This is going to be a short post. I've raised some questions in the last week or so about the appointment of the UA Chancellor. Today, UA President Patrick Gamble came to talk to the Faculty Senate. (He'd spoken to the University Assembly just before.) I don't have time to sort through all that was said, but I'll briefly summarize:
The President apologized
Acknowledged he'd made a mistake
Acknowledged he didn't understand the meaning of 'shared governance' the way the University understood it
Listened to some pretty heated faculty
Listened to some less heated faculty
Explained his thinking process when he made the decision on the Chancellor
My sense is that he was genuine. That he hadn't realized the huge difference in organizational culture between the Air Force, Alaska Railroad, and University of Alaska. I felt that the faculty accepted his apology, but were less sanguine than the president about how quickly he's going to be able to adapt to the vocabulary and ways of this institution. But he proved that he will listen, acknowledge mistakes, and apologize.
I think that this is a good first step. I'll post more about the meeting later, but that will take a while to sort through. For those who are interested in what happened, I at least want to get this out. Below is a short clip of the President apologizing.
Patrick Gamble and the University got married less than a year ago. And here he's gone out and bought a '56 Corvette from a buddy who gave him a good deal, without consulting his spouse who had a new Subaru in mind. Is this going to be the pattern in this marriage or is he going to talk things out next time before he makes what should be a family decision? This spouse isn't like his first two. She expects to be a full partner in this marriage she was pressured into. Is he going to have to be firm until she shapes up or can he learn to enjoy life with an equal partner?
Is the appointment of Tom Case as UAA Chancellor by his fellow retired Air Force general an example of cronyism? (An aside raises the same question about Craig Campbell's appointment as Case's replacement at the Alaska Aerospace Corporation.)
Why is this worth blogging about?
[This is a long post, so here's a brief SYNOPSIS: Case's appointment fits three of the four criteria of cronyism and may well fit part of the fourth. President Gamble's decision to by-pass a normal participatory search process and to ignore unanimous Faculty Senate recommendations makes the case for cronyism more plausible. This suspicion is exacerbated by Case's same day replacement as head of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation. With that said, Case is clearly qualified to head UAA, but not necessarily the best qualified. The faculty and students and rest of the campus community have to determine whether Gamble has knowingly abused his power to hire a friend or truly didn't understand the academic culture. If the latter, he has demonstrated why bringing in another leader from outside the academic culture is problematic to many. The UAA community will also have to assess whether Gamble is willing and capable of respecting and adopting the culture.]
1. What is CRONYISM?
Cronyism: partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the appointment of political hangers-on to office without regard to their qualifications (Merriam Webster online)
[Noun] An intimate companion; an associate; a familiar friend. To oblige your crony Swift, bring our dame a new years gift. Hence, an old crony is an intimate friend of long standing.. Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary.
Crony A familiar friend. An old crony is an intimate of times gone by. Probably crone with the diminutive ie for endearment, and equivalent to "dear old fellow," "dear old boy." (See Crone.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
The act of showing partiality to one's close friends, typically by appointing them to a position in a company or organization despite the individual not necessarily being the best person for the position. Although this is [sic] favoritism is frowned upon in many cases, it is often hard to determine what is or is not cronyism. In general it is not wrong to hire or appoint someone you know, as long as they are well qualified, so the boundary between the two scenarios is very unclear. Although accusations of cronyism are prevalent, they very rarely amount to any disciplinary action or removals from power. See also nepotism.
doing favors for friends: special treatment and preference given to friends or colleagues, especially in politics ( disapproving)
Most of the definitions I found were close variations of these. So from these definitions we can pull out the common factors:
Partiality or favoritism
Towards a good friend
Usually through an appointment to a position for which the friend is
Unqualified OR not the best qualified
Wikipedia's discussion of cronyism gives more nuance to the term showing why it happens and how it relates to other terms we know such as networking or good old boys system:
Governments are particularly susceptible to accusations of cronyism, as they spend public money. Many democratic governments are encouraged to practice administrative transparency in accounting and contracting, however, there often is no clear delineation of when an appointment to government office is "cronyism".
It is not unusual for a politician to surround him- or herself with highly-qualified subordinates, and to develop social, business, or political friendships leading to the appointment to office of friends, likewise in granting government contracts. In fact, the counsel of such friends is why the officeholder successfully obtained his or her powerful position — therefore, cronyism usually is easier to perceive than to demonstrate and prove.
In the private sector, cronyism exists in organizations, often termed 'the old boys club' or 'the golden circle', again the boundary between cronyism and 'networking' is difficult to delineate.
Moreover, cronyism describes relationships existing among mutual acquaintances in private organizations where business, business information, and social interaction are exchanged among influential personnel. This is termed crony capitalism, and is an ethical breach of the principles of the market economy; in advanced economies, crony capitalism is a breach of market regulations, e.g., the Enron fraud is an extreme example of crony capitalism.
2. Is the appointment of Tom Case by his fellow retired Air Force general an example of cronyism?
Cronyism, like most things, isn't either/or, isn't black or white. There are situations which are clearly not and situations which clearly are, and more ambiguous ones in the middle. But let's go through these four factors:
Partiality or favoritism
We know that UA President Gamble knew there would be a vacancy for the UAA Chancellorship even before he took the job. It was ten months after Chancellor Ulmer announced she would retire, before Gamble began the search process late November 2010.
We know that the UAA Faculty Senate - on notice that Gamble was considering skipping a national search - unanimously recommended their Provost as the candidate they could live with should he choose to NOT have a national search.
We know the next public step was that Gamble appointed Tom Case to be Chancellor.
