… Glenn Poshard (scroll down here for UD‘s posts about one of the few old-time political hacks running an American university). Before Hungary’s president showed that you can plagiarize your thesis and not have plagiarized your thesis (scroll down), Poshard was already there, doing the same thing and holding on – to this day – to his position as president of Southern Illinois University.
But just as No-Quit Schmitt is under strong pressure to leave his post, so Poshard finds himself under threat. The governor’s office and some high-ranking SIU trustees are trying like hell to get him out (faculty are leaving; fewer and fewer students are applying; Poshard and his cronies are fatally tied to the Blagojevich regime), to the point where Poshard has actually had to try to talk. Which never works out well. “My leadership has been one of a positive nature on this university.” That’s your president speaking, kiddies.
Poshard’s problem is that the current government of the state of Illinois is very embarrassed and seems to be on an anti-corruption kick.
March 31st, 2012 at 8:36AM
FYI, the Wikipedia entry on Poshard has been changed to omit discussion of the plagiarism charges.
March 31st, 2012 at 10:08AM
Thanks, Bill. I thought that might happen. I’ll link to some other stories.
April 1st, 2012 at 2:47AM
You have absolutely no idea what you are even talking about here. Our enrollment numbers are rising and our university has resisted the sad adjunctification trend even at the height of recession. In 2009, 55 new tenure-track faculty members were hired. The same happened the year before and the year after.
It is completely untrue that faculty members are leaving. We are hiring new faculty members who recently graduated from the most prestigious schools in the country because nobody else is attempting to hire massively for TT positions right now. I’m one of these faculty members and the working conditions that the university has offered to me are nothing short of amazing.
Poshard is no scholar, that’s true. But he’s a shrewd politician who has kept as afloat during very tough times and have scored a number of important political victories for us. Politicians in this country are dirty at every single level. And a public university has no choice but to play at that level. What would you have us do? Close down?
I’m a TT faculty member at this university and I can tell you that it’s an amazing place with a fantastic future. Before coming here, I worked at two Ivies and at a Canadian equivalent of an Ivy. Compared to us, those famous schools were cesspools of nastiness, corruption, and exploitation of junior faculty members.
But I guess you only dump on public universities. The vile things happening at rich and famous schools do not bother you.
I used to like your blog a lot but now I’m just disappointed. If you write about things without even trying to do a tiniest bit of research, then how can anybody trust a single post of yours?
April 1st, 2012 at 10:54AM
Hi Clarissa: Here are some of my sources:
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/education/article_e08d20e2-0f8a-11df-b07a-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.kfvs12.com/story/17271545/siu-controversy-between-president-and-board-of-trustee-members
http://www.wsiltv.com/news/local/Tension-between-Leaders-at-SIU-144302285.html
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/high-school/boys-basketball/apathy-becomes-big-concern-at-siuc/article_316abb95-dc26-5297-9c8f-5554c571cd9e.html
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/12/siu