Jack Ohle (pronounced OH-lee) was the President of Gustavus Adolphus College from July 2008 to June 2014. He was previously the President of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, from 1998. Both institutions are part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA) Colleges and Universities, [1] and Ohle has chaired the executive committee of the Council of Presidents of ELCA Colleges and Universities.
Ohle graduated from Ohio Northern University with a Bachelor of Arts in social work in 1969. After completing some graduate work at Hamma School of Theology, Ohle earned a Master of Arts degree in higher education administration from Bowling Green State University. After completing his MA, he went on administrative positions at Ohio Northern University and Muskingum College. Afterward, he became vice president for advancement at Nebraska Wesleyan University where he worked for ten years. He then worked as vice president for institutional advancement and later as senior vice president for external affairs and secretary to the university at Drake University, spending 11 years there.
Ohle held the presidency of Wartburg College from 1998 to 2008,. [2] Accomplishments of his presidency included fundraising $90 million, spending $104 million on capital improvements, and adding 21 full-time faculty members. Despite these accomplishments, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ohle left Wartburg in a state of financial unrest. This academic newspaper has noted that the financing "has raised red flags with its accreditor, alarmed some faculty members, and left Wartburg with a credit rating just one notch above 'junk.'" It has "created some tensions" with the local community and was likely to soon "find itself in violation of a bond covenant requiring it to have at least half as much in unrestricted assets as it has in debt and other liabilities." The situation has forced Wartburg to raise tuition at 8% annually. [3]
Ohle was also criticized by the Wartburg chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which argued that he habitually violated academic freedom. The AAUP at Wartburg deemed that Ohle and his administration had threatened basic academic principles in seven specific ways. It deemed that these “actions reveal both disrespect for faculty as participants in shared governance and disregard for college policy.” It warned that Ohle's “unwarranted interference, if it became habitual, would eventually destroy shared governance and consequently the academic quality of this institution.” The AAUP admonished Ohle for believing that he had the right to “circumvent or subvert policies jointly approved by faculty and administration and adopted by the board of regents. To believe otherwise would be to place the college president above the law and render meaningless all the procedural safeguards contained in the faculty handbook, including those that protect tenure and academic freedom.” Such actions on the part of Ohle were also deemed to be a legal liability for the college, as he was violating contractual agreements with the faculty. [4]
On July 1, 2008, Jack Ohle, was sworn in as president of Gustavus Adolphus College. Since that time feature articles in the two most prominent academic newspapers, The Chronicle of Higher Education and InsideHigherEd , have been critical of his performance as an administrator. The regional newspaper, The Mankato Free Press , has described the situation as a case of "leadership in crisis," lamenting that the president flippantly "shrugs off complaints." The local TV station, KEYC, devoted 5 minutes of coverage to the controversy during the evening news on May 28, 2009, explaining that "Faculty and students say behind the scenes, there is a quiet storm brewing." [5] [6] In the first ten months of Ohle's administration, many of the college's highest-ranking administrators resigned, including the Provost, two Academic Deans and the dean of students. As an explanation, the Academic Deans were quoted as saying that they felt a "lack of presidential support" under Ohle. [7] Reported concerns also included vague job descriptions, and responsibilities being changed without community notice or discussion. [8] In response to these events the Faculty Senate petitioned the college's board of trustees to review Ohle's performance, as well as to review the circumstances of the Provost's resignation. The faculty formed a committee to review Ohle's performance, but the administration responded that the faculty had no authority to do so, and suggested that as a result any defamation claims against faculty might result in the college suing them. Indeed, when InsideHigherEd, ran an article on Ohle's first 10 months at Gustavus on May 29, 2009, it asserted that faculty were "jittery about the president’s style and his plans." To illustrate the level of fear among employees, it explained that "Faculty who speak critically of their presidents can expect some tension, but they seldom take out liability insurance before doing so. At Gustavus Adolphus College, however, that’s exactly what some professors have done." [7] Despite the faculty unrest during Ohle's tenure, the college has experienced many positives during his six years as president. The college opened the $30 million, 125,000 square foot Beck Academic Hall in 2011. The building houses the academic departments of Communication Studies, Economics and Management, History, Psychological Science, and Sociology and Anthropology. The college also established a new Center for Servant Leadership engaging students, faculty, and staff in helping develop vocation-centered learning opportunities, though the Director of Vocation and Integrative Learning was fired along with 35 other employees due to budget shortfalls. The college brought in its largest incoming class in the college's history in 2011, though due directly to the public controversy about the President new student admission dropped sharply leading to massive budget shortcomings. The college has established eight new endowed faculty positions during Ohle's tenure, while losing at least 35 other positions. As of May 15, 2014, the college had raised $125 million toward its $150 million goal for Campaign Gustavus, the largest capital campaign in the college's history. Ohle officially retired as President of Gustavus on June 30, 2014. He was replaced by Rebecca M. Bergman, the college's first female president in its 152-year history. [9]
St. Peter is a city in Nicollet County, Minnesota, United States. It is 10 miles north of the Mankato – North Mankato metropolitan area. The population was 12,066 at the 2020 census. St. Peter is the county seat of Nicollet County and home to Gustavus Adolphus College.
