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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The New Civility

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

After 40 years, I've never seen folks at UT so afraid to voice their opinions freely and publically without retribution as they are today.

yo, duh! said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

President Jacobs is reputed to have said a few years ago, "I don't like asking faculty for their opinion. I just want them to do what I want them to do."

Anonymous said...

Look at what happened to Ms. Dixon and the one poor worker who complained through the email about the new oppressive sick leave policy that punishes workers for using their sick time, whether they are abusers or not. Whether they were right or wrong or you agree with them or not, this place has become ruthless.

Anonymous said...

New Civility? Someone should tell Gold that he needs to be civil in how he treats faculty on the HSC. If you disagree, especially in a public setting, you can expect to have backdoor rumors start about you. Faculty find themselves on the way out for no other reason than they spoke up, offered an opinion, challenged Gold, or tried to do the right thing. Most uncivil administrator? Dr. Gold.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Gold the most positively reviewed administrator by the Faculty Senate?

I also recall some ridiculous comments by posters on this blog about how great he was... wishing he was president instead. Glad people are finally waking up.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the new fees are used to pay for his and other administraitor's cost for flying back to their "real" homes and back every weekend? You know with only earning $500,000 per year you could hardly expect him and the others to pick up the tab themselves.

Anonymous said...

Does the university really pay for these folks to travel back forth to their homes on weekends? How is that possible?

Anonymous said...

Here is a loose thought. I was thinking of former A&S faculty who were good colleagues and scholars and (yet!) went into administration. The people I'm thinking of have done very well administrating, in the sense that their upward moves suggest that they would have done about as well here: Tim Messer-Kruse, Sue Rowlands, Debby Stoudt, Marietta Morrissey, Carol Bresnahan, Sam Attoh, David Stern (ok, I was glad to see him go, but my point still stands). I respected these people and wish they were still here.

In their place we have some pretty unimpressive people, who are almost uniformly non-scholars. Some might say carpetbaggers. Why is this? I guess to ask the question is to answer it. Still, if we ever wonder why we have to have a lobbyist as temporary provost, or a government bureaucrat as permanent provost before him, or, or, or....

The answer is NOT that we lack homegrown administrative talent. I think any other answer ultimately leads to the pliability of hired guns in the hands of Lloyd and his people.

Thoughts?

Yr humble & obt

John Dickinson.

Anonymous said...

John. If those fine folks were still here they would have to betray their professions and their friends to perform with distinction and move up the administrative career ladder and then out to greener pastures.

The new privatizaton of state public higher education hiring model requires that academic administrators fitting the corporate profile either

1)mosey into UT from outside (the carpetbaggers) already robotized and calibrated to create pain, or

2)bubble up from the ranks of the professoriate bursting with bluster as a result of having sought out and secured Faustian bargains for personal gain.