Towards a good friend (All Air Force career information comes from the Air Force webpages for Gamble and Case.)
Gamble graduated from Texas A&M and became a student, undergraduate pilot training, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas in 1967.
Case graduated from the Air Force Academy and became a student in the Undergraduate Pilot Training, Laughlin AFB, Texas in 1969.
I'm not sure when they met, but both careers included assignments in Vietnam, Korea, Europe, and Washington DC.
Gamble (August 1996 - November 1997) and Case (October 1998 - September 2000) were both commander, Alaskan Command, Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, 11th Air Force and Joint Task Force Alaska, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.
And they served together in Hawaii when Gamble (July 1998 - May 2001) was commander, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and Case (September 2000 - July 2002) was Deputy Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff, U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii.
Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (CDRUSPACOM) is the senior U.S. military authority in the Pacific Command AOR. CDRUSPACOM reports to the President of the United States through the Secretary of Defense and is supported by four component commands: U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Army Pacific, and U.S. Marine Forces, Pacific. These commands are headquartered in Hawai’i and have forces stationed and deployed throughout the region.
Both men retired to Anchorage where Gamble became head of the Alaska Railroad and Case became, first, Dean of the UAA College of Business and Public Affairs (where he was my boss) and then COO of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation.
Usually through an appointment to a position for which the friend is
Search committees are the norm for faculty and high level administrative positions at the University of Alaska Anchorage - usually national searches. The previous Chancellors at UAA and UAF were not selected through nationwide searches, but faculty and community members were involved and approved of the selections. See previous post footnote beginning at "*I'd point out" for how those searches were conducted.
In this case,
Nov. 23, 2010: the President announced the beginning of the search and hinted at skipping a national search because there were good Alaskan candidates.
Dec. 6, 2010: The faculty responded by proposing the current UAA Provost for Chancellor. If not him, then they wanted a national search.
Jan 18, 2011: The President brought together a committee and asked them to come up with characteristics of a good Chancellor.
Jan 31, 2011: The President announced Tom Case as the new Chancellor
The President skipped the normal search process, rejected the faculty's proposed candidate without consultation, did not consult with the faculty or other normal constituents about possible specific candidates, and simply selected someone he'd known in his previous career who was also a personal friend.
Unqualified OR not the best qualified
Unqualified? - The Chancellor has a leadership position which requires good management skills and an ability to work well in the community for university support and partnerships and for fund raising. Generally, someone from inside the academic profession with the highest academic credentials (a doctorate) is chosen because they know the culture and norms of the institution they will lead. This is occasionally waived if the candidate has other remarkable qualities.
Tom Case does not have a doctorate, but he has a masters in systems management and a great deal of education and training in the Air Force plus experience leading large organizations. He also spent five years as Dean of UAA's College of Business and Public Affairs. In that position he expanded his widespread contacts in Anchorage and Alaska developed earlier as Commandant of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
There is no question in my mind that Tom Case is qualified for this position.
Best Qualified? - This is a question that might still be debated if there were a national search and there were several candidates. There might never be absolute unanimity. There are factors to criticize with his candidacy.
He doesn't have an academic background so he doesn't understand the culture of people he will be leading. But this isn't enough to make him unacceptable. Sometimes an outsider can bring in new ideas. Another factor arises if we take the macro view. Not just how this decision affects the one campus - UAA - but the impact on the University of Alaska system. As I've pointed out in a previous post.
There will now be four white males over 60 without terminal degrees in the four top posts of the university. While these four men are each unique individuals and have their own perspectives and experiences,
having other perspectives is both symbolically and substantively important. The fact that this wasn't considered too important by the President is also troubling. Also, as I've said,
having outsiders in academia is not necessarily a bad thing. But two retired Air Force generals in the top four positions seems redundant. We've wasted an opportunity to have a different perspective among the top four positions. Why? Simply because Gamble is more comfortable with an old Air Force colleague? That's not good enough unless he brings in other qualities so special they make him clearly better than other candidates.
But we can't even consider whether he is the best candidate because there are no other candidates.
So, is this cronyism? Pat Gamble hasn't told us his motives (other than saving money by not having a national search). It is clear that it meets at least three and possibly four of the standard benchmarks of cronyism.
He used partiality or favoritism - he chose someone he already knew and was partial to without letting any other applicants into the process. He chose another academic cultural immigrant from the Air Force. While he may think he has simply chosen the best possible person for the position, in fact he picked a friend without considering others. He didn't even discuss with the faculty the person they recommended and why they supported him and why he (Gamble) didn't.
But he clearly decided that despite coming from a different organizational culture - two actually if we include his time with the Alaska Railroad which seems to be a particularly 'good old boy' system - that he knew better than the faculty, without even having to talk to them about their candidate and his. Or any other possible candidates a nationwide search would produce.
The person he chose is a personal friend and professional colleague.
He did this through an appointment that was a deviation from the standard process. While there had been some deviation in past appointments, this one was extreme by totally excluding the faculty and others in the university community. The past searches for UAA and UAF chancellors deviated by not having a national search, but the conditions were different and shared governance wasn't abandoned in those cases. One major concern, I understand, for the faculty is fear that the exceptions will become the new norm and this appointment will set a precedent for skipping national searches and search committees altogether.
Tom Case is clearly qualified, but not necessarily the best qualified. We don't know whether he is the best qualified because Gamble's process excluded competition against which to measure Case.
How hard is it to imagine Gamble and Case and Campbell at a party discussing what Campbell would do after his term was over? "You know, there's an opening for Chancellor coming up. I can appoint Tom to that - he was a dean there already - and then Craig, you can take Tom's spot." Actually, I do have trouble imagining Tom Case in that meeting, but somebody must have discussed this for it all to happen so quickly and smoothly. Too quickly. Too smoothly.
The University of Alaska is a state organization and the Aerospace Corporation is state created and largely state funded. These are positions with serious salaries. The Chancellor gets about $250,000 plus benefits.
3. Why is this worth blogging about?
I've learned over the years that cronyism, like other ethical infractions, is "something that other people do, but not me." While working with Municipal Assembly members, for example, on rewriting the Municipal Code of Ethics, I had assembly members defend their right to have lobbyists pay for their lunches with reactions like, "Are you suggesting I could be bribed for a $20 lunch?" I had two responses: 1) How expensive a lunch would it take? and 2) If $20 is trivial, then why don't you pay for the lunch yourself? But I got the point. Other people were unethical, but even hinting they might be was insulting.
Most people, particularly those who have dressed themselves in society's symbols of legitimacy, rarely recognize when they do something wrong. Tom Delay, for example, is still protesting his innocence. If Gamble reads this, while he might acknowledge some of the points theoretically, he'd probably say that, practically, he'd made the right decision and he'd do it again. And that's why I'm covering this in such detail. He shouldn't do something like this again. And if he does, it won't be out of ignorance.
Broader Issues
1. The University of Alaska is a large public organization with a budget over $1 billion. The FY2012 operating budget alone is $884,983.300. The capital budget is another $212,525,500. (To put this in context, the Governor's proposed total operating budget for the State of Alaska is $5.45 billion. To be fair here, only $350 million of the UA budget comes from the State. But the total operating budget is 1/5 the State's operating budget.) How the University is run should be of concern to Alaskans.
2. The University of Alaska is the main institution for higher education in the state of Alaska. How it operates, its emphases on one approach to education or another, will greatly affect the future of the state. Nationally, great changes have been going on in higher education as university budgets have almost matched health care for significant increases. Legislators have reacted with calls for more efficiency. A business metaphor has replaced the idea of education. Students have been changed into customers and education has become preparation for a job rather than for life. "How?" is replacing "Why?" as the basic question for college students. There are legitimate questions about what universities do and how they do it. But there are also many simplistic answers floating around.
Facing these changes requires people who both understand education and who understand what parts of traditional education are essential to keep and how to move into the future taking advantage of new technology to make education better, but without making it superficial. So Alaskans, even those not involved in the University, have a huge stake in what happens in the administration of the University.
Specific Issues - Consequences of Skipping a Search
1. Credibility of the President's Commitment to Shared Governance
The President, in his November letter announcing the beginning of the search, said the new chancellor should have "an unwavering belief in the efficacy of shared governance." Either the President
doesn't have such a belief himself,
doesn't understand this the same way it's understood by faculty and staff and students, or
didn't want to risk not getting his preferred candidate.
There was no shared governance in this decision. Gamble muffed an opportunity to be a University President and instead acted as the University CEO. Chancellor Case was appointed by the President with no meaningful participation of the UAA community. Not only did Gamble choose someone against the Faculty Senate's unanimous recommendation, but he did not bother to discuss his reasons why before he made the appointment or why he scrapped any semblance of a search.
When push comes to shove, this new Chancellor will be clearly and unequivocally representing the President in Anchorage rather than representing the UAA community to the President. This is not shared governance.
2. Legitimacy
The odor of cronyism floats over this appointment. Even if Tom Case is the best possible chancellor - which we really can't judge given the lack of other candidates to compare him to - skipping over the process leaves a residue of suspicion and distrust. Had there been an open process with several candidates, the President may have risked that his preferred candidate was not recommended. He then would have had to make a decision - either to accept the search committee's recommendation or to still choose his preferred candidate. Gamble didn't take that gamble. The odds would have been in his favor. Usually such a committee identifies acceptable candidates and possibly a preferred candidate. Had Case made the acceptable list, his legitimacy would have been assured, and this would not have been seen as a possible case of cronyism. Odds are good this would have happened.
Instead the new Chancellor comes in under a cloud. And there is antagonism between the faculty and President.
3. Communication
The time that a search committee puts into developing criteria for a position is time where people have to articulate their values and their models of education and universities. There is a lot of give and take, people reveal themselves, and relationships are built. This would have been a great opportunity for the President, who comes from alien organizational cultures, to have gotten an intimate look at this new culture he now heads. That opportunity has been lost.
Conclusions
This is a post I wish I didn't have to write, but I feel strongly that if the President continues in this path the relationship between him and the faculty will get more and more strained. The faculty are in an awkward position. They don't want to spend their time taking on the President, they'd much rather work cooperatively with the head of the University system to make the university a better place. But a lot of them think they've been rolled by the President and don't want it to happen again.
My sense is that while they feel misused and are concerned about the future, they are willing to accept and support Tom Case. They also have to assess Gamble. Was this a willful decision to by-pass the process to make sure his Air Force colleague and friend would get the position or simply a cultural blunder? If the latter, is he willing and capable of respecting this new (for him) culture and concepts like shared governance? Did he know buying this Corvette behind her back was wrong, but did it quick before she could say no? Or is he just not used to having to check with the spouse? And how's he going to behave next time there's a family decision to be made?
This has been a long post because none of the other news media are covering the story, except the UAA student newspaper, Northern Light, and I want to document the complexities of this situation as best as I can for the record.
I expect that Tom Case will be a good Chancellor at UAA. I worked with him in the College of Business and Public Affairs and respect him as an honorable and sensitive man of considerable ability.
