fInaNCiAL xiGENCy
Big Dog Ethan provides necessary context to a Forbes article on his school's "financial exigency"
I discuss an article contributed to Forbes which fails to provide necessary context for the budget cuts happening at my school, Henderson State University. The budget cuts arrive swift and severely after years of poor management of the school’s funds by its former administration, led by Glen Jones—who was fired in July 2019, and today has miraculously failed his way up into a role as Senior Advisor to the President of Georgetown University.
This is a story that has engulfed, and frankly outraged the good community of Henderson State for the past few years, including myself.
This is a story that seems to repeat itself in too many ways today: The leader of a prominent institution fails—perhaps just as, or even worse than Jones. This leader cries innocence, and, no matter the validity of their claim to innocence, they not only depart from the institution with relatively little to no punishments held against them, they manage to find their way to another place of power.
This is a story that deserves to be told accurately by a worldwide press. This Forbes article simply does not do that.
UPDATE: Right after I finished the video, I saw that my friend Blanton Matthews—a student comic artist and writer for Henderson State’s student-led newspaper, The Oracle—put out a piece on the crisis. Blanton provides the context that the Forbes article ignores. Good work, Blanton!
Sources:
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “Faculty calls on trustees to remove Henderson State University president”
Forbes: “Can Financial Exigency Transform this Small Arkansas University?”
Letter from Chuck Ambrose: “Henderson Announces Furloughs”
LinkedIn: Glen Jones