Dear Sad Goodbye,
        For the most part, I have resisted responding to blog comments, choosing instead to follow mutely the dialogue that develops in the various reader responses to my posts. But I just can’t bring myself to remain silent about your comment (see comments on A silent promise).
        I want to respond first by thanking you for your thoughtful words on our shared predicament at Acadia University. I can find nothing to disagree with in your assessment of the university and its systemic problems, nor in the immediate solutions you present as conditions for staying. And I do not in any way begrudge you your decision to convince your spouse to leave, though it does sadden me.
        Nevertheless, I also want to respond with a commitment. And I fully understand that this commitment may do little to change your mind about Acadia’s potential to solve its own problems and, therefore, may do nothing to counter your belief that you and your family must leave to reclaim the dignity Acadia has taken from you. One of my first acts upon returning to work, should Gail Dinter-Gottlieb still be President of the university, will be to co-sponsor a senate motion of non-confidence in her presidency. This motion is already in the works. However, while writing my post yesterday, I thought of another motion that I would like to bring before senate, and reading your response to that post has convinced me of its merits. So I am also committing to sponsor a senate motion of non-confidence in the executive of the BOG. I do not know whether Acadia’s senate has ever debated such a motion before, but if ever there were a time for such a debate, it is now. While on the line Monday morning, I will discuss the implications of that motion with senate colleagues in hopes of finding a co-sponsor. I’m not anticipating any difficulties.
        Unfortunately, even if they pass, these motions (and the counterparts that most assuredly will be brought before Faculty Council), will only be the first corrective steps on a long path towards recuperating and rebuilding Acadia University. In that sense, while I sympathize with the urgency of your demands because I would like to see the same changes effected immediately, I am convinced that many of us will have to commit to a long struggle before we will be able to lay any claim to victory in achieving them. We can only hope that we do not suffer the irreparable faculty hemorrhage that your comment anticipates before that victory has been achieved.
        
Yours in sympathy and solidarity,
John