Is President Hanson planning to fire Provost Jensen before she retires? Is Hamline’s investment in student acquisitions and marketing a better use of money than investment in the actual education of Hamline students? If the recent School of Law merger with William Mitchell’s College of Law turns the new school into an autonomous entity outside of Hamline, how does Hamline retain current, un-autonomous, promises to faculty, staff, and its students? All these questions were explored during the Q&A section of President Linda Hanson’s annual spring address last Tuesday in the Sundin Music Hall.

President Hanson congratulated the hockey team for their recent MIAC championship win, which earned a round of applause and acted as a transition before the first and last mentions of a search for a new President, adjunct faculty bargaining and “managing the Hamline brand during a time of significant change.”

Financial crises affecting Hamline include a drop in retaining first-year students, a drop in MBA seeking students, greater competition acquiring transfer students and unusual expenditures regarding the recent merger with the William Mitchell College of Law. “Everyone needs to remember,” said Hanson, “we still have a law school.” New governance system excluded, the merger is expected, over five years, to save losses upwards of nine million dollars and produce a revenue stream by 2021.

The president lauded J-Term success. Hanson said of Hamline professors, “Our faculty are engaged in scholarly work and we should be very, very proud.” Before shifting to current and projected student-body outlook, President Hanson commended the campus wide response to the crises in Ferguson, Missouri.

Also of note, the 25-year partnership with The St. Paul Saints’ to use their new baseball stadium, the seventy times Hamline showed up in the news in the last quarter, endowment results, enrollment management results, and loss in net revenue.

Enrollment results: Over the last five years Hamline has increased its student base from 417 to 523 students–a 25% growth. The discount rate has grown from 51-56%. Student growth overall resulted in a 31% increase in net tuition revenue. “Where does it go?” Hanson said. “It goes to our students, to financial aid. And that’s where it needs to go. If we are attracting first generation students, if we are attracting students of high academic ability who have need, we ought to be trying to fill that need.”

Net Loss: The president’s strategic plans to “mind the gap” include a hiring freeze, expenditure controls, and a faculty contract changing from nine to 12 months. Hanson also emphasized investing in “our people,” areas that are revenue generating, admissions development and student life.

After two big announcements, a short-term disability program rolling out next year, and the vesting period for vacation being shortened, a question and answer period began. The atmosphere at Hamline during the Q&A focused on the law school merger, Hamline’s financial situation and the state of the Provost’s office.

Dr. Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, Professor of Women’s Studies at Hamline, posed one of the most critical questions: Does President Hanson plan on firing Provost Eric Jensen prior to retiring, as rumors indicate?

“I don’t answer questions about rumors,” Hanson said.

Mapel Bloomberg was disturbed by this response. “The fact that the rumor is circulating is symptomatic of the President’s lack of transparency, and of the culture of fear she has established during her tenure here,” Mapel Bloomberg said. “She had a number of ways she could have responded to my question regarding the rumor about the Provost. She chose to shut down the ‘conversation’ instead of acknowledging or addressing the very real concerns of our community during a time of great transition that is coupled with a time of financial crisis.”

HUSC President elect Eric Yeakel also attended the event. He found the address to be quite interesting. “The atmosphere started out rather calm and collected but as soon as President Hanson finished and accepted questions from the audience the atmosphere became rather tense. The faculty were rather curious about what would be happening to Provost Jensen when President Hanson’s term was over as well as the financial situation at Hamline,” Yeakel said. What also stuck out to Yeakel was just how heated the question segment became.

However, Mapel Bloomberg summed up her impression this way, “Critical updates important to our community were obfuscated… such as her announcement of a ‘hiring freeze’ or the forced conversion of nine-month appointment faculty to twelve-month appointments… My analysis of her rhetorical strategy is that it purposefully obscured important information under a misleadingly positive veneer.”

Said Yeakel, “Overall it was a great experience to see how all parts of Hamline came out to hear President Hanson speak on the situation of Hamline University.”