… and his Mississippi PhD.
Nicki Harrington, who will step down in June as chancellor of the Yuba Community College District [in California], named Al Alt interim chancellor until her successor’s term begins…
Greg Kemble, secretary for the academic senate, said Alt’s doctorate from a Mississippi-based business described as a diploma mill is part of the reason he questions Alt’s appointment.
“As human resources director, his expertise should be to identify diploma mills — such as the one where he got his Ph.D.,” Kemble said…
****************************
Update: UD thanks Crimson05er for correcting her statement that the Yuba Community College District was also in Mississippi.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:18PM
Mother of pearl. It’s enough to make your head explode. Phil Ochs had that place pegged: http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/ochs-phil/heres-to-the-state-of-mississippi-11445.html
I’m working on a new verse.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:24PM
Wow. Helluva set of lyrics, The Other Professor. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
February 15th, 2011 at 12:11AM
Sadly, I was over-ambitious, and even after I resorted to limerick never got much beyond Alt and fault, Al and pal. But I’m still choking on the $250K they’re gonna pay this guy– “you pay what you need to get the right candidate”???? How much would someone with a real degree (and sans the history of no confidence votes) cost?
February 15th, 2011 at 8:20AM
Well, TOP, the real deal could probably be brought in south of $250K. On the other hand, you could not expect such brass balls and staggering hypocrisy at such a trifling figure.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:13PM
Great song. Always provokes a reaction when I hear — by the time you’re at the fourth stanza you want to punch a map of Mississippi. Phil Ochs could pair biting lyrics and catchy guitar strum in a way that made most of his songs stick in the head, no matter how bleak the message. (See a “A Close Circle of Friends.”)
Unless I’m mistaken, Professor UD, this story isn’t really about Mississippi, though, or am I misreading? The Yuba Community College District is in California, no? (Though it sounds like it belongs along the Delta with Yazoo City.) Alt simply bought his degree Down South but put the phony credentials to use on the West Coast.
Doesn’t excuse the Magnolia State, of course — they still house the phony diploma mill and sundry fake colleges like it. Just want to make sure the educational culture of both MS and CA deserve chastisement.
February 15th, 2011 at 11:11PM
Thanks for the correction, Crimson 05er – I’ll fix the post.
February 15th, 2011 at 11:28PM
‘welcome. Speedy response indeed! Talk about a blog that listens to its readers in real time.
I say shame both states, as you’ve done.
Makes me despair to be pursuing a “real” Ph.D. when apparently the pickings are so easy for mail-order doctorates.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:52PM
(The author who has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture and the way senior management work.)
Recently: Chancellor Birgeneau pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures; NCAA places Chancellor Birgeneau’s Cal. men’s basketball program on probation
Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau’s ($500,000 salary) eight-year fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar he has asked for, and the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means.
A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies and then crafting a plan to fix them. Competent oversight by the UC Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him to provide data on inefficiencies and on what steps he was taking to solve them. Instead, every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, and the problems just piled up to $150 million of inefficiencies….until there was no money left.
It’s not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste and inefficiencies. Faculty and staff raised issues with Birgeneau and Provost Breslauer, but when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau engaged some expensive ($3,000,000) consultants to tell him what he should have known as a leader or been able to find out from the bright, engaged Cal. people. (A prominent East Coast university was accomplishing the same thing without expensive consultants)
In short, there is plenty of blame to go around. Merely cutting out inefficiencies will not have the effect desired.
But you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Increasing the budget is not enough; transforming Cal. senior management is necessary