In light of the spooky holiday, I thought I’d devote my weekly column to telling a scary story. I already wrote about the gory, bizarre occurrences that have graced the Cal State Long Beach faculty, students and staff in Dig Magazine.
This scary story, however, does not entail dark shadows, blood or graphic visuals. However, there are definitely enough creepy characters and shady dealings to give anyone the shivers.
Imagine an Orwellian-like time and place with a leader who is unresponsive to the needs of his constituents, partially because he ignores them, but also because he doesn’t listen. He refuses to meet with anyone who disagrees with his ideas and surrounds himself with like-minded people. His stance is uncompromising.
Once a(n) [insert noun here] chooses to speak up about something (s)he considers an important issue, a wall is built between the leader and the noun-turned-ugly.
Sound familiar? It should.
The person who I’m describing, though, may be closer to the CSULB campus than you think. It is not our fearless, heedless leader in the White House (although these characteristics certainly do describe him as well). It is our very own CSULB President F. King with a capital “K” Alexander.
Four weeks ago, I wrote an editorial detailing a strange encounter Editor in Chief Bradley Zint and I had with the leader of our university during our scheduled, biweekly meeting invaolving the three of us, some surprise ASI guests, a soccer field and electronic gadgets.
Since then, my invitation to the meeting table has been rescinded. The reason I was given were my Oliver Stone-like “conspiracy theories.”
At first I was elated. The fewer phony meetings the better, as far as I was concerned. I hated the idea of someone trying to spoon feed me news ideas and, quite frankly, the meetings did not feel in any way productive.
At the time, though, I hadn’t really considered Alexander’s behavior troublesome. In the weeks since then, however, a few things have transpired to make me change my mind about this destructive mindset.
In our first meeting, Alexander asked us that Zint and I collect reporters’ questions and save them for our biweekly talks.
This at first seemed perfectly reasonable. He is a busy man, and a bit more planning in the Daily Forty-Niner newsroom in regards to assigning stories in advance never hurts. He promised that, when possible, he would try to speak to reporters who had questions.
Unfortunately, news is rarely predictable and clairvoyance is a trait I’ve yet to see on a résumé. A few weeks later, his genial secretary began screening phone calls, telling reporters (at least two, including myself) that all questions must come through Zint before getting an audience.
Maybe it was all a foolish misunderstanding, but what I was told was that there is an understanding with the president and our own leader about how questions should be submitted.
Since then, my interactions with Alexander have been restricted to a generous nine-line e-mail and a phone call.
As I’ve learned since then, the ‘Niner is not alone in its predicament with getting the president’s attention.
The truth of the matter is, Alexander needs to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s part of the job.
He needs to be able to be open and frank with faculty members, reporters, students and community members, though.
The job isn’t about being cozy. That’s why the school conducts such a seemingly belabored process in screening candidates – they want someone who can handle the pressure, not someone who cowers when things get itchy, because they do in a setting this big, diverse and demanding.
We’ve seen this kind of headstrong, listen-to-no-one-except-your-friends attitude in a leader before.
We’ve also seen the effects of such an unwillingness to compromise and be open.
Alexander needs to change. As with other fearless, heedless leaders, I believe he is a genuinely good person who is well-intentioned and means best. But we all know where the best of intentions go and we don’t want to go there.
Right now, what we really need is a campus leader who is open, forthcoming and welcoming to students, not one who holes away in a drab, mysterious brown building.
To me, this is far scarier than any other ghoulish Halloween tale could possibly be.
Lauren Williams is a senior journalism and political science student, the managing editor for the Daily Forty-Niner and a weekly contributor.
