CMU Vs. Dennis Lennox: A Failure of Leadership

The ordeal that brought Dennis Lennox, a Junior at CMU, in direct confrontation with his administration has lasted about 14 months. Fourteen months ago, CMU hired Gary Peters to the distinguished Griffin Chair. This was always a controversial hire because Peters had already formed an exploratory committee to run for Congress in a district hundreds of miles from campus. In the subsequent fourteen months, the administration went through all sorts of extraordinary steps to protect Peters. Furthermore, they went through all sorts of extreme steps to confront and intimidate Dennis Lennox, a junior that became the sore in their side on this case.

The effort was coordinated between the Dean of Students Pamela Gates, the head of the Political Science Department, Del Ringquist, and all the while the President of the school, Michael Rao stood up and did nothing. At all levels of the administration, not only was Peters protected, but Lennox was targeted. Which makes the ruling from last week that much more stunning.

The affair had its climax last week when the administration reached this decision.

Reports out of Mount Pleasant indicate the school's Human Resources Department has finalized a policy that would require professors to pick between Congress and campus.

Under the new policy, which comes some three weeks after classes ended, Peters will be required to resign by June 5 -- 60 days before the Democratic primary on August 5 -- if he wants to challenge Congressman Joe Knollenberg.

Now, since the beginning Lennox wanted for Gary Peters to choose between running for U.S. Congress, in a district hundreds of miles from campus, and serving as the chair of the prestigious Griffin Chair. Of course, between now and the beginning of this affair, the administration did all sorts of things to not only protect Peters but to attack Lennox.

From emails sent back and forth between staff, we can see that Peters' hire likely had less to do with qualification and more to do with ideology and political favoritism.

I think there is a growing impression that CMU is a Conservative Republican base and I and several others have heard this over and over from folks in our own administration, the faculity, and from Lansing politicians. The Department of Political Scinece has had top rate policy analysts in the first effort to fill the Griffin Chair and they percieve that they were overridden because of Ranny Ricker's call regarding (name blacked out). In the second search to fill the Griffin Chair the Department received a hassle when they found a moderate Republican to have cleared al the hurdles and a political ally and close associate of John Engler was almost foisted upon them even though the person lacked the same excellent qualifications as Bill Ballinger...

...

As close as he (Gary Peters) is to the governor (Jennifer Granholm), it might look bad for CMU if he is not offered the position after such a recommendation."

Of course, as corrupt as the hire was, it was nothing compared to the corruption that CMU created to protect Peters and confront and intimidate Lennox. The administration created a ban on video cameras after a couple confrontational incidents between Lennox and Peters. (creating a bit of political strange bedfellows between the conservative Lennox and the ACLU which rushed to his aid in this matter)

Furthermore, Lennox was involved in his own highly confrontational incident also caught on camera. Here she commits assault on Lennox when he attempts to serve here with a FOIA request.







After this confrontation, the school went on a systematic attempt to try and discipline Lennox. Not only were the charges dubious, but the whole process was anything but fair. It was scheduled and cancelled multiple times. Finally, when Lennox showed up to his disciplinary hearing with multiple media in March, the administration cancelled the hearing and announced that the next hearing would be held in secret without Lennox being in attendance.



They went ahead and held the hearing in secret while students were on Spring break. Of course, the charges that all of this stemmed from came from an incident in which a school professor confronted Lennox inside a school building late in the evening when Lennox was attempting to pass out literature. Because the simple act of passing out literature was against the CMU student code of conduct, and because Lennox wouldn't identify himself to the professor (another technical violation), this incident lead to a five month ordeal for Lennox. Keep in mind that underage drinking is also against the CMU student code of conduct, and yet the school allows the freshman and sophomores to systematically violate that policy, while they strictly enforced Lennox' aggressive use of free speech and his unwillingness to identify himself to a stranger in the evening.



These are just some of the things that the administration did to Lennox and for Gary Peters during the last year plus and after all of this the administration agreed with the premise of Lennox' arguement. Of course, Dennis Lennox hasn't changed what his position since this affair started at the beginning of April 2007.



In other words, while they systematically targeted Lennox and protected their corrupt hire Gary Peters after over a year they admitted they were wrong and Dennis Lennox was right. Now, I am reminded of the climactic scene of the movie, Quiz Show.

I'm happy that you've made the statement. But I cannot agree with most of my colleagues. See, I don't think an adult of your intellegence should be commended for simply, at long last, telling the truth.

While I commend the administration for finally coming to their senses, it doesn't excuse their behavior over the last year and more. Their admission finally at long last makes their behavior over this whole affair that much more despicable, unprofessional, and ultimately a failure of leadership.



When leaders fail to lead, new leaders must replace them. Everyone from the President of the school, Michael Rao, to the Dean of Students, Pamela Gates, to the head of the Political Science Department, Del Ringquist, showed an utter failure of leadership. From the beginning rather than standing up for a good and proper process, they stood up for corruption. Rather than protecting the rights of their students, they trampled on them. This whole affair should have never happened because it takes basic common sense to know that hiring Peters would have lead to disaster. Not only did they commit this corrupt hire, but the entire leadership of the school then went on to commit obscene amounts of more corruption to protect that hire. In the meantime, Dennis Lennox saw many rights squelched and trampled on. Peters was paid a rather large salary to simultaneously campaign hundreds of miles away while he was supposed to be dedicated to teaching. All of this happened because the leadership has no idea what the word lead means. If your leaders aren't leading, then there is nothing but chaos. That is what this whole affair wound up being.



I will not show anymore hubris in calling for the administration to do anything, but I do know that none have shown any ability to do the most important function of their respective offices...lead. If they can't perform that function, how can do their jobs?

CMU Vs. Dennis Lennox: The Lessons of Unchecked Arrogance

Introduction: Here is a quick summary of the fiasco at Central Michigan University and its hire of Gary Peters. Peters was hired in March of last year to the distinguished Griffin Chair in the Political Science department at Central Michigan University. This was a controversial hire because Peters had already filed formal paperwork exploring a run at the U.S. Congress in a district hundreds of miles away from the campus. Dennis Lennox, currently a junior at CMU, immediately began tracking the story and even created this website. In October, Lennox had a controversial confrontation with the Dean of Students at CMU, Pamela Gates. Following this incident the manner in which the administration treated Lennox became much more heavy handed and it all culminated in a disciplinary hearing against him that might have lead to his expulsion. This hearing was postponed due to a blizzard. In the meantime, Lennox has spoken at CPAC about the ordeal, and has recently teamed with the Michigan Republican Party for more publicity. Peters continues to teach at CMU and run for Congress concurrently.

I hate speculating and even more I hate trying to get in another person's head, however I am fairly sure that when the fiasco at Central Michigan University started the administration never imagined the sophistication and media savvy that Dennis Lennox has been able to exhibit. Lennox has been able to ally himself with every entity from Redstate.com to the ACLU to the Michigan Republican Party and everyone in between, including to a certain extent yours truly. In many ways, it is quite surreal. One time I had a conversation with Lennox that he had to squeeze in between a conference call and homework. Most recently, he started a campaign along with the Michigan Republican Party: Where's Gary Peters? The two allies even created and set up an oversized milk cartoon with Peter's name and photo on it outside a meeting held by some administration officials. This comes on the heels of Lennox being invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Nearly single handidly organizing and orchestrating a full media campaign for nine months on this fiasco in between classes and all other college activities is frankly rather impressive, and more than that, something the admin couldn't have possibly dreamed could happen from a "mere" junior in college when they made him their adversary. This is just one of many instances where I see the administration unchecked arrogance and where it became their own albatross and fatal flaw.

The first instance of arrogance came in the decision to hire Peters' in the first place. It is still unclear, and will likely never be known, if the administration knew the inherent conflicts and ignored them or didn't even realize that hiring him would create a conflict at all. Either way, it was yet another example of overwhelming arrogance. Several internal emails released as a result of a FOIA request indicate that Peters' hire became political and ideological. Several members of the political science department, including its' head Del Ringquist, appeared determined, according to the emails, to hire a liberal and a Democrat. The fact that Peters was on record as exploring a run at the U.S. Congress, in a district hundreds of miles from the campus no less, never seemed to enter any discussion. (at least none of the emails released showed much of a debate of that conflict) Again, it may have been a matter of the admin not even realizing the conflict or not caring about it, but either way this obvious oversight was due solely to their unchecked arrogance.

Once Peters was hired, many of the current students as well as many other alumni began questioning the decision. (This is also indicated through several emails released from angry students and alumni) This was followed by growing media scrutiny and even many politicians started to question the decision. Yet, the administration wouldn't budge. The concerns of students were dismissed. Here is how one email framed their concerns...

Furthermore, this continued diatrobe from (again name blacked out) and his friends does not represent the majority of CMU students nor does it present accurate facts to the public. This is an Endowed Chair- not one that is supported by student tuition dollars. To allow (again name blacked out) the power to dictate who will or will not serve as the Griffein Endowed Chair for American Government is not a precedent I
believe we should support.

I have several family and friends in academia and I firmly believe that the reputation of arrogance and elitism that some give it is overblown, however in this case and certainly this email, the perception of the ivory tower arrogance that academia has is perpetuated. Clearly, all opposing viewpoints were dismissed as marginal and a minority. By failing to listen, or at least address legitimately, to the voices of its students, alumni, and other entities outside the campus the administration again exhibited the sort of arrogance that ultimately became its own undoing.

In October, following this controversial incident, caught on tape and downloaded to youtube, between Lennox and Dean Pamela Gates, the administration became quite heavy handed toward Lennox. (I wrote about it extensively here) The admin went through formal proceedings and charged Lennox with what amounted to passing out literature where he wasn't supposed to and not identifying himself to a stranger. The formal proceedings nearly reached a full and formal hearing until weather stepped in and they were postponed. It was never clear what the administration hoped to accomplish. Had they come down in a heavy handed manner on Lennox, the public outcry would have been so great, all their jobs would immediately have likely been in jeopardy. If they merely gave him a slap on the wrist, they wouldn't have deterred him from following the story. Frankly, even if they had kicked Lennox out of school, which frankly would have likely spelled their own eventual pink slips as well in my opinion, he and everyone else wouldn't have stopped reporting on the story. The charges were quickly snuffed out by almost everyone as nothing more than a trojan horse to intimidate Lennox. Their emails, phones, and faxes were lit up as a result. Throughout the whole formal proceeding, Lennox never let up in reporting on the story. If the admin hoped to intimidate him with the charges, they failed. If they really hoped to accomplish anything positive for themselves, it was strictly due to arrogance.

Finally, the fiasco isn't much different today than it was when it started. Peters' is simultaneously serving as Griffin Chair and running for Congress, in a district hundreds of miles away. Lennox, and his group Students Against Gary Peters, only want him to choose between the two. The administration has never to this day answered with any clarity how these two dual roles can work simultaneously. Yet, they have dug in and refuse to admit they were wrong and correct it. The administration must know that we live in the Google age. The longer this goes on the more articles will be written about it, and the more times each of their names, along with the good name of the university itself, will be associated with this fiasco, and thus along with any google search. Their refusal to recognize the mistake they made and correct it is the last example of their unchecked arrogance and how it has become a fatal flaw.

Thus, among the many lessons of the fiasco at CMU is the lesson of unchecked arrogance and its own fatal flaw.