Simon Newman, the embattled president of Mount St. Mary’s University, has resigned after complaints he wanted to purge low-performing students and gut the religious identity of the country’s second-oldest Catholic college. When faculty balked at the plan, he quipped that they viewed students as “cuddly bunnies” and had to learn to “drown the bunnies” and “put a Glock to their heads”.
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A current administrative employee who preferred to remain anonymous claims Newman said there were “too many bleeding crucifixes” in the employee’s office, while other faculty members claim Newman has repeatedly denigrated the crucifix and has a habit of using profanity.
Newman had sought to tighten retention rates and boost Mount St. Mary’s academic standing by setting a policy to weed out students seen as likely to fail within the first weeks of the 2015-2016 school year. “It was a hard decision but I believe it is the right course of action for the Mount at this time”.
Dr. Karl Einolf, the dean of the business school, was named by the university’s Board of Trustees as the school’s acting president.
But it was comments Newman made to faculty about struggling students that shocked parents and students and sparked national outrage. The student newspaper, The Mountain Echo, published an article that exposed his words to the public, and in what some faculty are calling a retaliation, the faculty advisor to the paper, Ed Egan, was fired.
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“The board is grateful to President Newman for his many accomplishments over the past year, including strengthening the University’s finances, developing a comprehensive strategic plan for our future, and bringing many new ideas to campus that have benefitted the entire Mount community”, said John Coyne, Chairman of the Mount St. Mary’s University Board of Trustees, in the news release. The student government of the Maryland Catholic school, for instance, conducted a poll in which 75 percent of respondents said Newman should not resign. A lot can, apparently, as the latest from Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland shows us with the resignation of now former president, Simon Newton. Naberhaus, who had publicly criticized Newman, was also reinstated after he was sacked for violating “a duty of loyalty” to the university. “Dr. Williams is a leader, an academic, and an entrepreneur with a broad professional background in law and accounting, as well as a deep understanding of higher education as a faculty member and administrator”.
