UM President Mark Schissell out --- eventually

[romad1]

I gather he is stepping down in June 2023.  Lots of negative energy from fans about the NIL situation. I dunno if that's really the biggest problem.  I gather the regents had a lot of problems with him re: his handling of the Doctor Anderson scandal.   The downtown project with Dan Gilbert and Stephen Ross also a huge blooper.

[romad1]

Story

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2021/10/05/mark-schlissel-michigan-president-leaving-board-regents/6002080001/

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, romad1 said:

Story

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2021/10/05/mark-schlissel-michigan-president-leaving-board-regents/6002080001/

I could be wrong but I don't think this much about football or Anderson. Or at least about any rational expectation about what the admin could be doing differently about either.

The search should get interesting though. I don't think the regents understand how radical a significant part of the faculty is. It can't be an easy walk between sliver spoon ambulance chaser Regents and the UM faculty Senate. The faculty member standing in my lab when the news came over the UM mail system was thrilled he was out. Of course she is too young to have been here during Duderstadt or Bollinger; to know what bad actually looks like in a UM Pres. He was an old white male and that is all she needs to know. And that's an Engin School Prof - extrapolate that to where your average LSA faculty is.

Here's hoping the Regents know a really competent candidate who checks enough diversity boxes to keep the torch and pitchfork crowd off the Diag.

Edited October 6, 2021 by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

and if there are regents actually bent out of shape over some of the stuff in the Freep story they need to get a grip. The GEO and Lecturer contracts were actually handled pretty well in my view. There was enough noise that people were able to make their complaints about being repressed but classes pretty much went on without significant impact. The downtown Detroit thing is pure donor ego tripping - that whole program is a flyspeck on the mission of the University - it's basically a vanity project for Gilbert or now an Ilitch if they end up taking it on. As to the handling of COVID? The U vaccinated half the damn county.

Edited October 6, 2021 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

34 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I could be wrong but I don't think this much about football or Anderson. Or at least about any rational expectation about what the admin could be doing differently about either.

The search should get interesting though. I don't think the regents understand how radical a significant part of the faculty is. It can't be an easy walk between sliver spoon ambulance chaser Regents and the UM faculty Senate. The faculty member standing in my lab when the news came over the UM mail system was thrilled he was out. Of course she is too young to have been here during Duderstadt or Bollinger; to know what bad actually looks like in a UM Pres. He was an old white male and that is all she needs to know. And that's an Engin School Prof - extrapolate that to where your average LSA faculty is.

Here's hoping the Regents know a really competent candidate who checks enough diversity boxes to keep the torch and pitchfork crowd off the Diag.

no offense, but you dont need to convince the rest of us that academics in places like michigan dont know anything about the real world and are fixated on things most of think are stupid and inconsequential (like diversity uber alles). 

present company excluded, of course.  🙂

i do like the shot at the plaintiff counsel sitting on the board of regents!  

[romad1]

23 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

and if there are regents actually bent out of shape over some of the stuff in the Freep story they need to get a grip. The GEO and Lecturer contracts were actually handled pretty well in my view. There was enough noise that people were able to make their complaints about being repressed but classes pretty much went on without significant impact. The downtown Detroit thing is pure donor ego tripping - that whole program is a flyspeck on the mission of the University - it's basically a vanity project for Gilbert or now an Ilitch if they end up taking it on. As to the handling of COVID? The U vaccinated half the damn county.

what was the other scandal?  Something involving the head of academics having serious sexual scandal.   That hits right at the reputation of the school.

The Gilbert/Ross/whatever the hell thing.  Man, Stephen Ross is a Trump donor.  Screw that guy.   A flagship project in Detroit would be a very good thing for both school and city.  Do more of that.  Also, monorails to Ann Arbor and food that tastes as good as regular but which have no calories.

[gehringer_2]

5 hours ago, romad1 said:

what was the other scandal?  Something involving the head of academics having serious sexual scandal.   That hits right at the reputation of the school.

The Gilbert/Ross/whatever the hell thing.  Man, Stephen Ross is a Trump donor.  Screw that guy.   A flagship project in Detroit would be a very good thing for both school and city.  Do more of that.  Also, monorails to Ann Arbor and food that tastes as good as regular but which have no calories.

The Detroit thing is silly - what do you think you going to do to impact higher ed in Detroit while practically sitting on Wayne State's doorstep? WSU is not exactly chopped liver. Philbert was a major diversity marker - the highest ranking minority at the U. Did anyone think they could just bounce him before the evidence was incontrovertible?  I don't really  know how people expected that to go otherwise. There are a lot of people around the U on both ends that are fairly completely divorced from reality. That was what I liked about Schlissel, other than thinking he could make the campus carbon neutral he was in general pretty well grounded in the real world.

Edited October 6, 2021 by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

..cont': 

If you want to do something significant - and successful,  in higer ed in Det you should be doing with *with* WSU, not planting a flag in their front lawn like some kind of privileged carpetbagger.

[romad1]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

..cont': 

If you want to do something significant - and successful,  in higer ed in Det you should be doing with *with* WSU, not planting a flag in their front lawn like some kind of privileged carpetbagger.

i admire the energy behind this…don’t necessarily agree.  Boston (ugh don’t compare us to Boston, Romad) has a major university on every corner. 

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, romad1 said:

Boston (ugh don’t compare us to Boston, Romad) has a major university on every corner. 

True enough, but BC, Harvard, MIT are all private institutions with no common mission with UMass Boston. For one public University to set up some kind of institute on another's doorstep without there being a cooperative organization is unseemly at best - at least IMHO. They are supposed to be rowing in the same direction.

[romad1]

11 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

True enough, but BC, Harvard, MIT are all private institutions with no common mission with UMass Boston. For one public University to set up some kind of institute on another's doorstep without there being a cooperative organization is unseemly at best - at least IMHO. They are supposed to be rowing in the same direction.

MSU and Michigan both have Detroit centers.  It all would depend on the mission.  If they want to have classes there for people who are in business grad programs or if the school of social work for example has a building there, i wouldn't complain.