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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Announcing the Same Old Same Old


New Provost: Long Live the Provost!

The Reign of Truth and Beauty continues.  Who would have predicted this other than a few hundred people?

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

In his public comments about how this selection came about, Dr Jacobs responded, "It's good to be King".

Bloggie said...

Quoting Mel Brooks!

Anonymous said...

How long do dictators survive?
As long as they are allowed to.....

Anonymous said...

Hosed again!

When will the faculty learn that unless they take the nuclear option and walk out, nothing is going to change at UT?

Anonymous said...

I notice there was no mention of the search committee in El Jake-o's announcement. What was their conclusion? Did they actually think this guy was the right choice?

Anonymous said...

The presentations were just charade and dog-and-pony show. Most attendees have realized that by the fourth visit. They invited their friends (the other three candidates) to come down and speak to the faculty, but they were already set on Scarborough.

The new trio: Lloydie, Goldie, and the Scary! Let's start boycotting the businesses that those BOT stooges represent! I bet their companies will enjoy the attention they will be getting soon!

Anonymous said...

see article on Mr Scarborough at: http://www.ibhe.state.il.us/NewsDigest/NewsWeekly/090607.pdf

SVR said...

Because you, with the most highly protect jobs in the world, will only take action anonymously on this blog, Jacobs doesn't have to pretend you matter.

Anonymous said...

THE MANY FACES OF ZELIG, THE HUMAN CHAMELEON


EARLY MANIFESTATIONS OF EXISTENTIAL ANGST:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U1-OmAICpU&feature=fvwrel


THE SEARCH FOR MEANING:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h93THijHeq0&feature=related


THE KAFKAESQUE TIME WARP METAMORPHOSIS: FROM SCARFACE TO PAGLIACCI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUW8JsLDsNo


THE POSTMODERN KARMA CHAMELEON:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVfWr6qye-k&feature=fvwrel

Anonymous said...

Did you seen an example of the new provost's scholarship? Enjoy:
http://site.scottscarborough.us/uploads/Grammar_Sheet.pdf

this is just total student centeredness ! The cheat sheet for English grammar!

Anonymous said...

Some well deserved praise and some recommendations for UT:

As someone who can still remember the days long past in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when unsightly WWII era military barracks still stood on the UT quad – many kudos are in order for those who have been instrumental in transforming UT into a truly beautiful campus.

Significant improvements began in the 1980’s, but as recently as just a few years ago there were still numerous shabby patches around campus – like the areas behind and adjacent to Carlson Library, which have recently received much needed improvement – walkways, lighting etc.

Things are still underway, but now, from Dorr Street to Bancroft Street and from the Engineering and technology buildings on the far side of Douglas Road all the way across campus to Secor Road, the entire UT campus is REALLY looking good.

Well done.

Here are a few additional observations and recommendations regarding traffic flow, safety and good neighbor policies (local media please feel free to reprint or discuss these recommendations):

1) The traffic bottleneck at the campus main entrance, at the bottom of Campus Drive, still needs to be addressed.

Solution: A pedestrian/bike tunnel or footbridge to allow pedestrians to cross onto main campus from the area around the parking garages, without impeding optimum traffic flow into and out of main campus.

2) Pedestrians routinely cross Douglas Road near and around the vicinity of Savage Hall – on their way to and from classes and/or to and from campus events.

Many of these pedestrians are young, pre-college age (going to and from campus events) and quite a number of these pedestrians are in groups, having fun and undoubtedly often somewhat inebriated – going to and from concerts or sporting events, or to and from party venues on Bancroft St.

They SHOULD be crossing up at the light by the Engineering buildings, but that’s a long detour and not surprisingly people often take the shortcut across high speed, four-lane Douglas Rd.

A walkway/bike path along the east side of Douglas Rd. – running along the western boundary of Ottawa Park, from Kenwood Blvd. all the way to Dorr Street, along with a pedestrian/bike tunnel or footbridge placed at the most strategic shortcut point across Douglas Rd. onto main campus, are desperately needed.

Mark my words; there will be pedestrian fatalities along Douglas Road here if a safe pedestrian remedy is not installed.

Cont.

Anonymous said...

Recommendations cont.

3)One recent blog post mentioned noise from the south side of campus. There are going to always be campus events and these will sometimes be a bit loud – but some simple remedies can mitigate the annoyance to people on campus, who are seeking quiet study or research time, as well as for those off campus who do not want to hear loud music or noise from football games.

