What’s next for Evan Dobelle? He has spent his way through the University of Hawaii, and through obscure and now much-impoverished Westfield State. Like Patricia Slade at Texas Southern University and Peter Diamandopoulos at Adelphi University, Dobelle arrives at obscure schools with his chest thrust out and starts talking about his important connections and how unless your school gives the president wads of cash for luxury goods no one will respect you.
Dobelle spent more on [a] 2008 Asia trip alone than the $92,000 that Governor Deval Patrick spent to take two dozen officials on a trade mission to Britain and Israel in 2011. But Dobelle said the only unusually expensive item was the luxury hotel bill in Bangkok, and there was a reason for it: The consultant who helped plan the trip said that Thai officials wouldn’t take Westfield State seriously if they didn’t put on a good show.
“She would say, ‘Who the f— will come and listen to Westfield State when they only have time for Cornell? You better set yourself up in a way to show a certain degree of prominence and respect to them,” recalled Dobelle. “So fine, that’s what we did.”
Verbatim out of the Slade/Diamandopoulos book of you gotta spend money on me to make money. They all peddled this line, as did way-high-living American University president Benjamin Ladner.
Todd Wallack, Lesley Cohen Berlowitz’s nemesis at the Boston Globe, contributed to its detailed account of Dobelle’s doings. Wallack seems to be making a specialty of swinish academic administrators. He’ll always be able to find work. Just in the eastern seaboard area.
August 19th, 2013 at 11:43AM
Again, where the hell is the alumni, the student body? Did attending your university entail no more than several years of sitting on your thumb, or thumbs, if you’re somewhat gifted? No critical thinking, no proverbial fire in the belly, nothing, in order to condemn what the hell is taking place at your school? State unis have grifted their student bodies, and instead of rage, it’s nothing more than sanguine complacency. Your “education” served no purpose if it isn’t capable of recognizing frauds and cons that make up much of university administration.
And what of the general population of these states? You guys are on the hook for the massive and useless buildout of these institutions. Again, nothing. James Garfield was correct, what he said of Congress is applicable to our universities, to wit, “Now, more than ever, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress/universities. If those bodies be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.” What was true in July of 1877, is certainly true today. And with the case of Westfield State, they don’t have a football team of any note to distract them from the administrative bullshit….
August 19th, 2013 at 11:52AM
And further, where the fuck is the Faculty Senate? Where are those god damn tenured satraps, who seem to do nothing more than to fret of what will become of their pensions, their research dollars, their benefits? How many FS’s have stood up and demanded accountability of their administrations? I had a neighbor who was on the CAL FS back in the 60’s, when I was a kid. My parents told me later that the body was instrumental in supporting the Free Speech movement at the school, and condemning the depravity and lies of the Vietnam War. It was their job to be the conscious of the nation, the best and brightest, who were given their tenure in order to speak truth to power, not just get a paycheck for the rest of their fucking lives. If the FS at U of Oregon is any example of the degradation of that institution, with their prostration to Phil Knight’s Nike money, and the attempt to privatize a public institution, then these jackasses should get their pensions taken away, as well as tenure. If you cannot do what is expected of you, then why bother….
August 19th, 2013 at 7:11PM
The document http://www.westfield.ma.edu/uploads/visitorsguide.pdf is illuminating. Westfield has nearly 6000 students, over half of whom are commuters. Looking at the lists of the standing faculty under the various majors, their claimed 18:1 student:faculty ratio is impossible, so it means that they employ a lot of adjuncts. Thus you don’t have a majority of the students and faculty having a strong interest in the campus as a community. Most of the humanities and social departments serve mainly to provide a second, or “content”, major as required by the state of students who are actually majoring in education. Often, this is chosen not out of interest but out of how its course offerings can be conveniently scheduled among their required education classes. This profile fits a lot of institutions, sadly.
August 20th, 2013 at 9:46AM
Polish Peter, thanks so much for the link, and you analysis is illuminating. It seems that many universities have copied the business model of those home improvement crooks, the guys who prey on older, poor African American women, who own homes with a lot of equity. Those women are conned into taking out loans for repairs, made to sigh bogus documents, don’t get the repairs and are forced to pay loans many times higher than what they were told.
Same thing with college, students are told they’ll get an education, sign up for loans without knowing what they’re signing, get little education while forced to pay far higher balances than what they’re initially told.
October 5th, 2013 at 9:28PM
Charlie asks: “Where is the faculty senate?” Answer: nowhere, because there’s no faculty senate at Westfield. The faculty-led part of the governance structure has no power in matters like l’affaire Dobelle, which are the domain of the board of trustees. Polish Peter’s claim about the standing of Westfield’s humanities and social [science] departments’ status vis-a-vis the Education Department is simply false.