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“That the interim leader is Zeithaml, whose speciality is in the field of ‘strategic management’ speaks volumes about the direction the board wants the school to go.”

An education columnist at the Washington Post pinpoints the exact location where Rector Dragas has dragged U Va’s sorry ass.

With its new managerial elite, and its expensive public relations firm for managing the crisis its own trustees have brought upon it, U Va is now digging a yet deeper grave. Why?

Because professors really don’t like being condescended to and massaged into compliance with benevolent managerial states. They know it when this pacifying technique is being used on them, and it makes them mad.

A school like Virginia has gone out of its way to hire many professors who are independent thinkers and who are committed to seeing the world clearly. These are not the sort of people who watch Goldman Sachs pr spots and say Wow. I thought Goldman Sachs was a vampire squid but it turns out it’s all about teaching inner city kids! They’re not the sort of people who watch BP pr spots and say Hey, could have fooled me. I thought BP was an oil company whose arrant disregard destroyed lives and landscapes. Turns out it’s an environmentalist outfit! They’re not the sort of people who say This Hill and Knowlton video of Helen Dragas wiping away a tear and talking about her anguish really puts the whole president-dumping thing in perspective for me.

The more of that shit Virginia does (and they don’t know to do anything else), the madder the university community is going to get.

Margaret Soltan, June 19, 2012 1:48PM
Posted in: trustees trashing the place

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2 Responses to ““That the interim leader is Zeithaml, whose speciality is in the field of ‘strategic management’ speaks volumes about the direction the board wants the school to go.””

  1. Meanwhile, Higher Up the Food Chain | Professor Mondo Says:

    […] at the lunch table today, following as it does on the heels of a dustup at Texas. As usual, Margaret Soltan has been on the case, linking us to a WaPo article that contains this delightful sentence: Leaders […]

  2. University Diaries » “The group of protesters was greeted by Lawrence Biondi, S.J., president of SLU, who offered to take their drink orders.” Says:

    […] UD does not think this approach will work very well. Remember the University of Virginia. […]

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