May 5, 2005

By Lauren Heaton

At a time when some community members fear financial support for Glen Helen is at risk, Antioch College this month has initiated a second round of Glen-wide evaluations for the executive director of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute, Bob Whyte.

Upheaval at the Glen began last summer when Brad Whaley, the assistant director of the Outdoor Education Center, was let go and the OEC director, Sue Feller, resigned due to what she described as an inability to work with Whyte.

Several months later, four members of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute advisory board, including Donna and Al Denman, Peggy Harris and board president David Hergesheimer, resigned from the board because of their own difficulties with the executive director.

Those events drew protest from Glen Helen staff members and Glen supporters, and this spring the list of regular donors to the Glen indicates a shift in the community’s willingness to support the Glen.

Over the past three years, the Arthur and Lucy Morgan Society of donors who give $1,000 or more has maintained a relatively consistent number of 29 to 38 contributors. According to Glen Helen newsletters, in the fall of 2002 the Society had 38 contributors, in the spring of 2003 there were 29, in both the fall of 2003 and 2004 there were 36.

But this spring, the list of contributors in the Morgan Society dropped to 15, and only 5 of those, all longtime Society members, continued to donate to the GHEI.

Longtime Morgan Society member Jean Huston, whose name does not appear on the donor list so far this year, said she feels conflicted about giving to the Glen because of the confusion between the GHEI, the managing body of the Glen overseen by the college, and the Glen Helen Association, a community fundraising group that supports the Glen and is managed by volunteers.

Huston, who volunteers in the Glen’s Nature Shop and at the front desk of the Glen Building, said she is uncertain, when she donates money to the Glen whether the support goes to the Glen or to the college, where Whyte also serves as a faculty member.

“I think Bob [Whyte] is very well-trained and a good man in terms of caring about nature,” Huston said. “But one of the things that’s creating a real problem is the conflict between the GHA and the GHEI that puts him in the position of having to answer to anyone saying this ain’t the way it used to be.”

Other longtime Morgan Society donors whose names are not on the donor list preferred not to speculate on how the Glen is managed. Mike Gardner, who served as the chair of the GHEI four years ago, said he understands the difficult position of the director of a private organization dependent on public funds.

“I appreciate Bob’s efforts to make Glen Helen more financially sound, and especially his attention to trying to get the OEC to be more financially sound,” Gardner said. “But I also understand that these kinds of endeavors are not very popular. Making personnel decisions that are unpopular doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong.”

Tony Arnett, the GHEI treasurer who is also president of the GHA, did not return phone calls regarding the Glen’s budget. Interim Antioch College President Rick Jurasek, who is Whyte’s supervisor, is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.

But David Goodwin, chairman of the GHEI advisory board, said that the Glen wasn’t “anywhere near where we wanted to be” to reach its capital campaign goal of $6.1 million.

In conjunction with Antioch College’s $65 million five-year capital campaign, launched in the fall of 2003, Glen Helen set its own goal to raise $3.6 million to establish an endowment and another $2.5 million to upgrade the Glen’s physical facilities. A year and a half into the campaign, the college has managed to raise $42 million, nearly two-thirds of its goal, according to a March press release from Antioch.

Meanwhile, the Glen, which has also seen its share of controversy, has raised just over half a million dollars, according to Goodwin.

In addition to the Glen’s financial woes, the Glen’s strategic plan, which was launched in earnest last fall, was postponed at the beginning of this year. According to Goodwin, “budgetary concerns are almost surely part of the delay.”

Donors have been hesitant to give to the college’s renewal campaign because of uncertainty with the renewal plan, he said, and that uncertainty has also affected donations to the Glen. Without enough money to hire a consultant to approach a strategic plan more professionally, the future organization of the Glen is put on hold indefinitely, Goodwin said.

Whyte refused to answer questions concerning either his evaluation process or the strategic planning effort. He said that the evaluation process was a personnel matter.

According to Goodwin, GHEI board members and Glen Helen staff members each received copies of a questionnaire about Whyte’s performance that Jurasek and Suzette Castonguay, the director of human resources, put together. In addition, the college is soliciting comments from some GHA members and former chairs of the Ecology Institute board. The evaluations are due back to the college on May 10, and Jurasek will meet with the GHEI board on May 17 to discuss the evaluations. In addition, the college will consider comments from GHA members by way of Arnett.

Faculty contracts are renewed on July 1 every year.

When contacted about Whyte’s evaluation, Gina Paget, a member of the Ecology Institute board, said that she would not discuss a private personnel matter, and that she was going to “trust and respect the process.”

“I hope that the evaluation will be a valid process and one that people will feel as if they’ve been heard,” she said.

Last year’s evaluation of Whyte was the his first official evaluation. Some GHEI board members communicated to the college that Whyte had not managed the Glen responsibly, but Joan Straumanis, who was the outgoing college president, felt that Whyte deserved a chance to hear the concerns and have a chance to respond.

This year is similar in that the evaluations will be given to Jurasek, who will be replaced by incoming President Steven Lawry in July.