Tales From The Travels

I read this editorial in the USD school newspaper, The Volante, today. As you can see, I have not been exaggerating when I talk about how malicious the USD administration is.

When I was there, Abbott was famous for his vindictiveness. When I got into my legal problems, people were telling me of their first hand horror stories. When I asked them if they would be willing to testify, they said they were afraid. Abbott, they said, would either fire them or, if they didn’t work for the university, would fire their spouses. Five faculty members stepped forward and volunteered to testify of their personal experiences where they suffered retaliation at the hands of Abbott. They didn’t have to, but the very fact they were willing to forced the university to change their tactics.

Lawyers all over the state warned me about how vindictive Abbott is and they told me that, no matter how long it took and no matter what it took, Abbott would get even with anyone that crossed him. It was spelled out for me in perfectly clear language that breaking the law was not something he was afraid of doing.

I received many death threats during my last year there after the legal fight began. I would be somewhere in town and someone would come up to me and ask me who I was. When I responded, they would say something like, ‘I just wanted to let you know that I heard Jim Abbott is going to burn your house down while you’re asleep.’ Or, maybe that he was going to have stolen property or illegal drugs placed in my car and then call the police. Over the course of a year, I received about 10 such threats. Right before I left town, someone came up to me one evening while I was having a beer and told me Abbott was going to have Tina Keller killed and have me framed for it. That way, I was told, he would get rid of me and a troublesome mistress at the same time.

Now, you can believe that Abbott had nothing to do with all of that. But, when total strangers come up to me and start making comments like that, I cannot believe for a second that it was uncoordinated. And, the best part is, no laws were broken. They didn’t actually threaten me, they just told me they had heard about it somewhere. But, the message was clear.

Let me say that I never believed they would carry through with the threats. I felt at the time, and feel even today, that they were just trying to intimidate me. In that regard, they failed completely.

In fact, it is this very vindictiveness that is the source of their problems now. After leaving town, I was worn out and ready to put it all behind me. I would have settled for anything they might have offered me. Instead, I fully understood they were going to come after me with everything they had. They didn’t want to settle, they wanted to make an example of me. Forced to fight, I found a way to win. I knew the South Dakota courts would never decide against USD or Abbott and I was flat out told the only way I could win was to go to the US Supreme Court. So, that’s where I am now. And, I believe very strongly that I will win.

Given the documented history of this school, I really have to wonder why anyone would accept a position there. In fact, they have a very hard time filling their openings. I have been told by members of the administration that about one-third of all open faculty positions go unfilled every year. Its understandable.

Knowing the history and attitude of Abbott and his cronies, I have cut and pasted the entire editorial below. If he forces the Volante to remove it, there is a copy of it here. Also, notice there is no by-line on the editorial.

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SPECIAL EDITORIAL: Administration secrecy must stop

Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Updated: Wednesday, April 15, 2009

They’re intensely secretive, they’re unapologetic and they increasingly deal in misleading statements.

They’re members of USD’s administration.

They’re a group led by President James Abbott and it increasingly seems their mission is to squelch negative news and muzzle dissent among faculty and staff.

Just a few weeks ago, Abbott downplayed the recession’s effects on USD in a forum. He assured us personnel and program cuts were last resorts.

Now, despite the fact that USD is a liberal arts institution, science programs are being expanded at the expense of 16 faculty and staff, who were abruptly fired last week.

We weren’t we told we had so quickly reached our last resort.

And the administration’s secrecy didn’t start with the firings.

Earlier this semester, we wrote about the secrecy surrounding the administration’s controversial plan to fund the Promise Scholarship.

That’s the scholarship centralization scheme.

Seemingly plucked from thin air, it seemed hurried and reactionary. Students, faculty and staff were blindsided by the administration’s sudden, unprovoked power grab.

Many faculty and staff had strong opinions on the secrecy, but their opinions weren’t printed in The Volante. And that’s not because we didn’t ask.

It’s because the administration seems willing to punish when secrecy is violated. This has created a culture of fear.

The Volante was refused interviews by several faculty members, citing possible administration retaliation. Others insisted on off-the-record interviews, saying even the lightest criticism of administration policies or decisions could end their careers at USD.

Faculty and staff have even requested we contact them through non-USD e-mail accounts, in case university e-mail was being read.

We recently received an anonymous letter from a faculty member decrying the administration’s Promise Scholarship secrecy. While it is our policy to not publish unsigned letters, this statement is quite telling:

“I’m not signing this note because I honestly believe that doing so would cost me my job,” they write.

We can’t be sure why these faculty and staff believe their jobs are at risk.

We’re no conspiracy theorists, but that feeling seems ubiquitous on campus.

Is the Abbott administration actively punishing faculty and staff who dissent from its policies and decisions? We demand an answer.

We note that the Abbott Administration has complied with The Volante’s every interview request.

They routinely meet with our reporters for interviews on many topics, and they’re nice about it.

But we’re not concerned with their manners. We’re concerned they’re not telling us the whole story. We’re concerned that, with faculty effectively silenced, they can spin information any way they’d like.

Abbott even refused an invitation to participate in the Cross Media Council’s Budget Forum on Thursday. He would have been forced to answer to fellow faculty sitting next to him onstage, unlike in his own forum, which occurs an hour earlier than the CMC’s.

So his refusal is quite telling.

Of course, some degree of secrecy is necessary. We know some decision-making processes are sensitive and must be kept from the general public.

But Abbott and company are treating the rest of USD like the enemy by withholding information and downplaying negative news.

This secrecy is unwarranted. Indeed, if we’d have been told layoffs were coming, we mayhave been better able to accept them when they did.

But instead, we were consistently left in the dark about the imminent danger of layoffs. We were consequently dismayed by last week’s firings.

Faculty and staff are fearful. They were suddenly thrust into a world of layoffs, a world from which the administration suggested they’d be protected.

More, they’re being pressured to not criticize their superiors. Is this the kind of work environment that would be tolerated in any other state institution?

The administration’s secretive tactics have been tolerated for far too long.

It is imperative that students, faculty and staff make it known to the administration that under no uncertain terms will they accept undue secrecy and bullying tactics.