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Monday, January 10, 2005
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WEB PAGES OF THE DAMNED
Yale is handling the forced resignation of disgraced faculty member Florencio López-de-Silanes in an intelligent and classy way. (Among other no-no's, the faculty member, whose specialty was corporate governance, double billed the university for expenses over a rather long period of time.) The university is keeping his webpage up for now, but has added a note to it - '(resigned, effective June 30, 2005; currently on leave of absence, Spring 2005) ' - and has also, of course, issued a terse but informative announcement explaining the reason for his departure. This approach makes more sense to UD than the other things universities do with the webpages of the administrative and faculty damned -- the thieves, plagiarists, fake degree holders, spouse slayers, and child porn downloaders at our universities, whose downfall must in some way be managed. Some universities just keep these webpages up, trumpeting the marvelous accomplishments of a colleague who now molders in jail. Others, in an Orwellian, "nothing to see here" sort of move, take the pages of the damned down right away, which to UD looks creepy. Far better to follow Yale's lead: Acknowledge for a decent period of time the person's association with the university, and also note that this association is about to come to an end. |