But in a democracy, the ends don't justify the means. Prisoners get released when the police or courts have violated procedures set up to protect their rights. The President had more than enough lead time to fill this vacancy properly. And as one of his first major acts of significance, it behooved him to do it right. He didn't. Wednesday he's coming to Anchorage to talk to the UAA faculty. Whether the future will be rocky or smooth will depend on how that meeting goes.
The university can be a frustrating place because democracy can be frustrating. Democracy allows time for people to have their say and be listened to. And I myself could point out to ways I would streamline things - but not at the expense of serious shared governance.
One needs to remember, "It's not WHAT you do, but the WAY you do it."
Here's a press release from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation dated January 31, 2011.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2011
Alaska Aerospace Corporation Announces Craig E. Campbell to Become President and Chief Operating Office
Dale Nash, Alaska Aerospace Corporation Chief Executive Officer announced today that former Lieutenant Governor Craig E. Campbell will become the President and Chief Operating Officer for Alaska Aerospace Corporation effective February 15, 2011. “I am pleased to have Craig join our team at AAC. He brings a wealth of state and federal government experience which will be invaluable as we pursue a more diversified business portfolio in aerospace across Alaska.” Mr. Nash commented.
Craig Campbell is replacing Mr. Tom Case, who has accepted a new position as Chancellor for the University of Alaska, Anchorage. “I want to thank Tom Case for his outstanding support and service to Alaska Aerospace Corporation. Under Tom’s leadership, AAC has achieved tremendous success in our launch capabilities. During the past three years, AAC has continued to mature from a development company into a significant national aerospace business. I know that the University of Alaska is gaining one of Alaska’s finest leaders.” Mr. Nash stated. . . [it continues, you can get the pdf here.]
What's particularly interesting to me in this announcement is that it is dated January 31, the very same day of the memo sent out by UA President Gamble announcing Tom Case's appointment as Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Craig Campbell's appointment couldn't have happened before they knew that Case was leaving. So, they must have known that Case was leaving before January 31. How long does it take to know there is an opening and to find a replacement? One day? Two? Eight?
Gamble had had one meeting - January 18 - of an assumed search committee for the Chancellor position. But already on November 23, 2010 he'd written a memo saying that national searches were expensive and hinting he might skip such a process. Participants in the meeting were asked to make a list of criteria for choosing a good Chancellor.
That meeting was eight working days before he announced the Case appointment. Had Gamble already chosen Case? Were the people at the Aerospace Corporation already contacting Campbell? Who all knew? When did they know? How long was Campbell in line for the Aerospace job?
The Alaska Aerospace Corporation was established by the State of Alaska to develop a high technology aerospace industry in the state.
Exactly what is the relationship between the Corporation and the State? How did they manage to hire someone so quickly? How do they select people? Clearly there was no search process there either. Is Craig Campbell really the best person in the United States to run the Alaska Aerospace Corporation? How much does this position get paid? You can see his qualifications at Wikipedia.
Robert Caro won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker. Moses was pretty much the man who created public authorities in the US - government entities that were independent of public scrutiny and accountability. It appears that Alaskans ought to be checking on the various such organizations we have to be sure that there is proper oversight and that their hiring procedures are ones that insure we get the best possible people to run them.
While US media are focused on Egypt, what's happening in the rest of the world? This is just a quick view of online headlines around the world to remind folks that things didn't stop elsewhere. It's just the media aren't covering them. Fortunately, the internet makes it easy for us to gather the news ourselves.
I randomly picked countries from different continents and googled "[Country name] news". Mostly these are the top stories (which in some cases seems to mean the latest) on the page, though I've picked out others near the top if they seemed more interesting.
By Nestor Bailly, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Early last week it was released that in March, U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Brazil on his first trip to South America. The announcement comes shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s attendance at Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration, and the trip is widely viewed as a rejuvenation for U.S.-Brazilian relations.
BTW, Brazil is the 5th most populous country in the world with almost 200 million people.
Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders strongly opposes Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal’s planned visit to the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank.
The Freedom Party (PVV), which provides parliamentary support to the Netherlands' right-wing VVD-CDA minority cabinet, regards Jordan as the 'real' Palestinian state. “Its capital is Amman, not Ramallah. So Mr Rosenthal really has no business going there,” Mr Wilders said on Sunday.
Mr Rosenthal begins his tour of the Middle East on Sunday in Amman. In the following days, he will visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Ramallah is home to the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters.
On Monday the Dutch foreign minister will first meet Jordan's King Abdullah II and his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh. Mr Wilders says he hopes Mr Rosenthal will raise the issue of a lawsuit brought against him by a Jordanian activist group for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad in his anti-Islam film Fitna.
Austrian football star Marc Janko is excited about the prospect of playing Holland in a friendly match in Eindhoven on Wednesday. “I hope to find the net a few times,” the FC Twente hitman told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. “It’s a special game when you play against the country you choose to live in. To be honest, I know it’s going to be a really difficult game for us. We’re the big underdog and I hope we can compete well against the Netherlands. They’re the vice world champions, so it’s going to be really, really difficult, but I’m looking forward to the game.”
They were charged with cigarette smuggling and bribery, the operation including large-scale raids at the border point and addresses of the suspects. Among the people taken into custody there is also a chief-commissar of the Suceava Police.
Seventy-seven border policemen and customs workers were detained at the Siret border crossing point (in the north of the country, at the border with Ukraine) on suspicion of cigarette smuggling and bribery yesterday morning. The officers and prosecutors with the Anti-Corruption Directorate General (DGA) performed parallel searches both at the customs headquarters and at the home addresses of the detained officers and customs workers.
