In the recent firing of the Aalands from Fort Lewis College, the college has taken a lot of heat. Everyone asks how the school could have arbitrarily fired such nice people who have served the college community so well for so long. It puzzles me, too. As an FLC employee, I know it’s fairly unusual for the school not only to fire someone in this manner, but also to be so quiet about the reasons. By now, I would expect to have heard some scuttlebutt, but there’s been nothing but speculation.
All of this makes me think that the firing may not have been as arbitrary as many people believe. Considering the degree of esteem for them, it seems quite possible to me that the silence surrounding the Aalands’ firing may have had more to do with protecting them from some embarrassment than it had to do with the school protecting itself. The school certainly has nothing to gain by acting in such an apparently arbitrary manner.
In any event, whether this was a case of good people using bad judgment or of someone in the school acting imperiously, I would encourage people to reserve their judgment of both the Aalands and the school until the facts surface, as they surely will.
Bob Kimmick
Durango
