To the Editor:
This past summer I was working and taking a class here at Fairfield, so I was one of the few students on campus to witness when the University decided to let go of 31 employees.
Thirty-one employees sounds so static and cold. Thirtyone human beings with complex lives, feelings and families, who devoted (in some cases) 27 years or more of service to this institution, and were consequently told that they were dispensable.
In many cases they were given an hour between when they were informed of their termination and when they were shut out of access to email and voicemail. They had no way to inform their students or colleagues that they were let go. They were simply terminated, as if Fairfield University was a corporation, and not a Jesuit institution of higher education.
The emotional blow I witnessed as the University struggled to say goodbye to beloved family members on location is indescribable. Off-campus during the summer, over 1,450 members of the Fairfield University community were moved to join the Facebook group called “Save Jeanne DiMuzio’s Job,” while countless others wrote letters to the administration. Many alumni said they would not be donating or would be reducing their donations to let the administration know they don’t approve of this action.
I recognize there are incredible complexities to running any institution, and the ongoing financial crisis is real, impactful and frightening. But I am confused and angered by the process by which this happened. We are a Jesuit University, which is supposed to mean something. What is that something? Well, let’s look at two of the core values, and the Strategic plan:
Contemplation in action: Where is the contemplation that couples this action of firing so many employees? Will there be a forum in which we as students get to reflect on how this impacts us? Will there be reflection by the administration on the execution of the layoffs? This was the first time Fairfield ever had to lay a group of so many people off. What does that mean for our commitment to Social Justice when our own institution reduces people to what they cost? And what does it mean when a University adopts a corporate model for firing?
Cura Personalis: Caring for the whole person. Did the criteria in which these people were evaluated include this component? What about their severance packages? Were they just? Did they reflect the needs of the whole person? On student level, how is the whole person being met when the Canisius Café, full of familiar names and faces, is replaced by a vending machine lacking both important social nourishment and basic healthy options? Or when the Health and Wellness department is essentially deleted after the firing of its director?
Finally, by reflecting on the university’s strategic plan for the integration of living and learning communities, I have come to the conclusion that this University recognizes there are many places in which knowledge dwells. It is not just possessed by our professors in the classroom or the board of trustees in Bellarmine. It is in us, the students, as well.
So when did we, the students, get the chance to share our knowledge, our invaluable perspective on the very basic and most true workings of our University? I don’t claim to know how to run an institution of higher education, but I do understand what works on the ground level among my peers that those folks in the board room simply do not. So why was that knowledge not honored? Why were we not informed this was going to be happening? Why did they wait until most of us left campus to do it? Did they think we wouldn’t notice? Why were we not in on the discussion of the criteria that evaluated the people we came in contact with on a daily basis?
If we are going to call ourselves a Jesuit institution, then we have to live out the values we espouse. We have to honestly reflect on our actions and their implications, truly evaluate how to care for the whole person, and honor and value the many places knowledge resides.
To my fellow students: it is our job to hold the administration accountable to their actions and the only way to do that is to ask questions. So please ask the questions you find important about the shifts Fairfield University is experiencing. And to the Administration: please answer our questions, not in placating personal letters, but publically so we all can know.
Sincerely,
Sarah Gatti ’10
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