Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> apropos USM
Post Info TOPIC: apropos USM
Doug Chambers

Date:
apropos USM
Permalink Closed

I've been noticing a rising tide of despair in many postings. This is a marathon not a sprint. The following from Chinua Achebe's great novel of systemic corruption and individual resistance to it, Anthills of the Savanna (1988), seems appropriate for USM (p.2).


"I have thought of all this as a game that began innocently enough and then went suddenly strange and poisonous.  But I may prove to be too sanguine even in that.  For, if I am right, then looking back on the last two years it should be possible to point to a specific and decisive event and say: it was such and such a point that everything went wrong and the rules were suspended.  But I have not found such a moment or such a cause although I have sought hard and long for it.  And so it begins to seem to me that this thing probably never was a game, that the present was there from the very beginning only I was too blind or too busy to notice.  But the real question which I have often asked myself is why then do I go on with it now that I can see.  I don't know.  Simple inertia, maybe.  Or perhaps sheer curiosity: to see where it will all ... well, end."


Any thoughts?


p.s. I have prepared a long piece (ca.1,000) words comparing SFT's delusional assertion that USM is already a "worl'-class" university, with the reality here under his Admin.  Of 8 points, perhaps USM gets 2 or 3 at the best (i.e., a grade of F).  Should I post it?


 



__________________
William Schweinle

Date:
Permalink Closed

Yes, please post it.


 


WES



__________________
USM Sympathizer

Date:
Permalink Closed

Professor Chambers,


Please do post it; your writings have been some of the best on this board, which is saying a lot since this board is full of good stuff (e.g., by Jim Hollandsworth, Noel Polk, and others).


Meanwhile, I would be very curious to know: are there and specific reasons that YOU feel optimistic?  I suspect that there may indeed be grounds for optimism (at least in the long term), but you are much closer to the situation, so I would appreciate your thoughts.



__________________
Adam Sencenbaugh

Date:
Permalink Closed

Thanks for the inspiring words, Dr Chambers. Any additional posts would be more than appreciated.



__________________
Robert Campbell

Date:
Permalink Closed

Doug,

Please do post your analysis of Thames' inflated claims.

Robert Campbell

__________________
Doug Chambers

Date:
Permalink Closed

Ok, thanks, sounds like there is interest - I am in the middle of grading but will take a break in a bit and type it all in. cheers.

__________________
present professor

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Doug Chambers
"Ok, thanks, sounds like there is interest - I am in the middle of grading but will take a break in a bit and type it all in. cheers."

Yep -- you are right on there Doug. We can't invest too much in any one moment -- this conflict will be won in the accretion of small conflicts that form the backdrop of a continual climate of unrest. At some point that unrest will no longer be able to be addressed by sensitivity workshops, feel-good committees; and private behind the scenes meetings. The source of the unrest is in the person of our President who is incapable of substantial change.


The university is too much of an economic engine in this part of the state to be allowed to go down. At some point keeping Shelby on will be a greater liability than change.


I think we aren't all that far away. There are not many more moves that the administration can make. It's most recent actions are desperate but without much substance --


the administration is about to lose control of the new counsel it just put together.


It has thoroughly alienated the Senate and has just managed in the last twenty four hours to shoot itself in the foot yet again.


Academic Council  and Grad Council are only performing the operations they are required to perform  . . .


Some big guns in town have shifted alliances and others are moving to the fence.


The Board is watching closely  . . . and is pretty polarized at this point.


Even the Deans are not firmly in his camp right now . . . 


I'm not a prognosticator but I have seen two Presidents fall before this and the signs are there . . . . the administration is deeply wounded. I'll admit this administration has an amazing resiliency . . . .


This is the time for patience, for faith and for resolve.



__________________
Athena

Date:
Permalink Closed

Present Professor


 


Tell us more about this statement you just wrote:


It has thoroughly alienated the Senate and has just managed in the last twenty four hours to shoot itself in the foot yet again.


 


Thanks, Athena



__________________
Doug Chambers

Date:
Permalink Closed

I agree with P.P. that we must be realistic and be prepared for ups and downs without falling into despair or burning-out.  Apparently SFT has often in the past simply outlasted his opponents, wore them out; clearly has a huge huge will (but no doubt a small small something else, hehehe).  But he is a fool.  He reminds me of the sort of tinpot local tyrant, a town chief in say Nigeria under military government, in which the provincial colonels prop him up.  But, he is not - and this little world here is supposed to be a republic ('of letters').  Unlike SFT, we have to keep it up.

__________________
present professor

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Doug Chambers
"I agree with P.P. that we must be realistic and be prepared for ups and downs without falling into despair or burning-out.  Apparently SFT has often in the past simply outlasted his opponents, wore them out; clearly has a huge huge will (but no doubt a small small something else, hehehe).  But he is a fool.  He reminds me of the sort of tinpot local tyrant, a town chief in say Nigeria under military government, in which the provincial colonels prop him up.  But, he is not - and this little world here is supposed to be a republic ('of letters').  Unlike SFT, we have to keep it up."

Spok'n like the passionate but patient stalker of fools and wilde beasties I know ye to be!


Keep it up Doug. We are getting enough great writing on this Board to put a book together.


When this is over . . . all this wiritng will be our roadmap to creating a great (well . . . future great) university . . . maybe.



__________________
LVN

Date:
Permalink Closed

but pp, you didn't answer Athena's question!  Do you know something, or were you possibly referring to that mess yesterday?

__________________
Robert Campbell

Date:
Permalink Closed

Athena and LVN,


I assume Present Professor was referring to Shelby's May 10 letter to the Faculty Senate, with its absurd demands.  (Now on its own thread.)


Robert Campbell



__________________
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> apropos USM
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard