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Mixed Reaction to Mason's Tenure

By Hubert Tate
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Jackson State University "We have no shared governance," Carrine Bishop, president of the Faculty Senate, said.

Faculty, staff, students and alumni vary in their assessments of Ronald A. Mason�s tenure as Jackson State University president, applauding innovations but faulting his leadership style.

"I am very pleased and happy as I can be," Brenda Thompson, associate professor of cultural geography, said.

Thompson applauded the Transcultural Triangularity Program that Mason inaugurated, an innovation geared toward helping instructors revamp courses and match them to the president's vision of a modernized curriculum. She called it �a huge success."

But Velma Jones, a nontraditional student, said she believed Mason was neglecting the origins of the university.

"He's trying to build a Harvard or Yale, and there is nothing wrong with that," she said. "But he is forgetting to cater to the historically black college foundation at Jackson State."

Jones recalled meeting with Mason about a crosswalk connecting the central campus to the Dollye M.E. Robinson Liberal Arts Building.

"That crosswalk is dangerous," Jones said. "It backs up traffic and is hazardous to pedestrians, especially at certain times of the day. But he shot it down."

Jones said she suggested that the university should build an overpass to relieve traffic and make the crossing safer for pedestrians. She said Mason did not believe the overpass was necessary.

Obra Hackett, director of the Career Counseling and Placement Center and Jackson State Staff Senate president, said if he had to give Mason a grade for his first five years, it would be a "C."

"His biggest weakness is his lack of shared governance and lack of accessibility, accountability and communication," Hackett said.

Hackett credited Mason with increased visibility for the university.

"His major accomplishments include having been able to get a kind of visibility that we have not had on a widespread basis because of the emphasis on the four or five extraordinary things that we do," Hackett said, speaking of such aspects as research funding and the Mississippi e-Center.

"These are the exceptions, rather than the rule, and the other things that we do best routinely also need to be known much more than the ones that are normally pointed out. The university has been here for 127 years."

Carrine Bishop, president of the Faculty Senate and a 1968 Jackson State graduate, said she was not pleased with the president's term. She cited �a great lack of communication between the president and the university� and a lack of accountability as his greatest failures.

"We have no shared governance, causing us to have no input on decision-making," Bishop said, referring to the Faculty Senate.

According to Bishop, the Faculty Senate should be instrumental in the making of all university decisions.

"He's certainly not communicating university efforts to us," she said. "So who is he trying to please, the IHL?" referring to the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning (the College Board).

AL'ona Furmanchuk, a graduate student from Ukraine, said she liked Mason's building projects and highlighted her residence at the Palisades @ E-City as a positive result of his tenure. She said she enjoys the $5 million, privatized housing alternative for students, faculty and staff that was part of Mason's vision.

"It's very close to campus," Furmanchuk said. "It is equipped with the Internet, and not expensive. What else can I say?"

Hackett, the Staff Senate president, said it remained to be seen whether Mason was the best candidate for the job.

That "is still up in the air because exactly what he intends for this university has yet to be identified," Hackett said.

Hubert Tate, a student at Jackson State University, writes for The Blue & White Flash.

Posted March 21, 2005