All eyes turn to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the one-week window given by House Speaker Kenneth Marende to resolve differences over the nomination of top Judicial, State Law Office and Budget office bosses begins to run out.
On Thursday last week Mr Marende declined to declare unconstitutional President Kibaki’s nominations for Chief Justice, Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget that have been contested by Mr Odinga. (Read: Speaker holds back, but judge rules list illegal)
Relatives of The Five Appeal for Justice HAVANA, Cuba (acn) The relatives of the five Cuban antiterrorists unfairly incarcerated in the United States called on all just and honest people from around the world on Thursday to join the struggle for the release of these patriots. Mothers and wives of these fighters made the call during a meeting with some 300 Latin American youngsters, held at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp of Caimito municipality, Artemisa province.
The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five (Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González) are five Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities in the United States. The Five were in the United States to observe and infiltrate the Cuban-American groups Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue . . .
For their part, Cuba acknowledges that the five men were intelligence agents, but says they were spying on Miami’s Cuban exile community, not the U.S. government. Cuba contends that the men were sent to South Florida in the wake of several terrorist bombings in Havana allegedly masterminded by anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative.
Ukraine calls on the Russian Federation and the United States to continue talks on the further reduction of nuclear armoury, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said this on the occasion of the coming into force of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions between the United States and Russia signed in Prague on April 8, 2010.
The Embassy of China in Ukraine in consideration of solving a crime, the kidnapping of a Chinese woman, has passed a BRDM light armored vehicle to the department of organized crime control of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Kharkiv region, the ministry's press service has reported.
Rejecting charges of his involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi issued a legal notice to Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, demanding retraction of his 'statement' linking him to the scam within 24 hours. The DMK patriarch, in his notice to Swamy, dismissed the allegation as "motivated by your personal malice, political rivalry and clamour for cheap publicity." Karunanidhi's notice issued through counsel P R Raman comes a day after Swamy's plea in a Delhi court for continuance of his private complaint in the case, seeking to claim that it covered a wider canvas of "involvement" of the DMK patriarch.
If, like me, you have no idea what the 2G scam is, here's what Wikipedia says about it:
The 2G spectrum scam involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. According to a report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on money collected from 2G licenses, the loss to the exchequer was 176,379 crore (US$ 38.27 billion). The issuing of the 2G licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public notice when the Indian Income Tax Department investigated political lobbyist Niira Radia and the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record
India is the second most populous country in the world with 1.14 billion.
Around one thousand mobsters from Cikeusik village, Pandeglang Regency, Banten Province attack a house belonging to an Ahmadiyya member on Sunday around 10:30 local time.
The attack have caused three Ahmadiyya members died and 5 hospitalized. The mobs also burned one car, push another one off a cliff as well as destroying the house.
The attack was triggered by the exasperation of local resident seeing more and more Ahmadiyya members come to the Umbalan village to settle. The 20 odd policemen who were assigned to secure the area could not do much facing the larger number of mobs.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad the last Prophet according to Ahmadiyya movement
The Pandeglang Police say that the mob were angry after one of the Ahmadiyya member stabs one of the mobs during a heated argument. This accusation is strongly denied by Mubarik Ahmad a spokesperson for Indonesian Ahmadiyya Congregation.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the leading Islamic organization to categorically reject terrorism in any form. Over a century ago, Ahmad emphatically declared that an aggressive “jihad by the sword” has no place in Islam.
The Indonesian Environmental Group WALHI has urged the Indonesian Government to be firmer and take stronger action against the polluters. The current environmental Law No 32 year 2009 is deemed sufficient however, it’s technical directive No.27/1999 regarding Environmental Impact Analysis Requirement needs to be revised to include heavier sanction against the offenders.
In 2010 WALHI recorded 75 pollution cases perpetrated by private as well as state owned companies which damaged as much as 65 rivers and 5 coast lines. Out of those pollution cases, only 14 were ever brought to trial.
Palm oil companies are still the biggest polluter with 31 pollution cases which includes rivers silting, followed with coal mining with 19 cases and gold mining with 7 cases. These numbers does not include years of byproduct pollution causes by these activities impacting major rivers.
Indonesia is the 4th most populous country with almost 240 million people.
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hanaregoma confirmed Sunday that the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament has been canceled due to the match-fixing scandal and that the decision was made because the betrayal of sumo fans was unforgivable.
Hanaregoma said it is impossible to hold the Osaka meet, which would have started March 13, because it would confuse the fans and that he could apologize enough for the scandal.
Police stumbled upon the match-fixing involving 14 people in the sumo world when they found text messages suggesting bouts had been rigged in the course of their investigation last year into sumo players' illicit gambling on baseball.\
Rumors of bout-rigging linked to the underworld have plagued sumo for decades, but nothing has ever been proven.
At least inside, the sun has a definite warmth when it touches you. When I go downstairs every morning to spray the bamboo, bromeliads, and begonias, it's light earlier. Sunrise today was 9:10 am and it sets at 5:18 pm (the moon gets four more hours in the sky) for a total of eight hours eight minutes and 55 seconds. But don't believe everything you read on the internet. The Anchorage Daily News says sunrise today was 9:09 am (five minutes after their scheduled moonrise). And when I went on line to get the ADN link, I found the online version gave yet another time for the sunrise. (Note, the ADN link goes to weather in general and probably changes from day to day.) At least they all agree on sunset time.
I'm not sure how you calculate exact sunrise for a place with mountains to the east.
[Some people I've talked to this week said they really aren't aware much of the University. That's a shame because it has a large budget and its mission is to educate the people who will be Alaska's future. The ADN simply cut and pasted a brief version of the University's press release.]
