www.news-record.com/content/2009/02/26/article/editorial_lessons_to_be_learned_on_battles_departureEditorial: Lessons to be learned on Battle's departureSunday, March 1 ( updated 3:00 am) A&T and UNC system officials have not been helpful, parsing information in terse statements and cryptic news releases. Nor has Battle, who at press time, still had not said one syllable about the matter to reporters, even though he will remain in the job until June 30.
Each new scrap of information seems to bring more confusion than clarity. But what we do know, for sure, is that there is more to his departure than officially advertised.
"Family and personal reasons" may be one factor in the abrupt announcement that Battle will step down after only two years on the job. But it is evident that there are others.
And you barely have to read between the lines.
"I wouldn't want to characterize what he did," A&T trustees Chairman Franklin McCain said last week of Battle's performance -- adding, in words he'd probably like to have back, "If I did that, I'd be lynched."
Battle's departure also underscores a number of other, pertinent lessons to be learned about an important community institution and the critical challenges it faces, both immediate and longer-term:
The point is not merely to admit students; it is to educate them and to graduate them. More specifically, if there is disagreement, as some believe, over Battle's insistence on raising the university's admissions standards, it needs to be addressed. Right away.
Yes, A&T has a unique tradition as a historically black university and, yes, it has polished more than its share of diamonds in the rough who might not have had the chance for a degree somewhere else.
But no one benefits when the school admits large numbers of students who are not prepared for college-level work and who never graduate.
Battle was right to favor tougher admissions criteria over the push for enrollment growth.
A&T's enrollment increased nearly 50 percent from the fall of 1999 to the fall of 2005. But between fall 2005 and fall 2006, the number of students who were failing or not making adequate progress rose by 376 percent. During the spring semester of 2007, one out of every four A&T students had been placed on academic probation or suspension.
Similarly, the school's average SAT score for freshmen decreased 60 points from 1995 to 2005.
That was not tradition. That was a crisis.
Now SAT scores are rising, even though undergraduate enrollment has decreased, from a peak of 9,735 in the fall of 2005, to 8,829, in the fall of 2008.
"I think we've given a lot of students a really bad deal," UNC President Erskine Bowles said in 2006 about graduation rates at UNC campuses. "We get them into our schools, they take a bunch of remedial courses, they drop out after two years, they drop out with a bunch of debt. I think that's wrong. We're going to change that."
This suggests he recognizes the folly of pursuing quantity at too great a cost. He should reaffirm that view.
The lack of clarity has fed rumors and anxiety -- on campus and in the community. This is a public, tax-supported institution. The A&T community and the community at large deserve a fuller accounting of what is going on there and what it means.
The recent turnover among chancellors at A&T raises a number of important concerns. Once the new leader is hired, there would have been four different chancellors at the university in four years. That has to affect morale and continuity. Any business or institution that sees that much changeover that often at the top is bound to be hurt by it. Why is this happening at A&T? What can be done to address it?
The search process for the next chancellor ought to be rethought. Is A&T drawing from the best possible pool of candidates? Is there a clear consensus among the candidates, the trustees, the community and Bowles on what the university needs in a leader? Is there a collective vision for A&T on which its top administration and faculty agree?
The fallout in the aftermath of Battle's resignation implies that there isn't.
The search for the next chancellor ought to be more open. Arguments that a search process is hindered by openness and discourages good candidates are dubious at best.
The chancellors of Greensboro's two public universities must relate effectively to a broad range of constituents: students, faculty, alumni, businesses and the community at large. Why, then, is the process so secretive?
At least provide the community an opportunity to know the identities of the finalists and to interact with them.
A&T, and indeed all state universities, do not belong to their trustees or media relations offices or the UNC president.
They belong to the people. And the people have a right to know.
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igliigli March 1, 2009 - 4:13 am EST The major problem with the UNC Board of Governors and the Board of Trustee is their focus on
sports and their disinterest in academics. Instead of supporting Chancellor Battle's effort to improve
AT&T's academics, they forced him to quit.
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Apersonwhoknows March 1, 2009 - 11:46 am EST I think it is erroneous and unfair to assume that Battle was led to resign because he was not getting support for wanting to raise NCAT's academic standards and focus on academics. His tenure was fraught with problems that far exceed the issues that you address in your comments and that are touched upon in the N&R Editorial.
I think if the NCAT Board of Trustees, General Administrations and others who really know Battle, his management style,etc would "talk", one would learn that Dr. Battle "did not fit" as a Chancellor--especially one for NCAT. So please stop speculating if you cannot or will not obtain the truth behind his resignation.