Discussion for article #246680
Yet another shining example of how the âhire a CEO from the private sector to run it like a businessâ philosophy invariably works out.
Things that can be run like businesses are already running that way because theyâre already businesses. The reason the other things arenât run like businesses is because they deliver public goods that things run like businesses canât. And when you hire a CEO, or worse, a hedge fund manager, to ârun them like a businessâ you inevitably get clusterfucks like this, like Flint water poisoned with lead, like Blackwater mercs gunning down civilians and getting themselves lynched, like charter schools that teach no science and say George Washington was a theocrat, like Trump University and on and on and on . . .
I honestly donât understand why this is so hard for so many people to grasp. But they cling to the notion with all the fervor of religious fanatics.
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âThis is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you canât. You just have to drown the bunnies ⊠put a Glock to their heads.â
Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome President Donald Drumpfâs nominee for Secretary of Education.
<#makedonalddrumpfagain>
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You are so right - and this is the trend in academia. Many college presidents no longer have any background in education. They donât even pretend to want to understand the common issues of students and faculty. It is about money and rankings. I am lucky because I have thoroughly enjoyed most of my 30 years as a professor, but I wouldnât enter the field today. There is no longer much value placed on what we used to think of as the mission of higher education.
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â⊠former financial industry executive, was in his first year as president of Mount St. Maryâs University, the nationâs second-oldest Catholic university,âŠâ
Mind boggling!!! Apparently NO ONE on the Board of Directors of a religious university thought it might not be the best "fitâ to have some raving, hedge fund scum running a Catholic university. Yeah, turns out that CEO experience wasnât really what they needed after all.
Flipping insane 
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Hiring a CEO is a bad idea? But, Drumpf 2016!?? Vote for him heâs an outsider.
You could hit Trump supporters with dozens of these stories and they still would refuse to wake up
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The âdrowned bunnies and Glocksâ part of his remarks are getting most of the attention, but thatâs not the important part. Iâve heard drunken college presidents say even unkinder things about students without raising my professorial eye at it.
The important part isnât even the firings and bannings and sideswiping of tenure, although thatâs guaranteed to get our dander up every time.
The important thing is that he identified the âbunniesâ with a fake survey that, to any reasonable personâs eye, looked like a research instrument. It even said (verbatim) âThere are no wrong answers,â which is clearly meant to set studentsâ minds at ease as they talked about whether they were depressed, anxious, poor, or came from poor families. Remember, NO WRONG ANSWERS! JUST ANSWER HONESTLY!
Thatâs so balls-to-the-wall evil that it wouldnât even be worth mentioning in a research ethics class. I mean, we donât tell our first-year psychology students not to steal study participantsâ wallets, either. It doesnât seem necessary to mention. But hereâs this guy.
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In the end, he was the biggest Bunny of all, leaving Mt. Saint Maryâs in his first year.
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It is right that he should resign, as he clearly does not understand how things work in America.
We do not drown here. We shoot Godâs creatures with guns, as He intended.
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Nice photo. I always wondered what became of Tracy Flick.
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Simon Newman, a former financial industry executive, was in his first year as president of Mount St. Maryâs UniversityâŠ
You just have to drown the bunnies ⊠put a Glock to their heads.
The #1 indicator that someone is a sociopath-> they killed or tortured animals as a child
The #2 Indicator that someone is a sociopath-> they are a financial industry executive
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As if that werenât enough, the private sector people they hire are usually no longer in business because they were lousy at it. Take a long look at the resumĂ©s of a fair number of the Bush Administration appointees, for example.
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Itâs a sad day when drowning bunnies analogies elicit public scorn.
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Un-fucking believable!
There is no student cheaper to keep than the ones you already have. Never mind the moral obligation imposed by accepting their (in many cases loaned) money in exchange for education: from a purely mercenary standpoint itâs bad business to get a student to campus and have them leave.
The school isnât doing a good job in its admissions if they have that sort of drop-out rate. The place to address the problem is in admissions, no in drowning little bunnies or shooting them in the head with a Glock.
The job is education: if youâre not interested in the job, donât join the academy. We donât want to operate at a loss, but we canât make profits the bottom line, either.
Has anyone noticed the problems with for-profit education? They donât exist to nearly the same degree in not-for-profit education. The best prep schools in the country are not-for-profit. The greatest K- PhD education system in the history of the world (Californiaâs from post-WW2 through Jerry Brownâs second term) was not-for-profit. The âUniversityâ of Phoenix (scare quotes because Universities are supposed to do research as well as teaching and Phoenix only does its own proprietary market research and questionable teaching) doesnât make anyoneâs list of top academic institutions. Investors, please go away (and while youâre at it, get out of health care, too!)
Bringing dirtbags like this into âleadershipâ degrades the school and makes it more like University of Phoenix. Thatâs the last thing we need.
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I fear you may be right. Him or someone very like him.
I thought Department of Education would be among the first to goâŠ
Is it too much to ask that people that are hired for Colleges are actually there to EDUCATE? I am not opposed to updating/reining in finances and making schools more efficient but honest to God. This is not BAIN CAPITAL and schools are not just another âbusinessâ.
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It took SIX WEEKS from the time the story broke until they got rid of this creep? Should have been more like six hours. If you know anyone whoâs a student at this place, or works there, tell them to get out ASAP. Itâs a disaster.
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Yea running it like a business usually means, make lots of profit for the head honchos and everyone else be damned.
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I wonder what his golden parachute is worth?
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