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| Hey, are you doing some shenanigans over there? Well, bloody stop it! |
Up to this point, kinda ok. Now, the administration has told the Modern Rodents department that they are going to hire the Dean's spouse, professor at Even-Shittier College in the Far North as a Full Professor. Correlation means no causation, yet the look of the thing is awful. Out a professor goes, blackballed by the dean, in the dean's spouse comes. Interestingly, the spouse's CV shows less publications (in 20 years) than the rejected candidate.
Folks are appalled, yet nobody dares to say anything. To add to the mess, the president of the Faculty Senate -- who reasonably should be the person to voice the outrage -- has just been co-opted by the administration and is Assistant Dean... under the same Dean.
I am very, very tempted to go to the local newspaper and, off the record, let them know about this.
If the Dean owns the Faculty Senate president, might the Dean also own the local newspaper reporter?
ReplyDeleteHow can a dean (of any flavour) be a member of Senate, let alone president?
ReplyDeleteDepends on how the position is structured. If the person continues to teach and gets some course release in exchange for being the assistant dean, then he or she would probably still be considered faculty.
DeleteHell yes, drop the dime!
ReplyDeleteThe AAUP would also probably be REALLY interested in this..
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like the place I used to teach at. For years, no instructors were hired in our department unless they were a close buddy of the assistant head. On the flip side, if he didn't like someone, that person was soon out the door, or at least that was how it was supposed to happen.
ReplyDeleteThen there were rumours about the last president who was in charge while I was still there. Apparently, he hired a relative of his for a support staff position and that relative simply sat on his backside all day and did absolutely nothing.
By the way, if you do approach the local newspaper, make sure that you remain anonymous. If word gets out that you did something like that, you had better start revising your CV.
Absolutely make sure you remain anonymous. Make it clear in conversation that they promise that you remain anonymous. Come up with a MUTUALLY AGREEABLE description of you. e.g. "45 year old assoc prof in english dept" would kinda screw you over if that description fit you.
DeleteWell as far as the press goes there's an old saying, "If you get in bed with the press, well you're going to get fucked".
ReplyDeleteWell as far as the press goes there's an old saying, "If you get in bed with the press, well you're going to get fucked".
ReplyDeleteA slogan so nice, you had to say it twice.
Delete(By accident.)
Imagine being married to someone who lives 6 hours away. You fly around a lot, get snowed in at random airports, try your best to publish and teach and keep your marriage alive.
ReplyDeleteThen a department at your spouse's university opens up. Oh the hope and glee! After years of struggle, maybe a normal life is within grasp...
But some anonymous tipster cries foul and tells the reporters and you go back to your miserable life.
I'm not saying do or die, go to the papers or not, the spouse should get the position or should not. I'm just saying: Academia really sucks.
Oh, please.
DeleteIf these details are accurate, this incident is not that innocent.
It was fucking engineered.
The problem is that there has been no search. As a matter of fact, the department has been asked to unanimously support the appointment. (Or else... you may lose one or two tenure lines?)
Deletea) no search
Deleteb) full professor with fewer publications than the one the Dean blackballed?
This stinks.
I know, it's just that our profession is shitty all around.
DeleteIf you were in So. California, you could use Turko:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kusi.com/category/195821/turko-files
Some of the last investigative reporting. He does an investigative report, shows it during the nightly news, and then says "it ain't right!" He often gets the businesses or government to right their wrong--it's awesome.
Turko ranges from decent investigative journalism to complete idiocy. For the most part, he relies on a loud voice and loaded questions to steamroll his way past even very reasonable responses, and some of the causes he takes up are moronic.
DeleteAny chance the Dean has an outside offer (and would be hard to replace)? That's usually how such things come about at my university. Also, does the spouse have tenure at Even-Shittier College? Or perhaps they have joint offers elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteNot that any of the above would make the situation right (among other things, though spousal lines sometimes appear at my university, they aren't created by kicking other people out of existing lines). It just might explain the no-search scenario, but not the tenure turn-down, which certainly looks bad in the circumstances.
I'm sorry the tenure candidate didn't press on, and appeal if necessary/possible. Is it really worse to be turned down for tenure than to leave c. one's sixth year? Does it look any different on a c.v.? I'd think the tenure candidate would have nothing to lose at this point by pressing on/appealing (while also searching for a new job).
If you decide to go to the local paper, I'd do it by anonymous snail-mail letter, describing the outline and leaving it to them to FOIA the details if they feel it's newsworthy. I would think hiring the dean's spouse without a search is newsworthy if it's a public institution; if it's private, not so much (better notify the AAUP, then). On the other hand, consider this would bring the whole place under media scrutiny, with unpredictable consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe dean did it wrong, clearly. He/she should have supported the department's tenure vote, but letting them know it was borderline; thus staying in the faculty's good graces and then bringing in the spouse after a search for propriety's sake, say when somebody retired or was denied tenure by the department (assuming the spouse is reasonably competent). Quid pro quo and all that.
"Off the record" is no guarantee of anonymity. If you go with this, I'd use Peter K's strategy.
ReplyDelete