CURMUDGUCATION: Maryland University President's Loyalty Purge

CURMUDGUCATION: Maryland University President's Loyalty Purge:

Maryland University President's Loyalty Purge

Remember the story about the university president in Maryland who directed his faculty to "drown the bunnies" in order to improve their retention and graduation numbers? Well, according to Inside Higher Ed, he has gone after and fired faculty members that he considers disloyal-- including the adviser of the school paper that outed his bunny comment.

President Simon Newman was hired as the head of the small Roman Catholic university a year ago, with not an iota experience in higher education. Instead, Newman was plucked from the world of business, specializing in private equity and starting businesses.

Newman fired a tenured professor, Thane M. Naberhaus of the philosophy department, with a letter that included this rationale:

As an employee of Mount St. Mary's University, you owe a duty of loyalty to this university and to act in a manner consistent with that duty. However, your recent actions, in my opinion and that of others, have violated that duty and clearly justify your termination.

Newman seems to believe that loyalty to the university means never questioning the decisions of Newman himself. Newman blamed Naberhaus for "considerable damage" to the university, threatened him with a lawsuit, and banned him from the campus. His page has been wiped from the university website.

David Rehm, the provost who told Newman to hold off on his freshman flushing plan, was removed from his post as provost. 

Newman also fired Edward Egan, a professor of law, alumnus, son of an alumnus, and former trustee of the university. Egan was the advisor of the Mountain Echo, the school newspaper that CURMUDGUCATION: Maryland University President's Loyalty Purge: