This human type can be played for tragedy (Lear) or comedy (Homer Simpson). It’s either horrific or hilarious to watch him destroy himself and others through stupidity and arrogance.
Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, is one of these, very much in the comic mode with his Babbitty emails about the revolutionary for-profit approach he’s bringing to the school.
Along with Babbitt, the fictional prototype for Jacobs is Charles Bovary, Emma’s dullard husband, who, convinced he’s found a new way to fix a club foot, ends up crippling a patient for life.
Faculty and students have mobilized quite impressively against Lloyd, and have so far managed to keep him from realizing his dreams. Here’s their latest blocking action.
Still. The man is president. “I will do such things…”
March 4th, 2009 at 3:50PM
Margaret,
This is lame, but the best I could come up with.
Our president the surgeon asserted
That old fashioned classes averted
students from thought
while webcasts did not,
“So let’s sell our name,” he blurted.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:35PM
We already have a deal with a company like this, UD. We re-market the courses, but not a single Gilligan faculty member has anything to do with them. No one knows who the instructors are, where they live, or how the courses are evaluated.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:40PM
Not lame, John. I like!