Kutztown Blues in the Red

Michael Bray January, 2008

Kutztown Blues in the Red

When the preachers came to town and President Cevallos had them arrested way back on April of 2007, they did not know that President Cevallos, with this $202,595 per year salary, was working for a University suffering financial woes. They just came to campus to do, at no charge, what they believed they were commissioned by God to do: preach the Word.

They did not know that the Early Learning Center (a virtual on campus nursery) was about to be eliminated and that faculty members had the size of their classes tripled over the previous half-dozen years. They just came to preach the word to an audience of students who presumably are in time in their lives when they study and think about matters of philosophy, religion, and ethics. And so they preached about those things, especially those relevant subjects of death and sex.

They did not know that president’s career was on the rocks as sometimes happens in such circumstances. Or did it fall hard on hard times after he opposed those who preached about the Rock?

Certainly the legal fees which the University must pay out following the suspension of the campus police officer for failing to arrest the preachers did not ingratiate President Cevallos with the provost officer and others. Nor did the legal fees paid out in consequence of the lawsuits filed following the arresting of the preachers help move the University out of the red.

Faculty union president Dr. Michael D. Gambone will call for a no-confidence vote against Cevallos at the faculty meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 31 in the Student Union Building. Should a decision be made to take an official vote from the union, that vote “would take place at a meeting of 75 department representatives, which is set for 3:15 p.m. Feb. 14 on campus” (“Kutztown University trustees affirm support for president,” Reading Eagle, January 25, 2008).

When the storms of life – or the judgment of God – blows, it is not a sign of good leadership to cast about for someone to blame, especially when some fault is to be found in the leader. In his September 24, 2007 letter to “Students, faculty and staff,” President Cevallos said of the preachers:

“Some of the visitors select college campuses because the sponsoring groups seek confrontation and the ensuing publicity. What often follows is a lawsuit charging that the demonstrators’ civil liberties have been violated.”

It is nothing but slander to impute such motives to those who come to preach. On what grounds does he accuse them of seeking “confrontation and the ensuing publicity”? On what grounds does he blame them for the lawsuit which he brought upon the University by his own unjust directive to a more Constitutionally wise campus policeman who disobeyed his unjust command?

The lack of confidence seems to be well earned. And Kutztown, foundering in the red, is singing the blues.