The UAA Faculty Senate discussed the appointment of Tom Case as its new Chancellor at Friday afternoon's meeting. I posted earlier in the week that former Air Force General and now University of Alaska President Pat Gamble had appointed former Air Force General Tom Case to be Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. At the time I pointed out that this would mean that the four highest positions at the University of Alaska would be held by white males over 60 who did not have terminal academic degrees. The idea of diversity is pretty entrenched in American government and business these days. Not just for symbolic reasons, but because it is understood that people with different life experience see the world differently and bring different perspectives to the table, perspectives that better understand and reflect (in this case) the people of the State, the student body, and the faculty, and others in the university community. You simply get better decisions if your leadership reflects your employees and constituents.
But today's Faculty Senate meeting didn't focus on that issue. After dealing with old business, they took up discussion of the Chancellor appointment. There were three key concerns:
The Individual. There was widespread agreement that the group did not want to focus on the individual who was appointed Chancellor. The group's comments suggested they did not want to embarrass Tom Case in any way, or even the president.
The Process. There seemed to be three responses to how the new Chancellor was selected:
Outrage/Anger - This response, based on my count of people's comments, seemed to reflect a plurality, if not a majority. People felt the university culture's process of collaborative governance was trashed and people felt insulted and outraged and wanted the President to be aware that he had seriously abused his position.
Upset - Pretty much the same as 1 but expressed less passionately.
We should reach out - One person, using nursing (I think) terminology said that there was a knowledge deficit and that the faculty needed to educate the President about academic culture. She also said the faculty had a knowledge deficit about the president. While others didn't necessarily share this non-judgmental way of putting it, it seemed that most agreed there needed to be more communication between the faculty and the President.
This seems like a good point to step back and talk about the process which came out in bits and pieces in the meeting and which I also learned more about from commenters in the last post on this and asking folks.
The academic culture tends to have very collaborative search processes for important positions - faculty and high level administrators - who will have a major impact on the organization for a long while. Other government and business organizations also use nationwide searches for many positions, but often are less inclusive of so broad a cross-section of the organizational community. I sat on the search committee that chose Lee Gorsuch as chancellor. He also did not have a PhD. But having the national search meant that we were sure we couldn't attract a better candidate and the new Chancellor came in with the strong support of the faculty. Yes, cost is a factor, but there are options between nothing at all and a full, costly search. APU, the small private university nearby, last year had a nation-wide search for its president which included faculty, students, alumni, and community members. And attracted a strong, experienced academic administrator from Outside who also had good Alaska experience. In that case, the Alaska candidates did not prove to be the strongest. To get a sense of a normal search, here are the steps from the University of Minnesota.
Board approves search plan;
Board selects desired leadership characteristics for a new president and appoints a search advisory committee;
Search advisory committee recruits pool of candidates, reviews their qualifications and selects candidates for initial interviews;
Search advisory committee conducts interviews and forwards semi-finalists to board;
Board reviews semi-finalists and publicly names finalists;
Finalists visit campus for public interviews by the board and meetings with campus community;
Board selects president.
These are pretty short and to the point. The State University of New York (SUNY) has far more detailed steps which appear to be statewide policy or perhaps even law. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has another detailed list for President/Chancellor searches. This is the norm in academic institutions. When a President such as Gamble comes in from a different organizational setting, it is his responsibility to get up to speed on how things are done, or at least have a couple of very good insider advisers that he can check with. Either Gamble didn't do this and should have, or he knew what he was doing and was using the management maxim "It's better to ask forgiveness than permission." Or the full meaning of 'shared governance' was hard to believe for a retired Air Force general.
Search Timeline
January 22, 2010 - Chancellor Fran Ulmer announces her retirement in mid 2011. She gave over a year's notice, giving the university plenty of lead time to conduct a search. The Anchorage Daily News quoted then President Hamilton:
"Fran's announcement today was done in the typical thoughtful fashion that is Fran's hallmark," said University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton, who also recently announced his own retirement. "She has given the UAA community, me and the next president plenty of time to plan for a smooth transition. She cares deeply about this institution."
I'd note that academic national searches take as much time as you have. Ideally you'd begin about a year out before the position has to be filled in hopes of attracting people before they have committed to other institutions. And also giving them reasonable time to cut ties from their old institution and get settled in the new one. In this case, the University could have established a position description in Spring 2010 to get a head start.
November 23, 2010 (Ten months later on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) - President Gamble sends out memo to University community announcing the beginning of the President search.
Double click to enlarge
The memo - I have a PDF copy that doesn't allow me to cut and paste as text- so I have to take images. Here's a bit of what the President said he thought was needed in the next Chancellor.
But he also hinted at what was coming at the end of that memo:
I am mindful that the last formal, national UAA chancellor search in 2003-2004 cost $250,000 and took eight months. I am equally mindful that all three of our current chancellors, who I personally consider exceptionally talented leaders and working partners, were not selected through and extended and costly formal search process. Considering these past experiences I believe we should remain open minded about a method that will lead to the best outcome for UAA and the state.
So, it would appear from this document that President Gamble knew about - even if he might not have understood the practical implications - the importance of shared governance. And he knew that these searches could take a long time and that by waiting until late November he'd let a lot of time slip by.
Dec. 6, 2010 - The Faculty Senate responds with this memo (a pdf that allowed cut and pasting)
(Basically they say they don't want to skip the search and have a direct hire by the president, but if that is going to happen, they would support doing that for the current Provost Mike Driscoll.)
