The True Student Statement
The student letter drafted by the student body of KCOM was intended for administration and the Board. The student statement was voted on by 224 students and it carries the weight of 194 student signatures. Administration received the document 5/6 via Dean Gaber. Dr. McGovern stated to students on 5/8 that he had sent the student letter to Dr. Stefanacci that day. It was discovered that this was not the case and he recanted his statement and is on record saying he sent it on Tuesday 5/9. I spoke to Dr. Stefanacci 5/12 and he stated he had not received the student letter yet. I faxed one to him personally and, after reading it, he called me the next morning to express his concerns with the content of our letter.
The False Student Statement
In contrast to how the true, majority student letter was disseminated, it was discovered that a letter from a very small group of students was being rapidly disseminated to alumni and Board members. Dr. McGovern received the letter from Dean Gaber. The letter, which flatly supports administration in every way, was faxed directly from President McGovern’s office. When asked about it, Dr. McGovern said he really didn’t know that it had gone out and that it was the fault of the secretary that it had been sent out without him really knowing about it. He said that so much stuff goes through his office that he cannot know about all of it.
Public Student Involvement
From the very beginning, the goal of KCOM student government was to keep this conflict internal and the students informed. Despite multiple requests for information from the media several student leaders spent hours on the phone and in personal conversations directly preventing students from going to the newspaper and television station. On the morning of 5/5 Dr. McGovern met with the executive council of SGA and asked us to not involve the students in the public arena. We told him we had already been making great efforts to that end. On 5/7, I was very disturbed to find Dr. McGovern had made several false comments in the newspaper concerning students. He stated that faculty had aroused students, proper channels had not been followed to address student concerns and that faculty had chosen final exams week as the time to make these issues public. All of these statements are false. By speaking for the students and placing them in the public forum, Dr. McGovern had acted in direct opposition of what he asked of the students. This displays a lack of consideration for a person giving their word and acting on it.
Dr. McGovern is Publicly Critical of Dean Kuchera
While speaking before a large student assembly, Dr. McGovern openly criticized Dean Kuchera’s performance as the dean. He said he was disappointed in the progress he had made regarding student concerns. He also stated that he had repeatedly asked Dean Kuchera to address student concerns, especially those concerning the OTM department and that Dean Kuchera had not followed those directives. He has spoken in such a fashion to individual students and small groups and has even insinuated to students that they should not challenge Dean Kuchera because they might suffer retribution. He has stated to physicians and to students that he has asked Dean Kuchera to step down. How can student morale be maintained when the president and dean have a relationship such as this and little is being done to hold the dean accountable for his lack of action.
Blatant Deception
Another prime example also comes from the morning of May 5th. Dr. McGovern had invited three students (Cameron Symonds, Scott Werden and Travis Fawver) to his office to help him draft a letter to the students. Upon reaching his office, he told the students that the clinical faculty had spoken to Dr. Stefanacci the previous evening and had rescinded their declaration and demands. Having spoken to the clinical faculty the evening before to see if they had changed their position or their demands and knowing they had not, I was surprised, but hopeful, that what Dr. McGovern had said was true. I immediately called the clinical faculty to confirm Dr.McGovern’s statement and found it to be completely false. Dr. McGovern’s explanation was that he had just called Dr. Stefanacci and that maybe he had misunderstood him or that was not exactly what he said.
Closing the Door
The next week (5/8-5/12) we had another meeting with Dr. McGovern and he was requesting that SGA act as a “clearing house” for information between students and administration. He said he was receiving so many personal visits from students that he was not getting his work done. He needed to close his door, and he said he needed SGA to “filter” the information. SGA agreed to meet frequently with Dean Kuchera and Gaber to facilitate this process and rebuild rapport between students and administration. Unfortunately, this displayed that Dr. McGovern was not truly interested in the concerns of students or in the information reaching him. By having us meet with Dean Kuchera, the very person many students had concerns about, he was assuring that unadulterated information from students would never reach his office. This a very easy conclusion to reach based on Dean Kuchera’s perpetual lack of action regarding student concerns and failure to act on directives from Dr. McGovern himself.
