EDUCATION

Do we still have integrity?

Tara Bannow, reported in the Des Moines Register, the following:

The dean of the University of Iowa College of Education announced her resignation Monday following a flurry of reports last week that high-ranking UI officials had ordered the destruction of records pertaining to faculty and staff dissatisfaction over her performance.

Margaret Crocco has served as dean of the college since July 1, 2011. In an email to faculty and staff Monday morning, Crocco, who did not immediately return a call seeking comment, wrote that she had submitted her resignation letter to Executive Vice President and Provost P. Barry Butler effective December 14, and he had accepted.

“It has been a privilege to serve as dean of the College of Education,” Crocco wrote. “My goal has always been to advance the best long-term interests of the College. Over the last eighteen months, we have accomplished a great deal. I trust that the implementation of our new Strategic Plan will serve the College well in addressing the changing landscape of higher education in this country.”

Butler will announce an interim dean later this week, according to a UI press release.

“It is remarkable what she has been able to do during her short time as dean,” Butler wrote in a statement. “Especially in terms of raising public awareness about the College of Education, throughout Iowa and nationally.”

The resignation follows reports that Butler and other high-ranking UI officials ordered the destruction of comments left in the 2012 CoE Working at Iowa survey, in which faculty and staff members criticized Crocco’s performance. All seven members of the college’s Faculty Advisory Committee resigned last Friday following reports of the actions by administrators.

WOW, is pretty much all I can say at this point…

It find it incredulous that College administrators would want to keep this hidden, but I also find it admirable and with much integrity exhibited that not only did the Dean resign but all of the members of the Faculty Advisory Committee as well.

I do think that a good argument was made concerning the fact that comments made on evaluations should remain private and be the topic of a private performance evaluation; however,  Colleges are not private as they educate our children and future leaders of our country; and, to hide evidence of performance by one’s peers as well as by one’s students is to condone that same behavior from our students and graduates.

That my friends is unethical and lacks integrity.

One would hope that educators would set better examples…