There is a change in the weather
And a change in the sea
From now on
There's gonna be a change in UT
Bloggie puts a proposal to BOT members and the UT community.
Instead of all this grandiose puffery, big business deals, big-talk and giant administrative costs/marketing promises that have gone on for the past seven years, why don't we all just aim at becoming a modest-sized, excellent university? A gem, sparkling and bright here in Northwest Ohio, of which students, alums, the Toledo community, BOT members, faculty, administrators and the people of the State of Ohio can be proud.
The BOT and faculty and a few(er) number of administrators can work together to create an enduring force of good. The BOT are stewards and stewards both shepherd and help create the future. Now is the time.
20 comments:
Dear bloggie,
What a sensible comment about the real contributions that UT can make to our community. Have you sent this to the current chairman of the BOT? Perhaps he could print a full page color ad in his Blade about what UT used to be before the current disaster at UT.
I like this challenge. I would add that if all constituencies talked with each other directly, we might advance. The Board talked to Jacobs and Jacobs talked to the Board, but neither of them talked with the faculty. The Board got their "information" from Jacobs with his spin. No wonder they were so surprised to hear that the hospital wasn't gushing out fountains of money. If the Board were to talk with faculty even now, they would learn more surprising facts about the mismanagement and destruction of this university. I invite board members to walk through our library for the most visible evidence of the un-academic, so-called leadership that has sucked us dry. Faculty, staff, and students are committed to UT and we will recover, but those "leaders" who have left us with this mess will become infamous for their failures.
word is the Jacobs will be fired by Board on Tuesday and replaced on interim basis for one year by Dan Johnson
We can only hope.
I won't believe it until I read it in the Blade (probably in Section Two, on the page following the runaway dogs on death row that precedes the obituaries).
Anonymous 11:07 writes "word is the Jacobs will be fired by Board on Tuesday and replaced on interim basis for one year by Dan Johnson." Maybe so, Maybe no. Today is Tuesday. By coincidence the government is banding the raptors up in the tower in order to keep track of them. I wish some of the raptors invited into University Hall by our BOT and its "business model" beginning eight years ago had been less entrepreneurial. But raptors are raptors: they swoop in and seize and devour without remorse, competing against other raptors.
There is no place in a state public university for a "business model" and the sort of raptors and vultures that free-market competiveness invites. The academic mission will be put on a back burner and this is maladministration of a public good.
In every case, the business model in state public higher education almost forces universities to hire mindless moral relativists who savor free-market competition, are not risk averse, and make decisions contrary to the venerable academic mission of SPHE.
As demonstrated on the UT Main Campus, the present administration has injured it students by conspiring through deceptive marketing practices familiar to the business model, resulting in their long-term debt slavery to pay off their college loans -- whether or not they graduate. How many BOT members run banks that offer these loans?
This is corrupt.
When all is said and done, raptor-loving free-market competition naturally preys on the weak and the innocent. Many SPHE administrators who embrace the business model will fly too fast and reach too far and so get caught up in corrupting intrigues. They have crossed a line by letting their raptor-like competitiveness get best of them. Then they step in front of the raptor-cam and get banded. Still, they will probably feel no remorse.
Will the faculty acknowledge their own deficits in letting dan johnson go in the first place? And with Larry burns and John Barrett chairing the search, how can anyone presume an outcome different than the current set of values? Look for special payments over the years to Burns and Barrett. FOIA for them if necessary.
Ah, well, as colorful as the "Raptor" post is, Jacobs and Co. are no business raptors. That's really been the problem with all their half-baked business ideas. Jacobs and Co are rank amateurs when it comes to business and this explains why UT is flush with new admins who climbed the ranks by proposing some goofy idea that looked good in a flashy powerpoint. And then, of course, when the powerpoint proposals didn't pan out in practice, Jacobs and Co refused to admit they were wrong by holding the anyone accountable.
How did faculty let Johnson leave? They had no say, his departure and rise of Jacobs were part of the deal with MUO merger of which faculty also had no say (state supported that move so blame Columbus and UT BOT for that one).
Burns and Barrett are also not chairing the search committee, only an advisory committee to bring faculty staff students alumni and others into the process, BOT has already indicated they will be the search committee. The person selected as the next President will be the responsibility and or fault of the BOT and its two new members.
And yes Jacobs is on his way out very soon, sometime this summer and certainly not June 2015, with the State of Ohio attorney general office attending yet another closed BOT session (for the 3rd time)
Stop insulting the raptors in the tower. They eat only what they need to survive, and they don't suffer from bad hair days.
from the Blade today....
"Mr. Barden laid out a plan that would conclude near the end of 2014 with a new president. That would allow for a four to five-month transition process, which would include “celebrating Dr. Jacobs,” he said"
Why is this necessary? YSU, Akron, and even OSU recently hired new Presidents that did not require 1) a four to five month transition and 2) need to celebrate out going President, during which the new President is in place. I am also not familiar whether this is common sequence at any university! Again which serious qualified candidate is going to come to UT to spend first 4-5 months with current President looking over his shoulder? I simply do not get it, and why Board and search firm do not see this as a problem and getting a good pool and candidate for the job.
It may be because Jacobs won't be around when the new president comes in, or the new president will just be told to ignore him. Just because Jacobs may be there, doesn't mean the new president has to ask for, or take his advice.
still seems like a stupid idea or need to celebrate Jacobs
What about the possibility that it would reduce the quality of the candidate pool if the Board were seen to be firing Jacobs? Who would want to work for a Board that is known for swinging the axe?
All of that being said, why did the Board pick the search firm with the highest cost?
hmm, requiring that the new president be "Tutored" by the outgoing president for 5-6 months....Having two of the outgoing president's greatest supporters "Organize" the conversation from faculty and staff and public as the co-chairs of the search/screen committee...planning now for a public celebration of the outgoing dictator...getting candidates for senior positions (i.e. Provost/Chancellor) while the outgoing president can weigh in.... Gosh, perhaps it means that the BOT have no intention of changing direction of the current destruction of UT?
Your rhetorical question greased in sarcasm is as slippery as a sardine passing through a pelican. What comes out in the end may not be pretty, as you suggest.
Or, there is this alternative scenario: the BOT as presently constituted will bend over backwards as President Jacobs evacuates the premises to take pains to finally prove themselves worthy again of the public trust.
Miracles happen! The BOT, chastised by the public awareness of the failure of the Jacobs administration over the past 8 years, might henceforth responsibly govern UT with not only the appearance but the reality of an incorruptible stewardship, with integrity, and with in one perspicuous phrase -- "the right stuff."
But the members of the board are the best the Toledo area has to offer in terms of expertise in the complex realm of higher education. How could they screw this up?
The Board would do well to remember its contributions that led to the state of UT: Kapoor and Jacobs were both board appointments. Let them not make the same mistake again. They are quick to remind everyone that they make the final decisions, but they are equally quick to avoid accountability for their poor decisions. Lots of people are watching.
I hate to squirt lemon juice into the eyes of the optimists here, but the BOT’s actions don’t reflect a philosophical disagreement with the Jacobs corporatization of UT. The board is angry that his actions in the Stansley affair attracted the attention of the state AG and shed unwanted light on the lack of oversight from the board, which might make them legally accountable in any future indictments. Has their own philosophy of higher ed changed? Given their general mediocrity thus far, you have to wonder.
Was Dan Johnson appointed by faculty?
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