David M. Perry: university trustees should be people who understand universities and love them

stop appointing stupid motherfuckers as university trustees.

university trustees should be people who understand universities and love them

I know we all want to shout about how wrong that penn trustee motherfucker is. and he is. but the story is: get stupid motherfuckers out of the way.

Penn has a 21 billion endowment. A stupid motherfucker says something this stupid you boot him off the board. You don’t need him. bsky.app/profile/shan...

Marc Rowan, chair of Wharton's advisory board, "said faculty members in Wharton [,] as well as the engineering and medical schools, care about academic excellence and research. 'If you are in [Penn's] arts and sciences school,' said Rowan, 'not so much.'" www.inquirer.com/education/ma...

Donor and Wharton board chair Marc Rowan criticizes Penn’s arts and sciences school, drawing backlashwww.inquirer.com Rowan said faculty members in Wharton, as well as the engineering and medical schools, care about academic excellence and research. “If you are in our arts and sciences school, not so much.”

The fact that NYU won't jettison Maria Bartiromo, even after she pumped election fraud bullshit onto the airwaves nightly, suggests that the institutions genuinely don't care. As long as the checks clear, it's all good.

Oh, those institutions will fight to be the first to kneel before the Orange Fuehrer, I assure you.

lemme tell ya about the Hoover Institute!

I think it may be even worse than not caring. The hostility to anything approaching broad and humane education is a feature for these boards & the administrations that they develop. It's an underlying dynamic of our philanthropic culture-which is done for the sake & at the service of billionaires.

"Serving on this board is a privilege, and one that you've just forfeited." – ideal board

i actually don't know - who is the "you" - the entity that can boot someone off the board (if not the board)

Agreed

You mean success in commercial real estate development doesn’t translate to competence at everything?

i know shocking

🙏

How much are they paying him to be stupid? As opposed to the part-time adjuncts who can’t afford rent? That’s what I want to know.

possibly zero plus traveling expenses. he's rich. he's interested in power over institutions.

Somehow that’s worse.

relatedly: perhaps outspoken homeschoolers who oppose public education shouldn’t be on public school boards

Public university trustees are often appointed by the governor. Red states are anti-education so they appoint people who hate education or want to privatize it. We have to vote them out.

That's true and a serious problem. Fortunately, in this particular case, Penn is private. I haven't looked at it bylaws, but I assume the other trustees can kick him out, by either majority or unanimous vote.

Louis DeJoy might give him some pointers on how to keep your job despite everything

Penn is very much neither of those things. Nor is what he’s saying about Arts & Sciences accurate.

Blame Clark Kerr.

I thought it was a political favorfest

Post