AMU's "Climate of Fear"
Sun, Mar04, 2007 - Category: University
For years, Ave Maria administrators have used threats
and rules to suppress complaints by employees and
students. Recently, at least one administrator may
have gone too far. Is this a climate conducive to
rigorous undergraduate critical inquiry, much less
the future training of graduate students in law? How
much does this 'climate' explain AMU's recent decline
in enrollment (reported to be down approximately
30%)?
Will bans on criticism of the institution also be extended to Ave Maria Town, formally or by informal blackballing?
Will bans on criticism of the institution also be extended to Ave Maria Town, formally or by informal blackballing?
Many examples of Ave Maria officials' tight control
over the campus community could be offered. In
October 2004, Tom Monaghan issued a signed memo to
all Ave Maria College (Michigan) faculty threatening
termination for those who made any public criticism
of his decision to close the school. Other examples
of heavy-handedness include reports of campus email
monitoring, this
incredible story of coercion, confirmed
reports of an AMSL Board member making harassing
calls (at work) to alumni suspected of
criticizing Monaghan, and Monaghan's coupling of
employee severance to the signing of a draconian
non-disparagement agreement that gags the
employee and his family for perpetuity.
Other news sources have also reported strictly enforced bans on students, employees, and employee families from talking to non-Ave folk:
***
From here: (emphasis added)
"As he [Fr. Fessio] welcomed me [newspaper reporter] into a study group he was leading on Ratzinger’s Spirit of the Liturgy, Fessio urged me to act as a dissenting voice: "Feel free to criticize him," Fessio said, "even though he is the pope." The students’ laughter was reassuring — a sign, perhaps, that their faith could comfortably coexist with the outside world. But later, when I asked two recent graduates to discuss their experience at Ave Maria, they turned to Fessio with stricken looks. He quickly explained that all interviews needed to be arranged through the school’s PR office."
"This policy arose again after Latin Mass one morning, when I asked a middle-aged couple what had brought them to Ave Maria. As the wife began answering, the husband quickly stopped her; what I needed to do, he explained anxiously, was talk to the university spokesman. As it turned out, this wasn’t just a local Catholic couple in search of a traditional service: the man was William Riordan, a theology professor and Ave Maria’s [now former] dean of faculty. Vetting questions directed at students is one thing. But it seems odd —and slightly ominous — for a senior faculty member to shy away from freely speaking his mind."
From here:
"And soon I [the interviewer] was sitting in the [AMU] student center, scribbling notes as four of my co-petitioners crowded around me, monitored—and then interrupted—by a lean, crew-cut young man with a lantern jaw, who rushed the table. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," this student said, identifying himself as a resident assistant. "Is this, like, an interview? With the media? You can't say anything to him—that's official policy." So we ventured off campus, to Applebee's."
***
AveWatch, and other journalists covering this story, confirm the remarkable concern for the preservation of anonymity exhibited by former or current employees and students who feel compelled to share their experiences as a warning to others. Even individuals who once acquiesced to the release of their passionate disputations of Ave Maria administrative practices are found, later, trying to hide those same arguments (example); this is often motivated out of fear for retribution (example - Fr. Fessio, AMU's Provost, used his private business, Ignatius Press - an entity wholly unrelated to AMU - to exact revenge on a mom-and-pop orthodox Catholic publisher who ran articles critical of AMU. This was done despite the family publisher having also printed articles complementary of AMU, including one by Fessio himself!)
As of late, AveWatch has received other accounts that further suggest the presence of a "climate of fear". Excerpts from one recent submission are below. The square brackets [ ] are specific names or details redacted by AveWatch.
[A certain AMU Board member] went off on the administration at the last [AMU] Trustee's meeting. He had talked with the students and described for the Board the climate of fear on campus. Faculty are arbitrarily fired [examples given], students are leaving, and nobody is confident in the amateur administration.
[A certain AMU administrator] and Monaghan denied that there is a climate of fear. When [the administrator] returned from the meeting, he was so angry at such a baseless charge that he started a witch hunt for those who were involved in connecting [the AMU Board member] and the students. He interrogated and harangued a 20 year old undergraduate in [location given] from 11:30PM to 1AM and she left shaking and crying. More students are leaving and [the administrator] is backing up and trying to placate them, because even [other administrators are] appalled at his folly.
Other news sources have also reported strictly enforced bans on students, employees, and employee families from talking to non-Ave folk:
***
From here: (emphasis added)
"As he [Fr. Fessio] welcomed me [newspaper reporter] into a study group he was leading on Ratzinger’s Spirit of the Liturgy, Fessio urged me to act as a dissenting voice: "Feel free to criticize him," Fessio said, "even though he is the pope." The students’ laughter was reassuring — a sign, perhaps, that their faith could comfortably coexist with the outside world. But later, when I asked two recent graduates to discuss their experience at Ave Maria, they turned to Fessio with stricken looks. He quickly explained that all interviews needed to be arranged through the school’s PR office."
"This policy arose again after Latin Mass one morning, when I asked a middle-aged couple what had brought them to Ave Maria. As the wife began answering, the husband quickly stopped her; what I needed to do, he explained anxiously, was talk to the university spokesman. As it turned out, this wasn’t just a local Catholic couple in search of a traditional service: the man was William Riordan, a theology professor and Ave Maria’s [now former] dean of faculty. Vetting questions directed at students is one thing. But it seems odd —and slightly ominous — for a senior faculty member to shy away from freely speaking his mind."
From here:
"And soon I [the interviewer] was sitting in the [AMU] student center, scribbling notes as four of my co-petitioners crowded around me, monitored—and then interrupted—by a lean, crew-cut young man with a lantern jaw, who rushed the table. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," this student said, identifying himself as a resident assistant. "Is this, like, an interview? With the media? You can't say anything to him—that's official policy." So we ventured off campus, to Applebee's."
***
AveWatch, and other journalists covering this story, confirm the remarkable concern for the preservation of anonymity exhibited by former or current employees and students who feel compelled to share their experiences as a warning to others. Even individuals who once acquiesced to the release of their passionate disputations of Ave Maria administrative practices are found, later, trying to hide those same arguments (example); this is often motivated out of fear for retribution (example - Fr. Fessio, AMU's Provost, used his private business, Ignatius Press - an entity wholly unrelated to AMU - to exact revenge on a mom-and-pop orthodox Catholic publisher who ran articles critical of AMU. This was done despite the family publisher having also printed articles complementary of AMU, including one by Fessio himself!)
As of late, AveWatch has received other accounts that further suggest the presence of a "climate of fear". Excerpts from one recent submission are below. The square brackets [ ] are specific names or details redacted by AveWatch.
[A certain AMU Board member] went off on the administration at the last [AMU] Trustee's meeting. He had talked with the students and described for the Board the climate of fear on campus. Faculty are arbitrarily fired [examples given], students are leaving, and nobody is confident in the amateur administration.
[A certain AMU administrator] and Monaghan denied that there is a climate of fear. When [the administrator] returned from the meeting, he was so angry at such a baseless charge that he started a witch hunt for those who were involved in connecting [the AMU Board member] and the students. He interrogated and harangued a 20 year old undergraduate in [location given] from 11:30PM to 1AM and she left shaking and crying. More students are leaving and [the administrator] is backing up and trying to placate them, because even [other administrators are] appalled at his folly.