Recently, two major events have provided accurate indices of what the University of Calgary has become. The most spectacular is the $8.1-million upgrade of the Administration Building.

Most media attention has been focused on the scorn of students and faculty. This is understandable. Despite being told it was a stupid idea, the board of governors chose to cut classroom and lab renovations by two-thirds to provide our “senior leadership team” with a private staircase so they could glide unseen by the rest of us between the floors of their expensive and elegant suites.

The other indicator, the decision by this same team to create an on-campus international “college” staffed and run by a private-sector and thus profit-seeking corporation, is far more significant. In both instances, what has been overlooked is the mockery directed at the administrative spokespersons who, rather than apologize, make laughable excuses.

Bob Ellard, an architect, is vice-president for facilities. He has never seen “significant” work on the “antiquated” offices of the Administration Building. But he’s only been here for five years and so missed the renovations ordered by the last president.

Ellard also said he “gets it” that non-vice-presidents — students, for instance — might have different priorities. But vice-presidents need big offices. And if they exceed design standards, he said, that’s “just the way it works out.” And as for the president’s new washroom, which is significantly larger than my office, he explained: “she’s got clothes there for functions.” It would be unthinkable for Madame to change into an evening frock in her 400-square-foot office.

Besides, the university PR team declared that the renovation will “foster the best use of the collective skills of this senior team in supporting the academy.” Of course it will.

Unfortunately, the proposed international college reveals how much support the senior team really provides the non-senior academy.

The new college is supposed to provide a “foundation year” for international students who fail to qualify for direct entry to the university — owing to poor English-language skills, for example. Other courses would be regular departmental offerings for which the non-admitted students would receive full first-year credit if eventually they succeeded in getting in.

Dru Marshall, a coach, is academic vice-president. She first announced that raising the percentage of international undergraduates from 6.6 per cent to 10 per cent by 2016 was an “Eyes High” strategic goal of the university. Marshall then allowed as she was “not interested in a long, lengthy debate on this issue.” It’s “not good,” she said, “for the academy to spend a lot of time focusing on an issue that might be divisive.” Of course, with issues that are not divisive, no debate at all is needed, let alone a “long, lengthy” one.

One international student pointed out at a general meeting earlier this month that bringing in substandard students for a pre-university year will not enhance the reputation of the university for excellence. Just the opposite. He added: “if you have a good reputation, international students will come.”

In fact, the universities that have used corporations to run such programs are decidedly second rate, whereas those that considered and then rejected the proposal routinely rank ahead of the U of C. How is that a recipe for success? When another international student pointed this out to Marshall, she blushed.

Things like the new presidential privy and half-baked schemes to imperil the academic reputation of the university have led many of my colleagues who actually deliver services to students and conduct the scholarship upon which the reputation of the place actually depends to mock the proposals of these mendacious bureaucrats. After mutilating the words of the 121st Psalm into the PR slogan “Eyes High,” new T-shirts have started appearing at the gym with the same starry logo and the words “I sigh.”

Ridicule is a fair index of faculty support.

Barry Cooper is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary.