From Inside Higher Ed:
Worries mount that the college has strayed too far from its liberal arts core. Suspicions run high that college leaders reached recent important decisions without regard for one of the key governance principles rooted in its Quaker identity: consensus.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/01/earlham-college-seeks-roll-back-expense-budget-decade-after-presidents-resignation#.W2Ixczv6vJc.facebook
This seems a very short piece considering the statements made. It may also be that the sequence of events may be more like “roll back” before(?) “president’s resignation.”
When I read a report like this that doesn’t tell me who is worried and who is suspicious, and how the accused institution is answering the worries and suspicions, all I can think is that Christ knows what the problem is and what the solution should be, and I, who am in utter ignorance about the problem, must leave the matter in Christ’s hands and not leap to any conclusions about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and what the real issues might be. I do know that Christ represents perfect love, which casts out fear, and I’d remind anyone who follows Christ that our Shepherd advises us not to fear, but to remain trustful of God, loving even to enemies, and ready to forgive the misdeeds of the misguided. Those who love Earlham College, as I do, may join me in prayer for it.
But as to that matter of the principle of Quaker governance: it was by Unity, not consensus, that early Friends arrived at their discernments of what was the right thing to do. Consensus among fear-driven, self-seeking humans is no more a guide to right action than majority rule is.