The Last Word

This will be a difficult story to write. First the good Dr. Tinkle has decided to quit participating for a while. The reasons are varied but they boil down to whether my participation in this blog is helping or hurting. At this point it seems to be the latter. That is unfortunate. Some in the administration will see this as a victory. Any time free speech is threatened it hardly represents a victory. Some will see this as cowardice; that Dr. Tinkle is running away from his/her principles. There comes a point when in fact a format is not longer affective and I believe I have reached such a point. I still deny the statement was in any way racist. Those who know Dr. Tinkle no that to be true. But if that were the only reason I would continue to blog. However, since the last entry in which Dr. Tucker suggested wider participation and the publication of interview results, the following has happened. He has received one e-mail and the blog facilitator has received nothing. Where the hell are you people??? If this constitutes the faculty interest, then we are lost. There is no sense in having roundtables or even square ones.

There are important issues that need to be on that table. What are they? Let me give you a few.
1. What kind of student body are we going to have? Yes I know no one likes to discuss this, but it is necessary. It's easy to retain bright students and if retention is going to matter what will that do to our grading? Will we be rewarded for passing as many as possible? This is a real issue about what a university education really is.
2. Are we a social service agency, an educational institution or both?
3. Who will be rewarded and for what will they be rewarded?
4. Will we ever see full-time tenure track faculty lines in the Arts, Humanites and Social Sciences?
5. If STEMM is supposed to push Ohio's economy, how come all our previous science, math, engineering and medical graduates did not succeed in doing that? Is there a critical mass that we have to achieve? Who will educate the entreprenuers who are not STEMM majors?

This is but a short list and I'm sure someone will read something nasty into something that was said: tough cookies, get a life.


This blog is a necessary communication feature, but only if you use it. If we do not address these and many other issues, all will be decided for us. And in the end they will say they did it with our participation. I will be back, but only when I see some usefullness in participating that will not damage the efforts being made by some of you.
Dr. Tinkle