Editorial

UMass Amherst Stuck in Cycle of Turmoil

What’s happening at UMass Amherst with regard to Chancellor Robert Holub is disturbing on a number of levels — from the leaking of information from a supposedly confidential professional review, which led to a front-page Boston Globe story detailing Holub’s probable ouster, to the momentum-halting turnover in the chancellor’s office, which is suddenly becoming chronic. And everything in between.
As we write this, Holub is reportedly in negotiations designed not to save his job, but apparently to strike some kind of settlement that will allow him to leave on something approaching his terms. Unless something unforeseen happens, he’ll soon be the former chancellor, ushering in yet another period of transition at the state university’s largest campus — meaning turnover in the top ranks of the administration, stress and uncertainty at the lower ranks, still another strategic plan of action, and large amounts of doubt about just where this institution is headed.
Meanwhile, a capable administrator who has implemented some sound programs and created some real progress in the school’s efforts to get to that proverbial next level will be gone, and some of those initiatives will likely die on the vine.
But these aren’t the biggest problems facing the Amherst campus. No, the biggest concern is a system that promotes this revolving door and leaves the Amherst campus as the ‘flagship’ school in name only.
But let’s back up a minute. Holub is gone, or soon to be gone, because of what that prison captain in Cool Hand Luke famously called a “failure to communicate.”
It’s not that Holub doesn’t possess this skill, it’s more a case of him just not using it, or using it enough — the primary case in point being his proposal to create a new medical school in Springfield in partnership with Baystate Health.
When you decide to formally study such a concept — which is a very good idea, by the way, one that would help with everything from revitalization efforts in Springfield to filling a critical need for more doctors in the state — but don’t tell some of the key players, including the president of a university system that already has a medical school in Worcester, that’s bad. Very bad.
But does the punishment in this case — Holub’s ouster — fit the crime of not communicating as effectively as most people would like? We don’t think so, although we appear to be in the minority. In any case, the school will now lose an administrator who excelled at town-gown relations, made significant strides forward in efforts to make the university a much bigger force in the city of Springfield, and who wasn’t afraid to take bold steps like moving the school’s football program up to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
If Holub goes, as expected, an interim will be named, a nationwide search will be launched, a new chancellor will be hired, several top administrators will be replaced, and many departments will experience  upheaval. And in three or four years, we can do it all again, making the process of transforming this school into a top-flight research institution lengthier and more difficult.
Perhaps a chancellor will be found who can provide real leadership and stay for six or seven years, but that’s not likely given the crush of politics that is part and parcel to this job and the fact that the chancellor simply doesn’t have the power befitting that of someone who leads a so-called flagship campus.
And he’s not likely to get that power — which would come if the president of the university was also the chancellor of the flagship school, a model followed in other states — any time soon, because of those aforementioned politics and the simple fact that the chancellors of the campuses in Boston, Lowell, and Dartmouth wouldn’t want to cede any of their power.
As we said at the top, what’s happening in Amherst is regrettable and disturbing. But the worst thing about it is that this is apparently a trend, and one that seems likely to continue.