Don’t pick on Phil
To the editor:
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, The Daily Mining Gazette published stories about a “group of professors” at Finlandia University who anonymously expressed no confidence in the University President, Phillip Johnson.
I was appalled.
I have only met Phillip Johnson on a few occasions; they were always church related, not Finlandia related in the least. I have no idea whether Finlandia is having unidentified internal problems or not.
My concern is that neither does Gazette yet you published these unidentified pronouncements on the front page above the fold that immediately turned carping into supposed news.
Early in my ministry in the Episcopal Church, I had a member of my Vestry (like a Parish Council) who would regularly amend our business with a list of complaints from members whose names he “was not at liberty to reveal.” I finally pointed out to him that comments without identification had no validity and would not be considered. The practice stopped and his wife had to find other creative means to make her objections known.
This is exactly what some individual or group appears to be doing with Finlandia in secret and you have treated it as if it was the voice of the Board of Trustees!
My own impression is that under Phillip Johnson’s leadership, Finlandia has appeared to improve tremendously in the ten years I have lived in the U.P. But whether my limited observations are correct or not, any issues about the school and its management should be left to the trustees and disgruntled anonymous individuals should never be given a voice on the front page of The Daily Mining Gazette. This is poor journalism indeed!
You owe both President Phillip Johnson and Finlandia University apologies. Disgruntled closet complainers should grow a backbone or find more appropriate employment somewhere else.
Editor’s Note: The entire point of the Finlandia University professors, coaches, and the union voting “no confidence” in President Philip Johnson’s leadership is that each of the groups have concerns about the direction the school is heading at this time.
As far as treating the professors, coaches and union’s voices, we have not treated them as though they are the Board of Trustees. We ran the statement the board made as well.
Finlandia’s story is evolving and we will continue to cover it as they sort out their future.