Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Life Without Snark
"Life would be intolerable without snark," writes David Denby in his book, Snark. "There are public events like Dick Cheney's shooting his close friend in the puss . . . events that no human being could fail to relish, rehash, retell. These misadventures inspired snarky comments by the hundreds, and all one can say about the comments is that malice is as natural as kindness and that someone completely without snarky impulses would have little humor of any sort."
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Which comment is the snarky one?
ReplyDeleteFrom The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2010:
Idaho State U. Faculty Members Call for No-Confidence Vote on Provost
Faculty members at Idaho State University have presented a petition to the Faculty Senate that would force a no-confidence vote on the university's provost and vice president for academic affairs, the Idaho State Journal reported. The Faculty Senate must review the appeal to make sure it has the minimum 140 signatures needed to force a vote on Gary A. Olson, who has been at Idaho State for less than a year. The AP quoted Carl Levenson, a philosophy professor at Idaho State, who said tensions between the provost and the faculty had escalated since Mr. Olson presented a sweeping restructuring plan this year intended to save up to $1.5-million. Mr. Olson, a regular contributor of advice columns to The Chronicle, declined to comment to the Idaho State Journal.
Reader response #1 - March 16, 2010
Obviously, another sad example of a faculty group unable to accept the reality of the change that MUST be made in today's higher education environment. Now the future of the University rests in the hands of the trustees - usually a gutless group in the face of public controversy. The trustees hired Olson and gave him a mandate to change the environment. They will never get any change if they don't take a strong public stance right now against this no-confidence nonsense.
Reader response #2 - March 16, 2010
This provost is the most arrogant and two-faced administrator you can imagine. Point for point you can show the endless hypocrisy between what he says in the Chronicle and elsewhere and what he actually does. Change isn't a bad thing at all, and ISU sure needs a lot, but the way this man is going about it ruins programs, careers, and lives. And he doesn't care. In under a year he's managed to insult and be condescending to every constituency from students to the state board of education and even the legislature. Enough already.
Except what about the sooo sooo disingenuous comment that Valais made about "I can't understand why the faculty don't like Olson". And give me a break, they keep saying he hasn't been here a year. He is two weeks short of his start date. He started April 1 2009. Prophetic day?!
ReplyDeleteI met Gary at another ISU (Illinois State) where he served as Dean of Arts & Sciences. The comments of Reader #2 agree with my perception of the fellow. Had he not gotten his current position at Idaho State, he likely would have been removed as Dean at Illinois State. I hope he enjoys being a simple English professor in Pocatello. Glad he's no longer in Normal.
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