Date: December 6, 2010
To: Patrick K. Gamble, President, University of Alaska
From: John Petraitis, President, UAA Faculty Senate
Re: UAA Chancellor Search
In our December 2010 meeting, UAA’s Faculty Senate discussed your letter concerning how to proceed with finding Fran Ulmer’s replacement when she retires in 2011. The following motion was passed unanimously.
Faculty Senate is committed to shared governance that involves faculty, staff, and students. As such, we are, as a rule, uncomfortable with a direct hire of senior administrators.
But, if you opt for a direct hire, the only person Faculty Senate would support is Mike Driscoll because he was hired as Provost after a national search, he has performed well as Provost, he knows UAA perhaps better than any other applicants for the position, and he has served as Acting Chancellor several times as Chancellor Ulmer has worked on the Presidential Oil Spill Commission.
Given our commitment to shared governance, we encourage you to consult with UAA's other governance groups to get their opinions on this matter.
If you do not opt for a direct hire of Mike Driscoll, Faculty Senate requests that the Chancellor's position be filled after national search and that the search committee consist of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and representatives from UAA's community campuses.
For 44 Against 0 Unanimously approved
Mid January [18,] 2011 - President has a meeting with invited participants including faculty officers, local business people, alumni, community leaders, students, [a couple of deans/directors, and representatives from UAA's community campuses]and asks them for their characteristics of a good chancellor.
January 31, 2011 - The President sends out a memo announcing he has chosen Tom Case as the new Chancellor.
These are the dates of meetings that I know of. If there were other meetings on this I'm not aware of them.
Back to the Meeting - What to do next.
The faculty wrestled with the following issues:
1. Was Gamble willfully violating the university culture and the notion of shared governance or just acting out of cultural ignorance?
2. What was the most appropriate way to let him know they were seriously pissed with the process and at the same time maintain enough cordiality to be able to work with Gamble in the future and also with Tom Case?
Since they didn't know his motives - and some complained that he'd never been to campus to talk with them - it was difficult to decide. If he was knowingly skirting the process because he thought he could get away with it and appoint his friend, then they felt they needed to stand up to him and let him know he was going to face resistance if he tried this again. But if this was a genuine culture clash, they were willing to give him another chance.
Faculty Senate President Petraitis
Two people at the meeting who have had most contact with Gamble said they thought he would prove more willing to involve faculty in important decisions than had President Hamilton. Faculty Senate President John Petraitis pointed out that the faculty had been asked to take a key role in preparing the University strategic plan. Chancellor Ulmer said she thought a reason he hadn't been on campus much was he believed in decentralization and staying out of campus business. (Some people wondered how that squared with how the Chancellor was chosen.) She also pointed out that since neither she nor Brian Rogers had been appointed through a major search process, he might not have thought such a search necessary.*
Petraitis also announced that Gamble would be at UAA at a public meeting on Wednesday, February 9. The exact time and place weren't certain - probably 4:30-5:30 in Library 307, but check. He said he'd suggested this to Gamble after the announcement and Gamble agreed. He said Gamble couldn't make today's meeting because he was out of state at a grandchild's baptism.
Action Taken
They passed a motion to send a memo supporting Provost Driscoll. There was major concern about the perceived snub of Provost Driscoll whom the faculty had supported in their Dec. 6 memo. The faculty still strongly supported him and were worried that he would seek a job elsewhere after the President ignored the faculty recommendations. I didn't get to see the actual motion so I won't try to characterize it more than that.
[UPDATE 12noon: Here's a copy of the motion:
Motion: A vote of confidence for Provost Michael Driscoll
We have confidence in the leadership of Provost Michael Driscoll because he has wisely and successfully provided academic and administrative guidance to the University of Alaska Anchorage. We commend him for many things, including the following:
Representing us and advocating for us to statewide administration, the Board of Regents, and the community of Anchorage
Supporting shared governance by soliciting faculty, staff, and student input and, then, being responsive to it in appropriate measure
Following academically authorized processes of curriculum development and approval; hiring of faculty and administrators; and promotion and tenure, giving faculty significant leaderships roles in those processes
For ensuring transparency in the Office of Academic Affairs
We thank you for service to our institution and hope it continues for many years.]
The faculty decided not to send a second motion to convey their outrage about the process and what that meant for the future, deciding that it would be better to do that in the face-to-face meeting next Wednesday.
Rogers' interim appointment also included faculty having a chance to meet two candidates and give their feedback to the President. I don't know if there was any participation in his permanent appointment.
[Update 5:30pm - see comments below which say that for both Ulmer and Rogers' appointments - interim and permanent - faculty were involved and supported the decisions.]
Observant regular readers might have noticed I'm using a new font for the posts. Blogspot now offers a lot more fonts for bloggers to play with. I tend to like a more informal font and people have complained that the old font was too small. Bloggers, you can find them on your dashboard at Design → Template Designer → Advanced.
I'll probably experiment with this to see if there's a better permanent font. One of the problems is that you seem to have to pick a font for all posts. I understand that gives the blog a level of consistency, but more flexibility would be nice. I could, for instance, leave the old posts in the old font and then use the new font into the future. You can't go back to the old posts to compare because they've all been changed. Or I could use a unique font occasionally if it were appropriate for a particular post. It's like buying a new car and the history of all your old cars has been changed too. Same with the colors. It seems to be all or nothing. (Though you can set different fonts and colors for different parts of the blog as you can see in the second column, left in image above - page text, background, links, etc.)
[UPDATE 4pm - If this font stuff interests you, be sure to read Dean's comment below before you start playing around.]
