[Vision2020] Seriously: U of I Presidency

[Tom Hansen]

I heard that same scuttlebutt a while back.

At that time Kempthorne did not express any serious interest in the job.  
I guess that he has sinice then developed interest.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

> Nick wrote:
> "The most recent scuttlebutt is that "The Dirk," AKA a former Idaho 
senator, will be made
the new UI president."
> 
> Please tell me that's nothing more than a late April Fool's joke, Nick!!!
> 
> Certainly, Kempthorne's extremely poor yet very expensive choices -- 
complete with pricey
monogrammed linens  -- for a required bathroom remodel that cost taxpayers 
over a quarter
of a MILLION dollars would rule him out.  We simply cannot afford his 
champagne tastes,
and it would be the height of poor judgment and incompetence, IMHO, to 
bring someone with
his baggage to a financially beleaguered university where everyone is 
facing 5% pay cuts
to -- hopefully -- avoid layoffs.
> 
> As long as we're talking about the UI, does anyone know how much this 
most recent search
has cost???  It seems to me that we've spent a heck of a lot of money 
trying to recruit
great people to fill the position over & over again, and we've never yet 
gotten what we
paid for.  There's always the promise that this person or that will be 
able to "handle"
the legislature so that higher education will get what it deserves, but it 
never happens. 
It seems to me the huge sums spent recruiting would be better spent on the 
actual running
of the university with a much lesser amount spent to recruit more 
locally.  I'm personally
convinced that such a strategy would serve the UI *at least* as well as 
the poor sods
we've gotten from the previous high dollar searches, particularly with the 
help of all the
"high caliber" -- and high cost -- administrative bloat the UI has 
acquired over the
previous several years!
> 
> I'll weigh in on the pending pay cuts as well:  I think the pay cuts 
should have been
graduated so that those making the most money take the biggest cuts to at 
least partially
if not completely spare those who who are at or below the poverty level.  
As
Representative Trail reminded us recently, somewhere in the neighborhood 
of 20% of UI
employees are at or below the poverty level, which is shameful to begin 
with, but to cut
their pay by 5% is just plain disgusting.
> 
> Finally . . . when the HECK are we going to have Spring?!  I had no fun 
shoveling out back
this morning, but I'm hoping the kids are enjoying the snow, which at 7 AM 
was the perfect
kind for making snowballs  :-)
> 
> 
> Saundra Lund
> Moscow, ID
> 
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to 
do nothing.
> ~ Edmund Burke
> 
> ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through life 
plus 70 years,
Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the 
Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-
bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of
nickgier at roadrunner.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 9:02 AM
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com; roger hayes; bear at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Seriously: U of I Presidency
> 
> Hi Bear,
> 
> The most recent scuttlebutt is that "The Dirk," AKA a former Idaho 
senator, will be made
the new UI president. Presumably without proper vetting or consultation 
with any faculty
or staff. 
> 
> A Board of Education member was once reminded about the long tradition 
of faculty
governance and the UI constitutional provision that the "immediate 
government" of the
university was in the hands of the faculty.  His response was: "That's 
odd. I thought we
the ones that did that!" And yes, they the power to do just that.
> 
> The motto of our faculty union is "Education for Democracy; Democracy in 
Education."  We
are currently in a losing battle for the second half of that motto.
> 
> Nick 
> 
> 
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Join us at The First Annual Intolerista Wingding, April 17th, featuring 
Roy Zimmerman and Jeanne McHale.  For details go to . . .

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding

Seeya
there.

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