It looks like the University of California just can’t get
its act together, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently
added its name to the long list of UC critics in a report that carped at
bungling university higher ups.
After years of pay scandals, governing fumbles and zero
executive transparency, it’s no surprise that one of the main accreditors of
schools finally said something.
By now, WASC’s take on the UC may be one spook story too
many (how does infrastructure really effect the common student?), but the
scandal’s magnitude has undeniably and irrevocably altered the college system’s
reputation and repute.
Though the system’s status clearly isn’t threatened — no
matter how out of hand the UC Board of Regents gets there’s no way some of the
nation’s top public universities are going to lose their accreditation — this
is a critic the regents should finally start taking seriously.
When are students finally going to see their administrators
held accountable for rampant incompetence?
The sorest travesty is the extent to which our schools’ top
administrators admit their own confusion. Simple job descriptions are being
formed at the regents’ level, and the UC Office of the President is an
entangled ball of yarn. The
UC-commissioned working group that is outlining regents’ responsibilities
glossed over the inherent troubles, choosing instead to formulate a broadly
weak six-part plan.
The workgroup is even catching flak from its own subjects,
with regents claiming that the plan ignored addressing the bureaucratic
overlaps that pain regents to this day.
The university’s head doesn’t know what its hands are doing,
at a time when it is set to swap out its leadership — the combination will
prove to be make or break. The departure of UC President Robert C. Dynes will
either allow the university to completely reshape its infrastructure or plunge
the prestigious system into disarray.
Even if the regents have no idea what they’re doing now, they need to
shape up quick: Within a year they will have to tap a successor that is both
cognizant of the university’s problems and capable of handling them.
Hopefully Dynes’ departure will mean a reality check for the
messy university administration, marking a significant bureaucratic overhaul —
and fast.
