Aug. 24, 2009 issue
Bethel president replaced
By Celeste Kennel-Shank and Paul Schrag Mennonite Weekly ReviewPage:
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NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — The Bethel College board of directors has relieved President Barry Bartel of his duties and appointed an interim president.
Bartel
The board made the decision in a special session Aug. 15 and informed Bartel Aug. 16. Bartel said he was told an evaluation process had determined there was a lack of confidence that he was the right person to lead Bethel in the future.
“I made it clear I thought it was a bad decision,” he said in a phone interview. “I made it clear I was not resigning. They decided a change was necessary… .
“There’s no scandal or moral turpitude or anything like that.”
Dale Schrag, director of church relations and campus pastor, confirmed that.
“There was absolutely no moral or ethical misconduct of any kind,” Schrag said.
Bartel had been working under a five-year contract that began in May 2006.
“It was a leadership issue,” said board chair Mel Goering of Santa Fe, N.M., in a phone interview. “The trust and confidence of the people around [the president] is absolutely essential… . The decision becomes agonizing but essential for the obligations the board has.”
In a written statement, Goering expressed the board’s appreciation to Bartel and his family for their tireless dedication and for Bartel’s loyalty to the college and devotion to the church and community.
The board appointed John Sheriff, professor of English and executive vice president for institutional development, as interim president.
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Comments
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It looks to me like this action does not meet the standards expected of a responsible board on several counts: 1) Bartel was not informed of the reasons for it. 2) He was not given a chance to address and remediate any perceived deficiencies in his performance. 3) The timing right at the start of a new school year is peculiar, to say the least.
I don't see why anyone should have any confidence in the board based on either the decision or the process. The statement speaks of "trust" and "confidence", but just saying "it's a leadership issue and trust us we know what we're doing", doesn't make it right. It makes it look like a power play. I don't buy it, and I hope MWR will do some more digging.
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I would tend to agree with Dave. Something does not look right. With no apparent ethics violations, what is the reason for early termination? It seems that confidence in leadership abilities and other qualification issues ought to have been addressed before hiring Mr. Bartel. Moreover, it seems like Mr. Bartel is out for the misfortune of having been brought on at the outset of a recession, which is hardly his fault. Please, MWR, investigate this further.
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The lack of open communication is mind boggling. Bartel seemed to have a great relationship with churches and the alumni base, and so to fire him without helpful explanation will serve to damage the Bethel College in the long run. For the sake of Bartel's and Bethel's reputation, silence will not in the long run be merciful, please tell the open truth! MWR I concur with Dave and Jim . . . keep digging.
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[Comment removed because of factual issues.]
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Bartel served 3 years of his 5 year contract. The questions are 1) In this 3 year period, were performance evaluations performed annually by the Board Chair with Bartel? 2) If yes, in these performance evaluations, were needed improvements identified? 3) If yes, was there a plan of action for improvements presented to Bartel? 4) Was Bartel uncooporative in any way in the annual evaluation process? 5) Did Bartel and the Board Chair both sign off on each performance evaluation? 6)Did the Board Chair report back to the full board the signed performance evaluation results? Depending on the answers to these questions, Bethel College may be legally and morally liable to Bartel for the remaining 2 years for salary and any other financial benefits in accordance with his employment contract.
On the surface, there seems to be leadership failure on the part of the board.
Every board member of a non-profit organizaion should have a copy of the book DOING GOOD BETTER, authored by Edgar Stoesz and Chester Raber, published by Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534, 1 800 762 7171 www.goodbks.com
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Shame on the Bethel College Board. They succumbed to one of the worst offenses a board can make - hiring a highly qualified individual and not letting him do his job as a leader. You listened to internal grumblings of faculty/staff when Barry took a leadership action during hard economic times, and you didn't stand behind your leader. The board could have avoided this typical/dysfunctional move, stopped the complaints cold, and lead Bethel into a the future of stability by simply saying, "We fully support our leader and the actions taken by him," Period. I hope Barry walks out the door with his head held high - it looks like he was a big fish in a little cesspool. I can only guess who led the march of "violated trust, lack of leadership" moaning and groaning, yes, blah, blah, blah... Boards that take this kind of action leave an organization (in this case my alma matre) in a totally dissabled state for years. Watch it happen - the board will now deal with, and gloss over, a variety of problems as a result of their action. I may not have had a lot to give, but I did give when I could. I won't now.
