So What's Up Texas!!?? Ain't It Cool!

If you have been following the law school news you know about the events at UT Law School leading to the "resignation" of the dean. Seems he was paying some people more than others and then not exactly being direct about what was up. My particular favorite is the forgivable loans. Yes, a loan that you do not have to pay back

But let's just hold up a sec. What is a forgivable loan? It's just pay, right? In law teaching these little side deals come in a variety of forms -- lower teaching loads, more trips to China, higher travel budget, having your own foreign program, capping courses, extra research assistance, a little secret bump on your summer grant, etc. True, I had never heard of the loan that is not a loan but rather than regard that as a new thing, why not call every other side deal a "loan" that is not repaid. Same thing, right. And, if you know of a School not making these loans or side deals, let me know.

What's the fuss? Did they think they were all getting the same salary? As the John Travola character said in Broken Arrow, "Ain't it Cool." You just have to laugh. You know how this works. Mr. Entitlement goes down to the Dean's office and explains how he really has to have more or he might have to leave while giving all his colleagues the "we're in this together" smile. Now the folks who did not cut as good a deal for themselves are all bent out of shape.

I feel sympathy for the ones who were duped into thinking there were rules and standards that were evenly applied. My own cynicism can be traced to having been part of that group.

On the other hand, if they are upset because when they slithered down to the Dean's office the plum they got does match up with Little Mr. Entitlement's, I say tough. They are ultimately the ones who love the system when they can work; they need to suck it up when it does not turn out their way. Sure they can get the dean fired but, ultimately, it is most likely the case they simply want a system that works for them, not one that is predictable, transparent and fair.

More on the Enronification of higher education

A few days ago on my series of posts on the corruption of largely unaccountable universities, I noted the complicity of University Counsel. This NYTs article gives a look at how it works:

Unpacking Votes

One theme in this blog is that for people of privileged everything is a means to an end that the end is whatever they want. One of the strategies is to unpack votes. Here is what I mean:

Suppose there are 2 candidates up for a position. The faculty votes and they each get a positive but borderline vote of 30-18. Most deans would not know what to do. Don't misunderstand, it's not about the candidate but an assessment of which group is safest to piss off. Now you may be thinking. "But it's 30-18, Isn't it easy." Wrong because in that 18 maybe the pals of the dean or at least those likely to make him or her most miserable if an offer is made.

So, unpacking starts. If you are in the 30 and are worried about an offer not being made, the argument is to identify the likely no votes and say why they voted no. For example, there were 18 no votes but some of those were based on racism or homophobia or disagreement about the 1st amendment. All of this may be true; then again it may not be. Deans in particular unpack votes to get the outcome to please those most likely to be troublesome if they are not unpacked. They do not unpack them, even of the numbers are the same, unless pushed.

There is another form of unpacking that is post vote knit-picking. For example, a candidate comes in and gets a decent positive vote that ordinarily would lead to an offer. The problem is that those in the minority do not want this candidate. So, the picking begins. Remember this is after the vote and the arguments are made to the dean. "I looked at Mark's footnotes and I can't believe he did not cite Jack Bauer." Deans do not go to the 35 who voted yes and ask if they were concerned about leaving out Bauer. To those 35, after all, the game is over. So the 18 or 10 no votes become heavily weighted because they begin unpack their own votes to suggest they are better informed than the others.

I've seen some unpacking lately and I am not sure what actually should happen. Some people do vote one way or another for irrelevant or even wrong reasons. The problem is that all the votes are tossed out when the unpacking begins, even those of people who had the right reasons.

One solution is for each person to state his or her vote and why. If you think law professors would ever do something so transparent, I've got some Florida swamp land we need to discuss.

More on Fungibility

Here is an interesting article on the fungibility of not just law profs but everyone else. I am wondering if most of the ills of law schools and universities can be traced to the belief that people are not replaceable.

The Rot and Enronification of Universities: Part 5: Self Dealing

Self dealing is the last of the characteristics associated with the Eronification of Universities. One has to be careful in using this term. I do not know of any University administrators who have actually fattened up their own bank accounts by stealing directly from their institution. And, I have to be extra careful because many readers assume my complaints are always about Florida, more specifically the Law School. That would be wrong. Sometimes I do not care for my Dean's decisions and decision making approach but he is as hardworking as anyone I have known the the idea of self-dealing just does not fit. What I mean by self-dealing is spending the institution's funds on yourself in the sense of making your life more comfortable regardless of the benefits to stakeholders.

Here is an example of what mean. John Lombardi, the topic of the article, is now President of Louisiana or something like that. His activity at Uf sounds like making people comfortable who made him comfortable. I believe at the time he was in the process of being tossed out, I read that he was making sure the University department to which he was headed was especially well-funded. Ironically, one of last significant acts was to appoint an acting dean at UF Law who, again this is hearsay, while in that post, transferred funding from faculty slots to the unit to which he would return. If true, this is the administrative version of apples not falling far from the tree. The interesting thing to me is that this is all evidently viewed as part of the business. Lombardi, as I noted, ended up being sought after for other administrative posts and his acting Dean pal is revered in some circles.

So the self dealing stops short of writing yourself a check. On the other hand, it is putting your comfort and the security of your post ahead of the overall interests of the institution. Or it might mean, as I think it does a UF, supporting a program in which one has a deep personal interest. It is a form or shirking. That is, unless there is a consistent coincidence that what is good for administrators is good for the institution.

Is it unfair to compare this characteristic of Universities to Enron? Of course it is -- to Enron that is. At least in the case of Enron, there is some chance of discovery, auditing and shareholder action. In a public university these activities, with the help of University counsel, the "not technically a lie" culture, an aversion to transparency and rules that are created on the spot can persist indefinitely.

The Rot and Enronification of Universities: Part 4: The "New" Rule

In the first of this series of posts I noted 5 characteristics of institutions for higher education and have discussed two of the -- the captive legal staff and the obsession with fighting transparency. I also tossed in an old post I wrote about why faculty are too self interested and cowardly to speak up.

Somewhere in all of this goes the "new rule" strategy. That is, an administrator is caught at best just being incompetent or at worst playing favorites. When asked about it, the administration announces the new rule that applies in that situation that no actually knows about.

The worse instance of this came several years ago and involved the worst dean. After a year or two, people began to notice that without any explanations the teaching loads varied. Repeated requests for information went unanswered until the dean said the leaves were research leaves. We already had a sabbatical program so it was puzzling. When pressed about how one applied. . . well, there was no actual procedure. Asked about how the program had operated, there were no answers. Evidently we had a research leave program known only to the Dean and his buds.

My school has a policy that full teaching load is 12 hours but you can request 9 hours if you more or less promise to do research. Most people ask for and get the 9 hour load. Very recently, though, some even lower loads popped up. So, again, a request goes down to the office for an explanation of how one teaches less that a nine hour load. After an extended delay the answer comes that the 8 hour load is a result of the policy that if you teach a 10 hour load you get a 8 hour load the next semester or will teach 10 hours in the future. The problem is that none of the people with the light loads taught 10 hours and many people who have taught 10 hour loads have never heard of their entitlement to the lower load the next semester.

Here is the part that takes the cake. The administrator who announced the rule could not say whether it had ever been applied in the past. Huh?? I think I know why -- there was no rule until one had to be created to explain what made no sense.

Was Enron any less arrogant?