Public Universities See Familiar Fight at Virginia.

[elleng]

The tumult at the University of Virginia — with the sudden ouster of President Teresa Sullivan on June 10, and the widespread anticipation that she will be reinstated on Tuesday — reflects a low-grade panic now spreading through much of public higher education.

“Is it possible to be a successful president of a public university?” mused Mark G. Yudof, the president of the University of California. “I’m not willing to say these jobs are impossible, but these are very difficult times. You want to be more efficient, but you don’t want to make changes so fast that you endanger academic values and traditions and alienate the faculty. But you can’t go too slow, or you alienate the board and the legislature. It’s a volatile mix.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/education/public-universities-see-familiar-fight-at-virginia.html?hp

[yurbud]

1. if you have a job that requires people to do bad things, you will eventually get...

bad people doing the job.

I have met at least one college chancellor who was a con man and stone cold sociopath, and heard of others whose methods were at least as bad.

When they say "more efficient" what they mean is less democratic and more responsive to major donors to the endowment and trustees from the business community who are looking for ways to siphon off taxpayer dollars out of the school and into their pocket.

I wonder if the cost of the largesse of those donors isn't greater than their contribution.