Daemen College President Gary Olson explains how being a "rule monger," rather than "compassionate" or "nice," is essential to avoiding chaos and injustice. Rules and deadlines provide necessary safeguards and equitable treatment for all.
Olson served as a monthly columnist on higher education administration for the Chronicle of Higher Education from February 2006 to August 2013. I saved his column from April 2009, "Why Rules Matter," when Olson was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Idaho State University, for future reference.
It is not that compassion and flexibility are bad; it is that in violating rules and deadlines, other people might be injured or disadvantaged.
Gary Olson
Olson identifies three principal administrative benefits of a well-conceived governance document:
- Consistency
- Accountability
- Legal protection
We need rules not primarily as a way to police people, but as a way to protect them from unfair treatment.
Gary Olson
Olson goes on to spell out how rules and policies benefit faculty and staff:
- Transparency
- Fairness
- Equity
- Trust
In a blog post last fall, compliance expert Kristy Grant-Hart encouraged us to avoid minor policy violations because they often lead to increasingly worse actions once violations are normalized. Olson's deadline example shows how granting a seemingly innocuous exception can have severe consequences.