[UPDATE Feb. 4 pm - You're right Dean, CGinWI, Anon-lurker, and Kathy. It was starting to get to me as well and I've change it (cherry cream soda) back to Georgia, but I made it 13 instead of 12 because 12 seemed too small. I learned from all the font lessons you sent me that I should go with a more common one (that's available on more computers) and let the words, not the font, do the talking. I learned a lot and I would also recommend Anon-lurker's referenced site to the list too, which also gets into accessibility a bit, meaning for those who have more trouble seeing the words than most people do. And it had this to say about Georgia:
Georgia
Georgia is like the other web fonts discussed so far in that it is wider than similar fonts meant for print design. Unlike the other web fonts, though, Georgia is a serif font, more along the lines of Times New Roman.
Georgia is somewhat easier on the eyes than Times New Roman, although high resolution screens with font smoothing technology also display Times New Roman quite well. One advantage of using Georgia is that it is not the default text of the browser. It is easier for users to see that the designer has applied some style to the font when fonts other than the default font are specified. Georgia ends up looking slightly more artistic than Times New Roman, though CSSIt's time we take back Times New Roman on the Web - external link on mezzoblue.com.) styling can certainly breathe new life into Times New Roman too. (See, for example the article It's time we take back Times New Roman on the Web - external link on mezzoblue.com.)]
Tina Delgado Update
When I monitor sitemeter to see how people get here and where they go, I'm reminded of old posts. Sometimes I have to look it up to remember what it's even about. And sometimes I realize I need to do an update. Should I make a new post too to alert people of the update? Usually, probably not.
For instance, I continue to get people googling, "Tina Delgado is Alive, Alive." When I did a post on the LA radio soundscape of the past (Oct. 2009), I couldn't find an audio. But I decided to check again today and found a 90 sec YouTube piece that will allow people to hear that, back then ubiquitous, proclamation. Here's a link to the updated Tina Delgado post. It's at the end of the video/audio that you get the real deal.
From the Taipei Times (which has a beautiful calligraphy rabbit)
Emerging from the fierce Year of the Tiger, the Chinese lunar calendar now enters the Year of the Rabbit (or Year of the Hare), and the imagery is certainly of a more peaceable nature, although much of the trauma from the Tiger still continues to cause havoc across the globe. . .
HARE:
January 29, 1903 to February 15, 1904 (water)
February 14, 1915 to February 2, 1916 (wood)
February 2, 1927 to January 22, 1928 (fire)
February 19, 1939 to February 7, 1940 (earth)
February 1951 to January 26 1952 (metal)
January 25, 19673 to February 12, 1964 (water)
February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976 (wood)
January 29, 1987 to February 16, 1988 (fire)
February 16, 1999 to February 4, 2000 (earth)
Celebrities include: Michelangelo - Napoleon - Albert Einstein - Walt Whitman - Marie Curie
Hares (rabbits) are happiest when with friends and safely inside of social circles. They are often meek and withdrawn among groups of strangers. They seldom like to argue and enjoy quiet, peaceful lives. A Hare is cautious and will weigh the pros and cons from every angle before moving ahead.
A lover of good conversation, reading, and intellectual discussions, the hare is sincere and are often gifted healers, herbalists, and doctors. Traditionally associated with clear-sightedness, the Hare is an excellent judge of character and has a certain ability to recognize when others are lying. A Hare's home is typically a beautiful one, and they take great care and expend a lot of energy making it comfortable. You will find a lot of expensive and precious items in the home of a Hare personality.
The Chinese have many strange legends about the Hare, one of them is that they inhabit the moon, together with three-legged frogs. Another legend has it that the Hare possesses the secret recipe for the elixir of immortality.
The Chinese calendar - like the Hebrew - is a combined solar/lunar calendar in that it strives to have its years coincide with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar:
An ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months.
An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days.
When determining what a Chinese year looks like, one must make a number of astronomical calculations:
First, determine the dates for the new moons. Here, a new moon is the completely "black" moon (that is, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun), not the first visible crescent used in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is the first day of a new month.
Second, determine the dates when the sun’s longitude is a multiple of 30 degrees. (The sun’s longitude is 0 at Vernal Equinox, 90 at Summer Solstice, 180 at Autumnal Equinox, and 270 at Winter Solstice.) These dates are called the Principal Terms and are used to determine the number of each month:
Principal Term 1 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 330 degrees.
Principal Term 2 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 0 degrees.
Principal Term 3 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 30 degrees. (etc.)
Principal Term 11 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 270 degrees.
Principal Term 12 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 300 degrees.
Each month carries the number of the Principal Term that occurs in that month.
In rare cases, a month may contain two Principal Terms; in this case the months numbers may have to be shifted. Principal Term 11 (Winter Solstice) must always fall in the 11th month.
All the astronomical calculations are carried out for the meridian 120 degrees east of Greenwich. This roughly corresponds to the east coast of China.
Some variations in these rules are seen in various Chinese communities.
Last year I mentioned in a blog post from Juneau that someone could probably blog the legislature from Anchorage using BASIS, the Legislature's website, and Gavel to Gavel, and readers might not even know the blogger wasn't in Juneau. I'm not going to try to fool anybody about where I am (Anchorage) but I am checking now and then on what's happening in Juneau. And I'll remind you that this is happening and you can drop in anytime.
For example, today, right now as I type here, the House Labor and Commerce Committee is hearing from Bob Pickett, the chair of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (this used to be called the Alaska Public Utilities Commission.)
Pickett is giving an overview of the Commission, what they do, and answering questions from the committee members. You can get to it live right now here. (It's 4:17pm as I write, later you'll get reruns of sessions that were recorded today.)