For outdoor music events in the open grass field area behind Carlson Library – an acoustic amphitheater should be erected so sound can be focused into the desired area and not proliferate all over campus and into surrounding neighborhoods.

Also, the loudspeakers from football games and other stadium events can be heard well into surrounding neighborhoods – for example, as far away as the far side of Central Ave. – not to mention the poor residents of Old Orchard, who must feel UT football games are being held in their living rooms.

Some of these stadium events occur early on Sunday mornings. How about a little mercy for Old Orchard residents trying to catch up on some much needed sleep?

Solution: Appropriate sound baffles should be installed on the upper walls of the stadium and the loudspeakers should be placed and directed so as to address only those people inside the stadium – and NOT everyone else in greater West Toledo.

4)UT’s decision a few years back not to invade Old Orchard by putting a parking lot on the far side of Bancroft across from U-Hall was the right thing to do. That field is a pristine part of the neighborhood. However, some minor improvements to the field – perhaps a few well placed trees and park benches – might not be a bad idea for both Old Orchard residents and UT.

class of 01 said...

I got the email to the alumni this morning. The subject line is "Student Centeredness the Critical Criterion for Selection of Provost at The University of Toledo." That should not be the "critical criterion." We're talking about the chief academic officer of a supposed research university, not a clerk in the bursar's office. Will those of you who are still at the university do something about these clowns? I would like my degree to retain some value over the years.

Anonymous said...

It's institutional incest and we all know what incest, eventually, leads to. Additionally, no "serious" candidates will apply to UT positions because the word will get around that UT only hires from within. This will make the administrative gene pool even less competitive, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the "best" candidates will be internal ones because good outside candidates will know the process is a joke. If you made a list of admins who have been promoted or simply placed in high end admin positions you will see this process is already well established at UT. Pretty much a defining characteristic of the Jacobs model.

Anonymous said...

To SVR. Two comments. 1. Scarborough and Jacobs' cronies seem to have the most highly protected jobs in the world. 2. And since when does remaining anonymous cause any more or less disregard from Dr. Jacobs. He ignores faculty governance, sets up rigged committees and then even ignores them. His superficial attempts at "involvement" are time wasting shams. Remember the roundtables and the Zemsky era? The hundreds of hours wasted in lets pretend that was supposed to create a new university? Meanwhile the dear Doctor kept whittling away at the old one, carving away healthy tissue and building up his crony-bureacracy. The roundtable report is in the wastebasket of UT history and the mealy-mouthed thrive. Someone mentioned a walkout. This would be foolish and would hurt faculty and students. What we need is a sleaze-in, where all the cronies and VPs march around campus for a day.

Anonymous said...

"Someone mentioned a walkout. This would be foolish and would hurt faculty and students." // No, this and other direct action would teach a much more valuable lesson to the students than another day in your lecture course. Come on people, start acting outside the system.

Anonymous said...

You need look no further than the University of Virginia to see how a concerted action by faculty, students, staff and alumni can make a difference. Their actions were in support of a University President (with integrity) and against a Board. In our case, the Board and the President are both dressed in the same garb and it will take us all coming together to declare the Emperor is wearing no clothes!

Regular gatherings of protest would draw attention. No speeches necessary. Just a gathering. We could wear black to mourn the death or our university. Fridays on the Quad?

Bloggie said...

To Anonymous 7:16. If you want direct action try this. Call the State of Ohio Ethics Commission, 614-466-7090, and tell them about the cronyism and such. And the lack of real searches for candidates.

This may be better than pretending it is still 1968. All that incense certainly reeked, did it not?

disgruntled alum said...

Once again, I am sad to be an alum of UT. Jacobs and co. are ruining this place for everyone, EXCEPT themselves and their wallets.

a working class hero is something to be said...

SVR said, "Because you, with the most highly protect jobs in the world, will only take action anonymously on this blog, Jacobs doesn't have to pretend you matter."

There's a logic to it, SVR. Because they have tenure, a union, and pretty good salaries, the faculty have the least to gain from upsetting the apple cart. Sure, they have philosophical disagreements with the admin-o-clowns, but there's not really anything on the table for them. So anonymous internet comments are a great way for them to vent without having to commit to anything. At better universities, change comes from the bottom up, and faculty aren't close enough to the bottom. Some of us have to start taking risks.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 1:41:

Your deride anonymity and then sign yourself "anonymous."

