Trusteeship - May/June 2020 - 35

Eighty percent of the
trustees are alumni, some
with close connections to
professors in the majors
facing elimination-art
history, religious studies,
French, German, and
music-as well as two
minors. But the full board
voted unanimously to
make the cuts and reallocate funds into new
majors.
The trustees "fully
understood the complexity of the issue and the
possible consequences of
Parker University
their decision," said Casey,
but they also had reviewed
the data "and knew what the future held if they chose not to act."
The news "hit campus hard," the president said, and criticism
rained down on him and board members for months. Instead of
backing off the decision, the Board "signed a letter to the campus
community stating their unanimous support of the recommendations and their excitement for the future of the college," he said.
"There was never any thought of backing off," said Martin Hill, a
trustee since 1993 and board chair from 2007 until 2019. "That was
not out of arrogance but just because (it) was handled so openly, so
transparently. We were kept in the loop and involved in everything,
and the faculty were behind this."
Otto Guenther, a retired Army lieutenant general who succeeded Hill as chair in July 2019, said, "I read every document
and every page. What most impressed me was the major effort to
ensure buy-in by every element of the college."
"There was total solidarity," said Guenther, a 1963 alumnus and
trustee since 2006 who served as the Army's first chief information
officer. "What was needed strategically was to do the right thing
for the college."
Not all faculty positions were axed, since the college is still
offering courses in music and the other subjects. New majors, in
addition to criminal justice, include health science, biomedicine,
biochemistry, marketing and accounting, now separate from economics. The math major was retooled into separate applied math
and actuarial science, and deaf studies became a major in American Sign Language.
Casey said he is now fielding calls from other college presidents
asking about the experience and how he made it through. "My
response is always the same: I had an incredibly supportive and
strong board standing alongside me."

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PARKER UNIVERSITY

Parker University Board of Trustees

The F3 tornado with a frightening funnel cloud that struck north
Dallas, Texas, on the night of October 20, 2019, left parts of the
campus of Parker University in ruins, destroying seven buildings
and inflicting $40 million in damages but injuring no one. Parker, a
chiropractic college that became a full university in 2011 with additional health sciences, business, and technology degrees, was back
up and running in a week for its 1,500 students.
William Morgan credits quick action by the Board of Trustees
with making that possible. Oliver Smith, the board chair, canceled
business meetings, and flew up from El Paso to inspect the damage and the board held an emergency meeting to free up capital
resources and keep students on course to graduate.
Due to the board's agile response, Parker was able to shift to
online classes for a week, clean up a monumental volume of debris,
build temporary office space, and relocate and restore all student
services, said Morgan, a former chiropractic consultant to Con-

MAY. JUN. 2020  TRUSTEESHIP  35



Trusteeship - May/June 2020

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