Surprise?

To be honest I was very happy to hear that information, and I completely disagree with Diana’s words: “We will have been fortunate to have had Stuart, as Director, for over
six years.“ It would be a lie to say that Stuart didn’t contribute to Pearson College in some way, because he did. He is no doubt a good fundraiser, and he did his best in doing this part of his job. However, he is not a good director. During my time at Pearson College, I was a witness of many situations when students demanded that their input is taken into account, but it was rather ignored then taken into account. Furthermore, the decision was often done before students were informed, or before the discussion was led about it. Also in general students felt uncomfortable speaking to Stuart, their legal guardian, because there was a fear of being shut up, screamed at etc.

It has become a tradition, that at the beginning of every year, Stuart used to say that Pearson College is about the trust and respect. I have nothing against it, because thanks to Pearson College I value trust and respect very highly. But my feeling during my time at the College was that Stuart expected trust and respect towards him, between students etc. but when it came to him trusting students or respecting them, he suddenly completely forgot about it. Many times I felt that I was not being trusted or respected, for example when my email was interpreted wrongly by Stuart, while all other people (e.g. Michelle Bridget, former Dean of Studies or some other faculty members or students) surprisingly interpreted it correctly. Or some other time when my submission was taken down by Stuart from the notice board I also felt very disrespected. Also I felt that when it was clear that Stuart has made a mistake he was not able to admit that he was wrong and that student’s were right. This reminds me a one story my dad told me. When he was doing his military service, my dad found a better way to do one thing. He told it to a commanding colonel, but the colonel told him “I agree that your plan is better but I was making my plan for one week, so we will do it my way”. I found Stuart being similar to that colonel in many cases. The idea of Summer service was based on the situation in Canada, USA or Australia. But in many countries there is completely different situation, and only students from those countries can provide such information. Why he has ignored it, I don’t know

There are many other things to write, but I’m not going to write about them because they happened to other students and I want to express purely my opinion, my feelings. But I think that all above that I’ve written is enough to support this: I disagree with Diana’s words “I see
this next leadership transition as an opportunity to build on the past and plan for the future.” I do not think at all that we should build on the past, but rather try to correct the mistakes done in past. Stuart’s successor should be opened for student input, he should take student’s opinion as something that is worthy to look at. He should try to establish a good communication between students and the director (something that we were lacking for so long). Students should feel comfortable in his presence, they should like their director, not try to get rid of him. And if he does make a mistake (because everybody makes mistakes), he should be able to admit it, he should be able to admit that student’s were right etc.

Therefore I hope that Board of trustees will not make a mistake this time and they will ask for students’ opinion about Stuart’s successor. The important thing to do, however, is not to only ask for their opinion, but to take that opinion to account. So I’m hoping that students, faculty, graduates and friends of Pearson College (such as host families) will all have a chance to be actively involved, in the director selection process. If we keep as a big community together, we cannot be broken. But if we separate, and start to fight with one another, we will be destroyed. These words are a paraphrase of a last will of one Slovak king from Middle Ages, but I think that there is a lots of truth. So “Let us together rebuild that place.”