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Marci, I understand your anger. However, it is important to remember that Bethel College is bigger than its board of directors. Bethel College has for years been important in shaping Mennonite leadership and Mennonite thought. It has produced excellent scholarship and continues to be an outstanding institution. This is why the current troubles are so painful.
I have zero confidence in the present Board of Directors. Firing Mr. Bartel is only the latest in a series of fairly erratic actions that the Board has undertaken with minimal explanation.
Nevertheless, the Bethel I remember remains the school I want to send my future children to, and remains the school that I want to contribute to when I am financially able. I can only hope the institution will survive the present instability and recover so that this will be possible. While it is regrettable--and unacceptable--that Bartel has been cast aside, John Sheriff is a capable leader for the interim.
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We would like to share our personal feelings on the decision to change Bethel College leadership in light of what we've heard people say and the comments on the MWR Web site we have read which are critical of the Bethel College Board of Directors.
Many of us in our lifetime have served on boards when we were required to deal with critical and delicate issues which could not be revealed to the public. As former board members we personally know the majority of the board of directors. We have found them to be persons of integrity and of the highest quality. They are people who we have placed in leadership and who have been required to deal with a very delicate issue.
We personally are not aware of why it happened. However we do have complete trust and faith in their decision. We believe it would serve us well to trust the decision the board has made. We all expect the board to make decisions that are necessary to allow Bethel College to go forward. Let us put the past behind us and look to the future for the good of Bethel College.
Now is the time to stand behind Bethel in our donations and encouraging students to attend. The future of Bethel depends on our support. We need to pray for our students, faculty, staff, the Bartel family and the Board of Directors.
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I reiterate. I have not lost faith in Bethel College. It is my hope that the institution survives, and I believe that Sheriff will provide strong leadership for the interim.
To be sure, I am certain that no one in the board of directors was acting for anything other than Bethel College's best interests. One could say the same for Mr. Bartel. But apparently Bartel's honorable intentions and hard work were not enough to prevent his dismissal.
In firing a sitting president three-fifths of the way through his contract, the board of directors has made an unusual decision that demands a clear explanation. If the board cannot clarify the reasoning behind the dismissal, or its other actions, then there is little reason for confidence in the board. They are leading Bethel to the future, but what is the vision for that future?
Confidence cannot be built simply by saying "trust me" after an obviously complicated and controversial decision. Only openness can build such confidence.
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All I know is what I read in the media, which has largely been limited to press releases and a few guarded quotes. But I have found no evidence of any sort of proper performance review process that would have identified to Barry Bartel areas of perceived weakness and given him a chance to address them. From everything I read, he himself had no idea his job was in danger until days before his firing became public. This is not an acceptable way to deal with people, and no, I will not trust that the "Board knows best." There are too many reasons to believe otherwise.
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This is to express my disappointment in the action of the Bethel College board regarding its president.
I have been disappointed in the past when I saw the board’s actions lead to a parade of revolving-door presidencies, but I have never been as ashamed of my alma mater as I am now.
I have been with higher education my entire professional life and have been in administration for a quarter of a century serving the Indiana University system. I have dealt with boards, have done my share of hiring and, at times, dismissing. While I know nothing of the issues involved with Bartel’s presidency, I do know that, barring ethical breaches, you do not break a contract; you first take care of the issues and drastically reduce the impact on the people involved. The board did not do this but instead took a non-Anabaptist approach.
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Is this the same Barry Bartel that was a legal representative for Guantanamo Base detainees? It would be terrible if that had any bearing on this "fired for no reason, consider no remediation" situation. That would belie the ethic of service, the "concern for the powerless", to punish by dismissal an activist on behalf of a fellow human being.
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MWR staff are waiting to hear from Barry Bartel, a former attorney and former Bethel College president, as to whether he is the same Barry Bartel who has represented Guantanamo Bay detainees.
However, I spoke to Bethel board chair Mel Goering by phone today, and he said of Barry Bartel the former Bethel president that he had "no knowledge of any specific legal cases in which he was involved."
Goering said further of the board's action, "Therefore, this was obviously not involved in any way" in the decision.
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Barry Bartel, former Bethel president, said yes, he was a legal representative for Guantanamo Bay detainees as part of a team at a law firm where he worked in Denver.
To reiterate, though, board chair Mel Goering said he did not have knowledge of the specific legal cases on which Bartel worked before becoming Bethel president, this or others.
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