The University of the Cumberlands is a private Christian university in Williamsburg, Kentucky. About 18,000 students are enrolled at the university.
Academic tenure in the United States and Canada is a contractual right that grants a teacher or professor a permanent position of employment at an academic institution such as a university or school. Tenure is intended to protect teachers from dismissal without just cause, and to allow development of thoughts or ideas considered unpopular or controversial among the community. In North America, tenure is granted only to educators whose work is considered to be exceptionally productive and beneficial in their careers.
The University of Dubuque (UD) is a private Presbyterian university in Dubuque, Iowa. About 2,200 students attend the university.
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Established in 1887 as a graduate and research center following approval by Pope Leo XIII, the university began offering undergraduate education in 1904. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without fear of repression, job loss, or imprisonment. While the core of academic freedom covers scholars acting in an academic capacity — as teachers or researchers expressing strictly scholarly viewpoints —, an expansive interpretation extends these occupational safeguards to scholars' speech on matters outside their professional expertise. Especially within the anglo-saxon discussion it is most commonly defined as a type of freedom of speech, while the current scientific discourse in the Americas and Continental Europe more often defines it as a human right, with freedom of speech being just one aspect among many within the concept of academic freedom.
Wartburg College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Waverly, Iowa. It has an additional campus, Wartburg West, in Denver, Colorado.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations.
Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus gets its name from Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. Its residential campus includes a 125-acre arboretum.
Southern Nazarene University (SNU) is a private Nazarene university in Bethany, Oklahoma.
Paul T. Granlund was an American sculptor. His creative career spanned more than 50 years and more than 650 different works. Most of his work is figurative and made from bronze. His patrons included colleges, hospitals, Lutheran churches, and other institutions.
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Tenure is a means of defending the principle of academic freedom, which holds that it is beneficial for society in the long run if scholars are free to hold and examine a variety of views.
Governance in higher education is the means by which institutions for higher education are formally organized and managed. Simply, university governance is the way in which universities are operated. Governing structures for higher education are highly differentiated throughout the world, but the different models nonetheless share a common heritage. Internationally, tertiary education includes private not-for-profit, private for-profit, and public institutions governed by differentiated structures of management.
Cary Nelson (1946), is an American professor emeritus of English and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was president of the American Association of University Professors between 2006 and 2012.
Academic freedom at Brigham Young University (BYU) has been the subject of several controversies, mostly focusing on its religious nature. In 1992, BYU issued a statement limiting academic freedom in certain areas, including language that attacked the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and language that violates the university's honor code.
Frederick Stephen Humphries Sr. was an American academic administrator and chemistry professor. He served as President of Tennessee State University, and President of Florida A&M University. He was also President and CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education from 2001 to 2003. Florida A&M University conferred the President Emeritus title upon him on December 11, 2009. He was Regent Professor at the Florida A&M University College of Law from 2003 until his retirement in 2014.
JoAnna Falco-Leshin has served as a professor of English and Humanities at Miami Dade College since August 1985.
The 1911 modernism controversy at Brigham Young University was an episode involving four professors at Brigham Young University (BYU), who between 1908 and 1911 widely taught evolution and higher criticism of the Bible, arguing that modern scientific thought was compatible with Christian and Mormon theology. The professors were popular among students and the community but their teachings concerned administrators, and drew complaints from stake presidents, eventually resulting in the resignation of all four faculty members, an event that "leveled a serious blow to the academic reputation of Brigham Young University—one from which the Mormon school did not fully recover until successive presidential administrations."
Richard W. Davenport is a former speech language pathology professor and university administrator. He was the president of Minnesota State University, Mankato. Davenport led the university through a number of challenges including numerous budget shortfalls in the 2000s, large increases in enrollment during the economic crises of 2007-2010 and through statewide efforts to increase the status of the Minnesota State system.
The 1979 Boston University strike was a labor strike involving employees at Boston University, a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The strike, involving faculty members, clerical workers, and librarians, began on April 5 and was fully ended by April 23.