And who is "us"? Certainly not you, so it would seem.

Anonymous said...

Boycott the businesses employing these greedy thugs:

William C. Koester, Chair (2013)
Koester Corporation - - the only green they know is money

Joseph H. Zerbey, IV, Vice Chair (2018)
Blade -- there are other Toledo papers...

Joshua R. Beekman, Student Trustee (2013)
He is into medicine, so avoid his future practice... People do not forget that easy (he is into psychology)

Susan E. Gilmore (2013)
Waterford Bank -- find other lenders. She is a carryover from the MUO days (merger, what a sham), now sworn to ruin UT and kills two birds with one stone.


S. Amjad Hussain (2016)
UT/Blade: just steer clear of UTMC and ignore his columns if you can't stay away from the Blade. He should be out sooner than 2016...way too many golf tournaments on taxpayers money!

Linda N. Mansour (2014)
There are other law firms -- stay away from hers and from Sidley & Austin.

Susan Farrell Palmer (2014)
Toledo Museum of Art should exercise better judgment on its eployees...but again, there are many other museums.

Juan Jose "John" Perez (2020)
Stay away from Perez & Morris LLC also. Now I can see the Texas connection: Perez, Rice, Scarborough. Maybe we can have a Texas style education system in Ohio... Stay away from Mount Carmel Health System and Columbus First Bank, as well for the next decade. Well-connected man, so more businesses to avoid if you go to his BOT page

Sharon Speyer (2019)
I pulled my money out of Huntington not long ago. They should not mis/handle your money either. 2019 is too far into the future for her bank to live off your hard-earned money.


John S. Szuch (2015)
Stay away from Fifth Third as well, it ate Capital Bank like MUO is eating UT. He is into free market cannibalism...


Gary P. Thieman (2017)
Medical Mutual of Ohio? Be easy on this fella, as the new insurance system may force his company to cover you so you an be healthy.

Interestingly, most earned their degrees here at UT. Don't you love the irony that these alums and alumas are agreeing to cannibalize the very university whose tenure-track and tenured faculty wrote recommendations on their behalf.

Pinocchio has more conscience, compared to these. Use the free market system against these thugs!

Anonymous said...

To 1:14

Shared governance on this campus is non-existent. The BOT and the Jacobs administration sneer at faculty, staff and students. Working conditions are terrible, morale is lower than low. The faculty have a LOT to gain from upsetting the apple cart. This is not just about philosophical disagreements: this is about the welfare of our students and about their future.

Anonymous said...

The faculty has been divided and conquered. The arts, humanities, and social sciences are beaten, and will soon be extinct. The STEMM faculty are too busy writing grants and buying their way out of teaching undergraduate classes to care or even know what is happening.
I used to be very sympathetic and supportive of the faculty. Not anymore. Through their inactions, their apathy, and their trivializations (i.e. most of this blog) they have become unwitting collaborators in their own destruction and the destruction of OUR University.
It amazes me how a group of people individually as intelligent, articulate, and hard working as our faculty can collectively be as stupid, short sighted and apathetic as they are.

Anonymous said...

The faculty has been divided and conquered. The arts, humanities, and social sciences are beaten, and will soon be extinct. The STEMM faculty are too busy writing grants and buying their way out of teaching undergraduate classes to care or even know what is happening.
I used to be very sympathetic and supportive of the faculty. Not anymore. Through their inactions, their apathy, and their trivializations (i.e. most of this blog) they have become unwitting collaborators in their own destruction and the destruction of OUR University.
It amazes me how a group of people individually as intelligent, articulate, and hard working as our faculty can collectively be as stupid, short sighted and apathetic as they are.

Anonymous said...

" Mark my words; there will be pedestrian fatalities along Douglas Road here if a safe pedestrian remedy is not installed."

There should be speed bumps on all university roads to keep speed down. They disregard pedestrians. Start writing down license plates and report them violators to administration, police (trust me they will not do anything in the name of student-centeredness), and post them on the Web as well so they can be searched as a public record for a lawsuit brewing.

Fatalities? The Scarborough mini-regime is using this to get rid of tenured and tenure-track faculty and replace them with low-paid adjunct or highly paid drones.

Anonymous said...

