Following up on Professor Ludlow's post about the need for an APA, Professor Kvanvig (Baylor) writes:
The issue in question is about the anti-discrimination flag that we adopted a couple years ago. As I understand what happened this year, there were so many problems with the website that JFP ended up posting all ads with no flagging. The website pdfs for the fall issues include the following disclaimer:
"Special Note: Due to technical problems resulting from our recent transition to new administrative software, we are unable to assure that all of the universities listed in this issue agree to abide by the APA’s nondiscrimination policy. If you have any concerns about this, please investigate the individual institutions’ policy before applying for a position."
These pdfs are still on the APA’s website, and constitute, in my opinion, an egregious failure to honor the will of the APA membership.
The question I want to raise is what it takes for the staff of the national office to commit a fire-able offense. My own perspective is this: I think of the discrimination clause as a monumental step taken by our profession, and that failure to honor the will of the membership on this score is monumental as well. Perhaps not as egregious as financial irregularities (though that is debatable), but certainly on the list of the most serious failures. The question this raises, from my perspective, is where to draw the line on when heads should roll. That is always a hard question. But the current system, where the staff is responsible to the Board, has left so many weaknesses in the operations of that office that it is easy to see why there are people like Peter Ludlow thinking about giving up on the organization entirely. Perhaps the Board could benefit from seeing discussion from its membership about what standards we would collectively like to see enforced?
The mess with the website constituted massive incompetence, I think, but the failure to honor the moral stance we took is certainly beyond that. So the question that warrants discussion is what it takes for the staff of the national office to commit a fire-able offense. Given what I’ve said, it is easy to see where I stand for now: I think that the mess concerning the website goes beyond incompetence, since it involves a failure of moral stance as well. My moral outrage, however, remains subject to my fallibilism: (insert boilerplate, sincerely asserted, here). But if I’m right, this is an utter disaster, constituting a reason to start from the top and start over.
Discussion about "what standards we would collectively like to see enforced" is welcome. Signed comments–full name and valid e-mail address–will be very strongly preferred, though comments must include a valid e-mail address at a minimum.
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