vote to uphold the original decision the week before finals. The President, meanwhile, conveniently was out of town the day the announcement was made.

I think it is an absolute outrage. While the point that the philosophy major is so small and doesn't need so many professors is valid, Professor Beach was not given enough time to move on. Furthermore, this was all justified by saying that Houghton was trying to balance its budget and expand a bit, hopefully reaching a student body of 1400 by the year 2010. But this is not going to happen in the current state of things. The building projects, the firing of favorite faculty members (and Beach is not the only one), and the sudden influx of new rules with no explanation have all contributed to make life miserable for current students. Satisfaction with this college has fallen way down, and it was pretty high before. The treatment of Professor Beach, moreover, will certainly have an adverse impact on remaining faculty: it will be hard to attract good ones if they can't be sure of tenure; those already here will be less hesitant to accept other jobs offers if they seem more secure. Without good faculty and happy, positive students, Houghton is just a tiny college in the middle of nowhere with very little to recommend it. I can hope that our new president will reverse the trends of the last year and hopefully some heads will roll besides the outgoing President in the administration. Only this way will they really reach their desired conclusion of a vibrant, growing Houghton College.