Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

JEFF HORWITZ: Computer Science Professor, Theresa Fisher, is just finishing a term as president of the Faculty Association. During her tenure, she's dealt many times with professors on both sides of discrimination complaints.

THERESA FISCHER: We can compare the situation in Saint Cloud State to any other state university. And it's a huge difference. The number of grievances, the number of affirmative action complaints, the sit ins, the protests, the bad press, the lawsuits, I mean, it just never ends.

JEFF HORWITZ: By way of example, Fisher points out Saint Cloud State has 14 official faculty grievances before Minsk at the moment. MSU at Mankato, a school of comparable size, has four. Like most critics, Fisher believes Saint Cloud State is not filled with racists or anti-Semites, and the numbers show the school is more diverse in most areas of campus life than many regional institutions. Fisher sees the problem in the processes set up to handle complaints that do arise.

THERESA FISCHER: Those processes limp along. And then some decision comes out of those processes that nobody respects. And so it's like the net effect is actually worse than before. We aren't able to resolve anything internally, not anything. And so everything blows up.

JEFF HORWITZ: Many who see problems here say the rebuilding process won't truly begin until Saint Cloud State's president declares unconditionally that the school has major issues.

ROY SAIGO: How can an academic just make one blanket statement, Yes or no.

JEFF HORWITZ: Roy Saigo has been president at Saint Cloud State for a year and a half.

ROY SAIGO: What institution, other universities, don't have problems? Race issues, religious issues. We're always going to have problems. But what we have put in place are cooperative efforts to put in place a task force to study these issues and to achieve where we need to be.

JEFF HORWITZ: That task force came together after the equal Employment Opportunity Commission called in February for major measures to restore faith in on campus complaint processes. Just this month, the task force recommended additional task forces to look at specific divisions with perpetual troubles. These are the College of Social Sciences and the College of Education, which generates more teachers than anywhere else in Minnesota.

Ironically, by convening task forces and commissioning studies, the university further antagonizes some of its sharpest critics. Teacher Development Professor, Jeffrey Tabackin, is party to a pending lawsuit saying Saint Cloud State is a hostile environment for Jews.

JEFFREY TABACKIN: The risk taking they do is about looking good without substantively doing anything. Instead of recognizing that they can move forward, they would rather indulge themselves in spending a lot of money on public relations.

JEFF HORWITZ: Tabackin says he is still trying to get anti-Semitism put into the school's affirmative action statement, something he says he was promised in a 1990 court settlement. Prof. Mike Davis recently co-wrote a letter to Twin Cities guidance counselors urging Blacks to think twice before coming to St. Cloud State.

MIKE DAVIS: Everybody is so upset over this letter. Well, we didn't do anything. We blew the whistle. Clean it up. If not, we will do it for you. After 13 years, I'm sick and tired of it.

DICK ANDZENGE: You are not reading much about the good things that are happening.

JEFF HORWITZ: Criminal justice professor Dick Andzenge says politics and a tradition of antagonism obscure the fact that change is underway.

DICK ANDZENGE: Because we fear that if we admitted those efforts and those successes, we will be seen as denying the problem. But I disagree.

JEFF HORWITZ: Andzenge knows he's called an Uncle Tom by some faculty of color because he recognizes the positive trends on campus.

DICK ANDZENGE: The number of minority hires has gone up quite a bit at Saint Cloud State over the past few years. The fact that right now we have a president who is a minority, we have the president of the faculty senate who is a minority, the president of the student body who is a minority, I think means a lot.

JEFF HORWITZ: One person most represents the hope that Saint Cloud State will regain credibility on discrimination issues. Tracy Bo was hired in December as a special affirmative action investigator. Some faculty worry her new position only confuses an already muddled process. But Bo comes as close as any administrator to what the school's critics want to hear.

TRACY BO: The type of publicity that we've been getting I don't see as necessarily bad because they're not quiet little issues that we want to push away. I think we need to deal with them as an institution.

JEFF HORWITZ: Bo is a lawyer who's lived in Saint Cloud since 1986. Since she began in December, she has started five investigations. She's met with two dozen others who brought concerns to her desk. Since she began, the president also initiated a paid suspension for a professor under investigation. It was the first time this power had been invoked in recent memory.

Bo hopes to erase the notion that many complaints often disappear, as some critics say, into a black hole. Many say over the years, the university has withheld records they are legally entitled to see, citing instructions from the attorney general's office. An NPR request was able to obtain some personal documents complainants said they had previously been denied. Bo says the process needs to be as open as possible while still protecting privacy.

TRACY BO: As to the process and as to where people are in the steps, it should be completely transparent. They should know where they are, where they're going, and what's happened. Otherwise, you obviously lose credibility.

JEFF HORWITZ: Her top priority is reviving on campus mediation program. Officials lament that almost nobody uses it. Many faculty say it doesn't work. They come in wanting a formal investigation and judgment. But Bo says that leaves them with an all or nothing outcome. Racial and other insensitivity often does not add up to a technical violation of discrimination law. Bo sees mediation as the key to more outcomes people can understand and be happy with.

TRACY BO: When people come in, they're very fearful about what's going on in their situation. Anxiety is very high. And so initially, the idea of sitting down face to face with the person that's alleged to have engaged in conduct that is hurtful and upsetting to them is scary. And I think part of our job is to make sure that the process equalizes that power balance.

JEFF HORWITZ: Even those who have taken the school to task see other positive trends. Students now have required courses in diversity. Graduation now alternates between Saturday and Sunday instead of falling every year on the Jewish Sabbath. And the university now recognizes a variety of religious holidays. Affirmative action officer, Laurel Allen, says it's been a struggle since she first tried to set that process in motion five years ago.

LAUREL ALLEN: It was an easy, simple little memo that says, people, we are a state institution. Let us not put forth just the Christian. It was so simple. I didn't realize just how angry that was going to get people. But I heard from others, a number of the Jews and a number of the Muslims, that say it's overdue.

JEFF HORWITZ: And a number of top administrative posts are getting fresh faces, including the vice presidents of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. President Saigo is new and says he's doing his best to forge a new path without giving in to the acrimony of the debate.

ROY SAIGO: People put me on both sides. You aren't doing enough or you're doing too damn much, right? I guess I must be doing OK because I'm right in the middle and I'm hitting forward. And we're going to solve these issues. And we're going to do the best we can.

JEFF HORWITZ: For better and for worse, these long standing issues will be resolved in two arenas in the coming years, Saigo's campus and the courts. Jeff Horwitz, Minnesota Public Radio, Saint Cloud.