"Working conditions are terrible, morale is lower than low. The faculty have a LOT to gain from upsetting the apple cart. This is not just about philosophical disagreements: this is about the welfare of our students and about their future."

Here is a scenario. The Jacobs regime artificially suppresses the standards to attract the highest paying students from China, some of whom come in with fake documentation.

The lowered morale is necessary to lose dissenting faculty.

You know what: screw the Edict on vacations during the first two weeks of the semester, and take time off anyway! Civil disobedience should be the first non-violent response to the Jacobs bullying. Don't forget: the brainless police is watching.

Soon there will be drones flying over the campus to scare the paranoid.

Anonymous said...

"Boycott the businesses employing these greedy thugs:"

I am afraid they will respond with milk cartons displaying their faces with a caption: "Do you know me? -- if not, you will soon..."

Anonymous said...

Anonymity on Blogs: This is a war of utterances which are clearly targeted and identified; names are not needed until petitions are signed and votes are cast in person. The point of this blog is to identify viable rallying issues.

This venomous regime which has just cannibalized itself (it does not know it yet; just wait when it self-destructs) will not stop just because you expose you identity.

Don't be a fool because on this blog you do not know who is taking notes: maybe a future student government president, or prospective medical student, or some other future yes-man or doormat. Of course, if they do who cares? They will see this as case of "where there is smoke, there is fire."

Anonymous said...

The Academic Hypocrites

The real irony in all this is that the academic careers and personal ideologies of Pryor and the rest of the Gang of 12 & Co. are all grounded in leftist, PoMo PC Marxist Feminist humanities, social sciences, political theory, philosophy etc.

Everything they are and everything they have in the way of academic degrees and careers and job security and advancement and personal wealth have until recently been driven entirely by their leftist, anti-establishment La-La Land worldview and milieu.

They all fancied (and probably still fancy) themselves heroic counter-cultural progressive watchdog pit bulls, fighting the good fight for the little guy and guarding the house of “social justice” (regardless of how deluded they and their quaint sophomoric notions may be).

And yet The Man had to whistle but once for them and throw them some scraps from the table. The curs all came running and salivating - with any lingering concerns for "the cause" quickly forgotten.

They are now all submissive, obedient, complacent lapdogs curled up at Master’s feet (oh, and incidentally drunk and besotted with the new found power of their petty administrative fiefdoms and sporting new fancy titles, positions, promotions and offices and making 150-250K).

But what would Nietzsche and Sartre and de Beauvoir and Marcuse and Foucault say about all this hypocrisy and “power” and "patriarchy" and “bad faith”?

Hey - who cares when you’re knockin’ down the big bucks!

At least Jacobs & Co. are authentically and unashamedly what they are…

Until we see some published articles or public statements from this crew of academic turncoats, with titles like: “Confessions of a Repentant and Reformed Former Marxist Feminist Postmodernist” – hypocrisy is the only word for it.

Anonymous said...

To 5:27
Thanks for the list of businesses to avoid. Fortunately, I believe that the UT students that we currently nurture are of much higher quality than the alumni on our BOT.

Anonymous said...

Attention Ivory Tower Liberals: The year is 2012 not 1912

Bloggie, you hit on one of the fundamental disconnects in contemporary academia and society.

Liberals, unionists, Marxists, feminists, academics, Democrats etc. are all still largely - to their own detriment and the detriment of everyone else - stuck in the past.

They still think it's 1968 or 1938 or 1848 - like Warren Beatty, who clearly thinks he's playing Jack Reed in his own real life fantasy version of his movie Reds, handing out leaflets in 1920's Bolshevik Russia.

This is the intellectual equivalent of trying to plan modern cities for horses and buggies or trying to fight modern warfare with horse-mounted cavalry and drawn sabers.

Liberals still try to play the "N" words (ni--er and Nazi) and toss around populist Jimmy Hoffa and bra-burning style 60's rhetoric about women and the "working man" etc. but even the hardcore rank and file aren't buying this anachronistic nonsense anymore.

And just as nobody can have a rational conversation with a crazed homeless religious zealot carrying a sign that says "The end is near. Repent!" - nobody can take hardcore liberals seriously when they are in effect still wearing Mao uniforms or Che Guevara T-shirts and holding signs that say "Workers of the world, unite!"

Because they are able to seal themselves off like medieval monks from what even they themselves call the “real” world – academics tend to be among the worst offenders when it comes to self-delusion.

Anonymous said...

