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.
