University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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Robert Wood (top) Oswald Tippo (middle) Randolph Bromery (bottom) After making his irrevocable decision to step down from his post, Tippo received letters of resignation from Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Robert L. Gluckstern, Special Assistant to the Chancellor David Clay, and what the MDC termed an unwritten confirmation of Vice- Chancellor for Student Affairs Randolph Bromery ' s inten- tion to follow suit. As it turned out, these three resignations, the result of close professional and personal ties with the Chancellor, were merely gestures. Gluckstern, for example, said his resignation was offered to show support for Tippo and that it was a resignation to him. Tippo, however, exercised a pocket veto, so that the res- ignations never reached the Board of Trustees. As for himself, Tippo requested a sabbatical leave for one semester, after which he would return to his tenured position as a Professor of Botany at UMass. President Wood had more immediate concerns. He ap- peared on campus Monday to talk in closed session with student and faculty leaders. On Tuesday, he held a convo- cation to discuss the allocation authority and budgeting of his central System ' s Office. Over 1000 faculty and students crowded into the Student Union Ballroom to hear him de- fend his position that the Trustees and the President have the major role in the allocation of unrestricted nonstate funds (trust funds). The consensus was that, amidst fear and hostility. Wood handled the situation well — so well, in fact, that what was almost a crisis quickly became what one observer termed a non-issue. But there was still excitement on campus for the remain- der of that October week. Among the unanswered ques- tions, the most predominant seemed to be, Who will be the new Acting Chancellor, and how will he be appointed? Many feared that Tippo ' s successor would be, as one administrator put it, Wood ' s man on campus. But their fears were soon put to rest on Thursday when the Board of Trustees unanimously accepted Randolph Bromery as the new Acting Chancellor. And although the campus had not been consulted in the appointment, it was clear that no one objected to the move, which was interpreted by the MDC as taking a path of least resistance here on cam- pus. In accepting his new position, Bromery said that he would strongly represent the faculty and students to the President and Trustees. My principal focus, he said, will be establishing a relationship between Amherst and the President ' s office and Amherst and the other cam- puses. I believe in an open system. There should be free communication within the campus and within the system. Bromery ' s appointment marked, in his words, the con- clusion of seven very active days. And as the campus re- turned to normal, President Wood expressed his hope that this was the beginning of the time when System and cam- pus would move as one. (In April of 1972, the Board of Trustees named Bromery as Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.) Thus, the confrontation ended with the leaders at Am- herst and Boston sharing the hope that a future confronted in harmony was the next step forward. Jerald Lazar 25

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