UD has said many times on these pages that corrupt, insane, and paranoid Chicago State University is America’s little North Korea on the Chicago Southside. Just as that country is an experiment in whether secretive ignorant madmen can run a state, CSU is an experiment in whether a similar grouping can run a university.
The two places have another characteristic in common – when you visit either location, there don’t seem to be many human beings about. I guess everyone’s in prison in North Korea, whereas in the case of CSU virtually no one applies or enrolls, which is another innovative aspect of that university: Can you run a public institution of higher education with no students?
UD has, in these pages, answered that question with a resounding yes: You can run a university without students. If the taxpayers of Illinois don’t mind continuing to fund the operation, you can simply have administrators fussing about with this and that – is the air conditioning system working? etc. – and the trustees can continue to hold their Top Secret meetings (which would not in reality be held – only alluded to in speeches from the latest Dear Leader).
[L]ast week [CSU’s] board of trustees approved a separation agreement with Thomas J. Calhoun Jr., who had been named president of the university just nine months earlier.
“But why was he asked to leave?” asked furious students and faculty at Friday’s board meeting.
To which they received a reply that was like an insult.
“Everyone agreed it’s in the best interests of Dr. Calhoun and the university,” said CSU Board Chair Anthony Young.
What does that even mean?
It was The Unanimous Will of the People. By Total Enthusiastic Acclamation the People Decided it was in The Best Interests of the State for Dr. Calhoun to go. Dr. Calhoun Accepts his Fate with Humble Trembling Gratitude and has Begged to enter a State Reeducation Farm so that he can Confess his Deviationism and Learn from the People How he can Better Serve the State.
September 21st, 2016 at 8:26AM
It could be that they discovered Calhoun did something embarrassing. On the other hand, this is Chicago. I will put my money on the likelihood that Calhoun was trying to dump some well-connected patronage employees in the administration.
September 21st, 2016 at 8:51AM
tp: Oh that, at the very least.
There is also always the possibility (remote to vanishing) that Calhoun was a good man stepping into a fiasco and trying in good faith to fix it. And that, of course, would guarantee his rapid removal from the premises.
September 21st, 2016 at 12:08PM
Yeah, it’s interesting, because I haven’t heard about Calhoun doing anything wrong.
September 21st, 2016 at 12:27PM
Interesting letter from Calhoun to the governor earlier this year:
http://capitolfax.com/2016/01/21/president-of-majority-black-university-responds-to-rauner-attacks/