Alberto Gonzales, thoroughly disgraced Attorney General, will get $100,000 for teaching one course at Texas Tech.
No one who reads this blog will be surprised that, having exhausted efforts to find a higher paying job, a once-well-known person rigs a do-nothing deal at a university for a pretty fair sum. Even Michael Jackson’s doctors will eventually be taken up by some university to teach Medicine in the Age of Celebrity. Compared to the crumb bums who land on campuses after no one else will employ them, Gonzales is a saint.
Still, people outside Texas Tech are pretty outraged. There’s this guy, and there’s this guy, both of whom recount the new political science professor’s many outrageous misdeeds as Bush’s lackey at Justice.
Both writers also make much of Texas Tech having not long ago hired the psychotic Bobby Knight late in his psychotic career.
First guy: “The disgraced former official finally landed a job outside of government—he resigned in 2007 — and now (for one year anyway) will teach political science – ‘contemporary issues in the executive branch’ – at a school most recently known for hosting basketball coach Bobby Knight.”
Second guy: “Chancellor Hance’s unilateral hire constitutes academic welfare for a government wash-out. It is even more brazen than Texas Tech’s decision, in 2001, to sign Bobby Knight as its basketball coach, six months after he was fired from Indiana University for ‘uncivil, defiant, and unacceptable behavior.’ Before his invitation to lead the Red Raiders, Knight had repeatedly abused players, fans, and furniture, but, unlike Gonzales, the temperamental coach did not do violence to the authority and impartiality of American jurisprudence.”
See how sports decisions can play into your university’s academic reputation? The point both guys are making about Texas Tech as a university is clear: The place is clueless, cynical, and desperate enough to do just about anything.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:46AM
Ex-AG Alberto Gonzalez
Lucky in life overall is.
For one course at T. Tech
And 100 K, heck,
I’d give up my right and left ballez.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:50AM
Hmmm…$100K to teach one course.
I wonder…
How much does any other adjunct get paid to teach one course at Texas Tech?
Sweet deals like this make you really consider how much schools lie about not being able to afford to pay adjuncts a living wage…or even, you know, hire more TT (or even 3-year contract) faculty.
For 100K they could hire 2-3 faculty members to teach 4 courses each.
One in lieu of 12. And that same $100K probably pays for at least 50 courses taught by adjuncts. Now there’s some new math!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:57AM
Holy crap!
I missed this on the 1st read!
From the Kellman article (2nd link):
"The fact that he has only a B.A. in the subject must be weighed against his success in politicizing the Justice Department more thoroughly than any other attorney general in American history."
WTF?!?!?!?!
What’s with all these institutions of higher education hiring people with just a bachelor’s degree for well-paid teaching positions?!??!!
July 10th, 2009 at 12:13PM
It’s always telling, I think, when the department’s faculty are too frightened to comment, one way or the other, to the local paper:
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/071009/loc_461701609.shtml
This looks like a top-down job, in which the Chancellor (a political hack who knows Gonzales) went to the Interim (!) Dean (no pressure there), who went to the Department Chair, who did what he was told to do. Indeed, the Chair himself does not exactly wax enthusiastic about the hire:
"As for whether the hire would negatively reflect on the department or Tech: ‘Time will tell,’ Marshall said."
Things we now know about Texas Tech:
1. It is in Texas.
2. It overpaid for the last few, undistinguished years of the career of an obnoxious basketball coach.
3. It is willing to fork over $100K to a disgraced former cabinet member after he was, presumably, turned down by every superior Poli Sci department and Law School in the Lone Star State.
Oh, and Tech is apparently so proud of their new hire that they can’t even be bothered to include it on their news page (http://today.ttu.edu/category/stories/feed/), bumping it in favor of these more profound offerings:
"AMSA Honors Two Red Raiders During Annual Reciprocal Meat Conference", and
"Texas Tech Librarian Proves Existence of Spider-Man"
July 10th, 2009 at 1:39PM
He’s got a Harvard J.D. and a bachelor’s degree from Rice, I believe.
Provosts – good ones and bad ones – have had less…
I don’t think his qualifications are the problem here.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:02PM
Given Hance’s background as a Congressman who was strong for Reagan, I suspect TAFKAU is about right, if a bit pejorative. Both parties take care of their turkeys, as long as they don’t fly off on their own.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:17PM
The best comment I’ve seen on this yet…
Please tell me there’s at least one Texas Tech political science student with the guts to answer "I do not recall" to every test question. Maybe even "I do not recall remembering."
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/07/big_man_on_campus.php
July 10th, 2009 at 4:53PM
Cynthia McKinney is looking for work as well.
If Gonzalez had a (D) after his name I doubt he would have mucho trouble getting a JAY OH BEE.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:48PM
"Please tell me there’s at least one Texas Tech political science student with the guts to answer "I do not recall" to every test question. Maybe even "I do not recall remembering.""
Please tell me there is a student taking English wanting to know the definition of "is".
All this tells you is the the TT Law School is full of left-wing hacks as opposed to a mixed bag of hacks.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:56PM
All this tells you is the the TT Law School is full of left-wing hacks as opposed to a mixed bag of hacks.
Um, no. It does say that the TT Law School understands that Gonzalez tried to rape the Constitution in service to his master.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:03PM
"Um, no. It does say that the TT Law School understands that Gonzalez tried to rape the Constitution in service to his master."
Um, yes. You got a controlling legal authority for your opinion? I do believe those guilty of rape of that sort (or pretty much any sort) would actually be in jail, not teaching classes, even at TT.
Service to his master, indeed. Project much?
July 15th, 2009 at 1:30AM
Mr. Gonzales will lecture at Tech on his area of expertise, Fluid Mechanics of Waterboarding.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/professor-gonzales/
October 30th, 2009 at 5:40PM
[…] campus does have … […]
September 1st, 2012 at 7:13AM
[…] Oh wait, that’s about TTU coach Tommy Tuberville’s multiple fraud schemes…. Here. Here. Here. That last one explains why the local culture demands sadistic […]