What You Can Do To Help – John Hitt

Dear John,

You’ve made so many mistakes that it’s impossible for you to right all the wrongs. Still, in your remaining years with UCF, you could do two small things to make life better.

First, don’t make loyalty to you the primary condition for continued employment. Most of the UCF community kisses your ass and tells you what you want to hear. They do this because you don’t cotton to dissent. A lot has gone wrong for UCF lately. Perhaps, it’s because you surround yourself with lackeys who are too cowed to disagree with you.

Second, you have built your giant empire. Now, you should focus on running it. When something goes wrong, you are quick to blame your underlings (e.g., you blamed the overpayment of Mealor on UCF personnel; You put the budget deficits of the College of Arts and Sciences on Kathy Seidel), but the truth is that you are accountable for any mistakes at UCF – that’s why you are the president. Man up and take some responsibility.

Of course, the best thing you could for UCF would be to retire.

Sincerely,
Arthur Barnhouse