Fighting HSU’s financial firestorm

Henderson is burning. Again.

In 1914, the existence of Henderson-Brown College was threatened by a fire that burned the main building to the ground. The students, faculty, and staff resolved that the college would carry on, and so it has for another 108 years, becoming what is today Henderson State University in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains in southwest Arkansas.

More recently, a financial firestorm took HSU to the brink of fiscal insolvency in 2019, lit by the administration of then-president Glenn Jones and vice president Brett Powell. During this time, most of the HSU Board of Trustees (appointed by the governor of Arkansas) ignored signs of profound dysfunction in spite of ongoing questions and objections from the faculty.

Former HSU president Chuck Welch, now president of the ASU system, stepped in to shepherd HSU through the precarious aftermath of the Jones era, resulting in HSU joining the ASU system.

After treading water with interim leadership for two years, Chuck Ambrose was hired as chancellor. He has been lauded as a change agent and the savior of HSU in this paper. This is not the perception of many (if not most) of us living through a hellish situation, filled with uncertainty and worry over the future of our families, students, careers and programs.

I imagine this must be what a hostile corporate takeover feels like; everything Ambrose has done so far has been by administrative fiat. The plans for “re-imagining Henderson” have come entirely from him instead of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have invested their lives in HSU.

We were hopeful at first, but we realize now that we are victims of bait-and-switch tactics. Little from his initial interview with the search committee would have suggested the draconian changes Ambrose had in mind.

But now he has the matches set to burn HSU down once more so he can remold it in a corporate-style model concocted at KnowledgeWorks, his previous realm. There is no evidence that he has concern for the human collateral damage nor the harm to HSU’s reputation as he proposes to eliminate most of the programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences that lie at the academic heart of HSU. These include history, English, biology, communications, studio art, mathematics, chemistry, criminal justice, and music performance, to name a few on the chopping block.

Unilaterally, Ambrose has eliminated deans and chairs, instead creating a “senior leadership” team led by a CLO (“chief learning officer”), a dean of faculty, and directors to oversee the former departments now lumped into four groups, called “meta majors.”

There was no search process or posted criteria for these positions; we simply received an email announcing whom he had selected. There was nothing inherently flawed with the existing university structure of HSU; if it were, why do we not see other institutions like UA or ASU running to change theirs?

Ambrose has indicated that he intends to do away with our University Academic Council, which approves program changes that percolate up from departments, and replace it with his own team. This will give him even more power to dilute what programs remain.

All expected that HSU must dramatically contract to become more efficient and fiscally sound again, but we did not expect the essential character of HSU to be in peril. Surely Henderson can be saved without eviscerating its strong programs in the arts, humanities, sciences, and mathematics, which is in the plan he’s presenting to the ASU Board of Trustees.

Ambrose initially seemed like an affable sort of fellow in spite of his edu-business jargon. He has convinced many that he can balance HSU’s budget while transforming higher education to better meet the needs of our region; however, he is simply cutting costs by amputation rather than skilled surgical reductions. Ambrose claims to want to make college more accessible to students and remove obstacles to their success. We all do, but the easy way is through lower standards and weaker degrees, the direction in which it seems he will take HSU. It is all about numbers; he wants to bring and retain more paying students, whatever it takes.

This points to a deeper problem: The funding of education in Arkansas has perverted its true mission to improve the quality of its citizens’ lives. The quid pro quo of money for graduates has resulted in pressure to pass and graduate students, regardless of whether real learning has taken place.

Because of the funding formula for higher ed (Jones and Powell were in on this), these same pressures are coming to bear on colleges and universities. To insist on college success for all who show up will result in more dilution of the content and value of a college degree. Personal responsibility should still be at the foundation of success; students deserve a “hand up, not a handout.”

The people of our state would be better served by public schools that provide a solid foundation for good citizenship by requiring more rigor in the basics of literacy, quantitative skills, history, government, science, and the arts, coupled with opportunities for apprenticeships in skills that lead to good jobs for those who choose not to attend college.

College is not an entitlement; while it should be financially accessible to all, admission should be determined on demonstrated aptitude and determination. Academic standards should be valued and protected; they pay off in life and in the workplace.

My mother’s degree from Henderson pulled our family out of poverty. She taught at Henderson for 30 years, and I have been here 27 years. My connection to Henderson is deep. I am not an alumna, but it takes all my fingers and a few toes to count my family members who have degrees from HSU, including all three of my children. As a sixth-generation Arkansan, I want the people in my region and beloved state to prosper.

More than one administrator has privately described Ambrose as a dictator; the declaration of financial exigency has given him free rein to act like a corporate CEO. Is he driven to use HSU as the magnum opus of his career, or really help the people of Arkansas? I am persuaded that the main dog Ambrose has in this fight is his ego; he wants his vision of the future of all universities to succeed and to get credit for it.

HSU is in financial straits not because of its faculty, staff, or students; that pox lies with the failed administration of Jones and Powell and the absence of oversight by the trustees at the time.

HSU is in financial straits not because of its faculty, staff, or students; that pox lies with the failed administration of Glen Jones and Brett Powell, made worse by a negligent board of trustees. I pray that Governor Hutchinson will have the courage and foresight to accept the state’s responsibility for the misfortune inflicted upon HSU and not allow this travesty to continue. I pray that Chuck Welch will have the humility and wisdom to admit that Chuck Ambrose is the absolute wrong leader for HSU at this critical time. Finally, I implore the ASU Board of Trustees to reconsider their recent vote and reject this nightmarish “re-imagining” of Henderson. Like most academics, I do not have wealth or influence to quell this fire. My buckets of words are puny. But I can sound the alarm.

Carolyn S. Eoff, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, & Statistics at Henderson State University. This letter is endorsed by Henderson State University’s Faculty Senate.