COLUMNISTS : Open letter to Lu
Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008
If I had gone ahead with the job Lu Hardin was kind
enough to offer me last year as his
communications man at the University of Central Arkansas, here’s what I hope I would tell ol’ Lu, UCA’s president as of deadline, about now: I don’t see how you did it, going through with that toast-and-roast at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock on Thursday night. President Hardin, that took some starch. Me ? I’d have backed out faster’n you can say, My Regrets. Any number of legitimate excuses apply: the start of the new school year, your understandably wanting to keep a lower profile in light of Recent Events and, most importantly, your health. Goodness, President Hardin—aw heck, it’s still impossible to call you anything but Lu—you just had eye surgery. For cancer. For a second time. There’s only one excuse more legit than that, and thank heavens you’re still with us. But you put on a brave face and went through with it, putting the charity first. I admire your dedication and commitment.
Lu, this thing won’t die, will it ? And, you know, it probably shouldn’t. The other day, I tooled onto campus—across from your office building, actually, at the AETN studios—and could think of nothing else but... It. The controversy. The scandal. The secret bonus and deceptive memo and this whole disingenuous business in general.
Any time I visit with anybody who lives, works or goes to school in Conway, you and your future and the future of UCA are Topics 1 through 12. That can’t be healthy for a growing university, can it ? Not even a university that, like all great universities, is a lively laboratory for learning, intellectual freedom, free speech and its share of gossip, rumor-mongering and back-stabbing.
The story in the paper Friday mentioned Mitigating Circumstances surrounding that infamous memo. You know, the one you wrote in the names of three UCA vice presidents supposedly making the case for your $ 300, 000 bonus when they didn’t know anything about it. We know for a fact they didn’t sign the memo.
But you know what ? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there were Mitigating Circumstances. Anybody who’s worked in a good-sized company knows that many memos and letters are quote, written by, unquote folks who don’t see the things until they sign their names. Why, Lu, at the paper, we wrote up flattering letters nominating ourselves for awards in the names of editor-superiors. It was kind of pathetic, thinking back on it. Of course, the editor-superiors did actually read the letters and sign them. Maybe that was supposed to happen here.
But there I go, making excuses for you, when the hard, cold, black-and-white of it is that these folks claim not to have seen or known about that memo. And, Lu, that memo tore it for me.
That memo seems to have torn it for some faculty members, too. The other day, I got an email from a professor who called it downright clintonesque. The prof is being kind. That was slick even by Willie’s standards.
But it’s done. Now what ? Well, much as I’ve appreciated all your kindnesses toward me over the years—and there have been many—I’d like to return the favor at least this once. Lu, I think it’s time. You’ve got bigger whales to fry in your life right now than presiding over a university and trying to get this mess behind you. There’s your health. And your health. And then there’s your health. And if you don’t have your health.... There’s also your family, those good-lookin’ folks in all those photos in your office. You’re always talking about your wife and kids. I can’t remember a single conversation we’ve had in which you didn’t bring them up—and
in the most heart-warming way. Just a few
weeks back, when we were talking about Hewlett-Packard, you related a story that just naturally involved your daughter and your wife. (By the way, I don’t know if I told you, but player after player in that deal lauded you and UCA as big reasons why HP chose Conway. ) It’s clear you’re as involved in their lives as they are in yours. I envy you that. You’re a lucky man. Far as I can remember, I’ve met your wife only once, but she couldn’t have been more attentive or genuine. We were at a reception with lots of university swells, but she treated me and my wife like we were the VIPs, as if she’d known us for years. Thank you, Mrs. Hardin. But, Lu, this isn’t going away. Look at Friday’s frontpage headline: UCA senator: May be ‘time for a change’. Front page. With a photo, Lu. You’ve got a lot of PR man in you; you know that’s not good. Just a couple months ago, it all must have seemed so clear. You’d serve out the next six years as president of UCA, then succeed Mike Beebe as governor of Arkansas. That seemed like the perfect plan. You know who laughs at plans, Lu. He might have other plans for you now. It’s never the wrong time to do right. I think Martin Luther King Jr. said that, Lu. It’s time to do right—by your family, by your health, by your university, in that order. It’s time to resign. Godspeed.
—––––– • –––––—Kane Webb is a Perspective feature writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at kwebb@arkansasonline. com.
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