I read the Daily’s five part series on ex-President Jischke and was disappointed little was said about criticism of his administration. I guess you came to praise Caesar, not to bury him. Many active and retired faculty criticized him for years. He did considerable harm to Iowa State. I offer my perspective on Jischke’s time as king. I’ll start with what he did well: fund raising. He raised a lot, but an incredible amount of money has been made by wealthy people recently in the United States which makes raising lots of money relatively easy. For a couple million, you could have a building named after you. We have alumni who can take that out of petty cash, so Jischke struck gold often. Unfortunately, the ISU Foundation has closed books so we can’t really tell what went on. I have been told many of the millions won’t show up for years, until donors die, but they get counted now. Interestingly, while Iowa State launched a $150 million campaign, Cornell University launched a $1.5 billion campaign. It shows where we really rank, despite Jischke’s mantra of becoming the No.1 land-grant university. Now for a little of the bad. The major bad done by King Martin was the deterioration of undergraduate education, which, ironically, students are probably going to have to pay more for. Under Jischke’s leadership, Iowa State has fewer faculty doing a lot more research. I know of few faculty who were inspired by him, so I assume that faculty work no harder now than before he came, maybe less hard. Fewer faculty doing more research and not working harder translates into fewer hours teaching, which reduces quality of instruction. It was made very clear to faculty by the Jischke administration that the primary way to get tenure and promotion was research. Focusing on teaching has been described as a “problematic” way to get ahead at Iowa State. For example, in the past two years, of about 100 faculty who were tenured and promoted, only three were advanced for excellence in teaching. I am sure many faculty members want to be better teachers, but there are only so many hours in the day, and most faculty know their time is best devoted to research. Current expense money (used to support teaching related expenses) has been reduced substantially over the years with some departments running out half-way through the school year. The Center for Teaching Excellence, which is the main support for teaching faculty, has a budget of $300,000, which doesn’t go far with over 1000 teachers. Compare that with new biotech researchers who each receive $100,000 or more to set up research labs. Jischke almost never responded to criticism. He just called his critics carpers and “less than accomplished.” He didn’t explain why he was right and the critics were wrong. He was an autocrat who hired autocrats. Free thought among administrators was a bad idea because the king did not appreciate dissension. Faculty were looked upon as drones in the hive. Faculty should have input into the university’s direction and functioning, but Jischke had virtually no interest in shared governance. It was his kingdom. Finally, the Martin Jischke Honors building is a sad joke. I believe Martin Jischke did more to harm undergraduate education at Iowa State than anyone in the university’s history. Certainly in the past 22 years he was the worst. Faculty and students had nothing to do with naming the building or locating it. The “idea” appears to have sprung from the ISU Foundation. Damn. now that looks like a self serving move. As to the location, it appears that King Martin selected it himself and then told underlings to make it appear that it was their idea. He expressed pleasant surprise to have the building located on central campus so that for 100+ years people will see the building named after him near the center of campus. I saw Jischke on TV when he was at Purdue to greet the press. He said he thought he did a “great” job as president of Iowa State. Having lied repeatedly that undergraduate education is “No. 1 at ISU,” that lie must have been easy. Think protest. Tuition is going up. Are you getting more for your money? What did Jischke leave us with? A building with his name, higher tuition, lots of money for the Foundation to spend and probably not on undergrads who aren’t national merit scholars. Damn, he was great. Carl W. Mize

Forestry