If that's a picture of Jerry Lewis with this post, I protest the implied comparison of Jacobs or Scarborough with Jerry Lewis. Lewis was very good at his art of making comic films, and is a real humanitarian.

You need a picture of Solyndra. It probably ran on the same business model as many of the BOT's investments. Not excluding the College of Perpetual Solar Motion.

Anonymous said...

As flattering as I suppose it is to imagine that UT is the locus of some kind of Jacobs led assault on higher education, this is not the case. UT is a backwater location for something that is playing out all across the US and at even top tier universities (at the national level, the state level, and the university level). Economic problems are being used as the cause célèbre for a slew of ideological and political agendas which are attempting to restructure US higher "education": who should have access to it, who should pay for it, what its purpose is. Jacobs is not leading this effort, he didn't start it, he's caught up in the jetstream (and in the very back). And so economic problems, sour grapes from the FDR years (recall "That man in the White House"), and the demonizing of unions have crated a political and ideological opportunity across the US and is operating at many levels. The worm, in other words, has turned.

Anonymous said...

give it up, faulty lost. the war is over. move on.

Anonymous said...

"The real irony in all this is that the academic careers and personal ideologies of Pryor and the rest of the Gang of 12 & Co. are all grounded in leftist, PoMo PC Marxist Feminist humanities, social sciences, political theory, philosophy etc."

I think, this gang forgot their leftist ideas, or they faked real good. Now, someone like Pryor (I mean, good old Benster the Toys R Us kids replacing our fellow library faculty -- I love them so much.. the most helpful and true professionals on campus), he is an exception. Whatever I posted about him in the past is not a reflection of his person (he IS a cool guy don't get me wrong), but just a statement on his incompetency as leader of the library. Dude, toys will not make you any more popular with that generation. You are forgetting those who do need the resources your predecessor has forces the library throw out. And you are just sitting there like you don't know. Maybe you do not belong their either...just like Gabry (sp?)

If we could have some of these former "leftists" join us, that is all we need for the next move... or we may not even need them. Let's all walk out on week 1 of Fall 2012-13. Get your AAUP attorneys ready!!!!

Anonymous said...

"If that's a picture of Jerry Lewis with this post, I protest the implied comparison of Jacobs or Scarborough with Jerry Lewis. Lewis was very good at his art of making comic films, and is a real humanitarian."

Good point! UT leaders can't even come close!

Anonymous said...

"Thanks for the list of businesses to avoid. Fortunately, I believe that the UT students that we currently nurture are of much higher quality than the alumni on our BOT."

In most cases, you right, but whoever (student) mingles this BOT (bloody old t...) gang, should know the bridges they have burnt." They have sealed their fate... These ones are ready for devolution Jacobs style.

Take notes of such names. In Candide, Voltaire was extremely suspicious of some brainwashed priests following people and taking notes... We should do the same: walls have ears, and the windows have eyes!

And do not use your computers to access this site at work. They are watching, so just be careful but don't be paranoid. They are not god although they may think they are! There is no such thing...

Anonymous said...

"give it up, faulty lost. the war is over. move on."

After you dude/tte! The War ain't over yet. You lost to some heavy brainwashing... You have no effing idea who are among these ranks. And if the faculty is lost, your best bet for the next job is at the scrapyard... That's where scabs belong!

Anonymous said...

It would great to see the faculty to rise up in opposition against the Jacobs Administration, but they have had plenty of reasons to do so over the last several years but have done nothing widespread, public or very effective and I see no reason to think at this point that they will, too many are unaffected and comfortable in their positions and status. Plenty of talk on campus and in this blog, but no actual actions.

Anonymous said...

"I see no reason to think at this point that they will, too many are unaffected and comfortable in their positions and status."
-------------------
The developments at BGSU and Wayne State will prove these cozy-comfy faculty that their position is not on solid ground, and should be thinking of future allies...

If there is an internal division between tenured and tenure-track faculty, the administration will exploit that sooner than you think.

From what I am reading here, the bifurcation of library faculty structure has already begun: tenured [maybe not for long], [indefinitely] tenure-track, and non-TT whose conversion to TT status was halted by those least invested in the library (Gaboury, Pryor).

AAUP: get all your ranks involved in this fight, or you'll see the union dissipating when the "right to work" rage takes the most vulnerable members out. You are collecting their dues, so it's time you flex some muscles.