Six weeks, weak response

It took Chancellor Bruce Leslie six weeks to respond to The Ranger on a Feb. 26 story headlined "Chancellor questions faculty's honesty."

In his letter to the editor, Leslie states he feels it "necessary to go on the record to correct this reporting inaccuracy as it can only serve to artificially escalate any perceived divide between the administration and faculty leadership."

The Ranger doesn't stir up controversy in the hopes of increasing divisions. We simply reported a divide already evident in the overwhelming no-confidence vote by the faculty of four of the five Alamo Colleges.

That was on Sept. 15, but the chancellor still is unwilling to accept it and only continues to exacerbate the situation. In hopes of understanding Leslie's claim of a misquote, The Ranger called his office numerous times. But on this particular occasion, the chancellor was unavailable. Leslie never directly contacted the newspaper about a misquote; instead The Ranger received second- and third-party explanations.

The Ranger, in the service of maintaining the public's trust, is anxious to correct mistakes when mistakes actually happen. Our story does not quote Leslie using the term liar, but the label is certainly implied by his statement: "The faculty leaders produced documents full of falsehoods and lies."

An important part of the news media's job is to translate jargon into plain English, but this statement hardly needs a translation.

It boils down to one word — liar. Like many sources before him, the chancellor may have felt it too harsh once he read his words in The Ranger or he could have been trying to back peddle once his words became public. Sorry, but the truth hurts.

And why the long delays in his responses? A January answer to a September charge? An April response to a February story?

Instead of digging up old issues — with faculty from all the colleges trying to move on — the chancellor should be fixing tensions he has created. Real issues — Banner, budget, registration, shared governance, employee morale — need addressing.

If anyone is escalating a divide, it's Leslie.