Links! (I'm not talking about the secret chimp type)

It's rare that I find anything on the internet that is:
1. Relevant to this site, and
2. Not porn.

Imagine my surprise when reading today's Dilbert (Jan 18, 2013 A.D.).¹

I won't post the image of the strip since doing so would probably earn vengeance upon us more severe than a visit by Krazy Katie.  It suffices to say that the point of the cartoon will not be lost on you, my gentle reader.

After I sent a thank you note to myself (I appreciated the time I spent talking to me this morning), I was relaxing by surfing the web and found this - a commentary about reforming the university trustee boards.  The author is pretty active in trying to reform Dartmouth's board.  Here's a taste:

The impulse to impose Sarbanes-Oxley on universities is tempting.  Indeed, formal legal mandates on conflicts of interest and the other attributes of good governance might be even more appropriate for universities than for public corporations, as universities lack many of the safeguards of good governance, such as the ability to measure performance through profitability and engaged  shareholders with incentives to monitor performance.

It has traditionally has been assumed that universities, as ostensibly charitable organizations, would be run with an eye on the public good, thus formal restraints on self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and rules that apply to private corporations would not  be necessary.  Today, however, universities are big businesses riven with self-interest.

Interesting idea.  It's also useful to remember this when a trustee or president says that the school should be run like a business.  I'll respond enthusiastically and offer to help organize the committee that will implement reforms of the BoT.  That ought to shut them up for a while.


OK, fine.  Here's a secret chimp video.  Man, that show was great.


Footnotes
1.  If you expect your posts to live in infamy, as I do, then you've got to provide information like this.