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Tuesday, June 21, 2005
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TEACHING TODAY A Regular University Diaries Feature CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN The Blackwell Hotel and Conference Center at Ohio State University is named after a just-retired business professor there, Roger Blackwell, who paid for it. Blackwell is a high-profile motivational speaker and author of - um - it says on his website he’s written 24 books. These are mainly about the psychology of the American consumer. Their thesis is that if you want to make money you’ve got to kiss Madame Consumer’s ass. Psychology comes into the picture because you can’t debase yourself before her fully until you know what she wants. In one of those perennial life ironies, this expert on the psychology of desire failed to grasp the rudimentary truth that if you dump your wife for another woman your wife may desire revenge. Professor Blackwell has retired from the university, and will soon go to prison, because his ex-wife described to a packed Ohio courtroom how Blackwell engaged in insider trading and obstruction of justice. Yesterday he was convicted. A local Ohio blog sketches a complex marital history. “Rumor … had it back in the late 80's he dumped his then critically ill wife …for this floozie of a now-ex wife Tina. After having had many affairs with many students,” writes one commenter. Tina’s the one who did him in. “I… believe his ex-wife is the culprit. I was in his last class he taught right before the trial (he walked out in tears to a standing ovation),” writes a pro-Blackwell observer. There are a number of university-related questions - we’ve seen them before on University Diaries - that range around cases like that of Roger Blackwell: Should indicted felons be kept on university faculties while their case goes forward? “He should have been fired. It is a slur on OSU's reputation to have an indicted felon teaching - let alone teaching in the field in which he's under indictment,” says a commenter on the blog. Another agrees: “Allowing him to continue teaching after indictment was a mistake.” Should universities acknowledge the futility of attempting to keep track of the number of hours of outside work that faculty do? “He makes millions of dollars per year yet he only makes something like $150,000 from OSU. In other words, he is in violation of state law governing the number of hours that he is allowed to consult,” charges one commenter. But of course it’s virtually impossible to know if he’s in violation - if any professor is in violation. Should buildings named for donors now in prison for bigtime crimes be renamed? On his website, Blackwell shares his life wisdom with the business community: "Recruit values not skills...you can teach skills." “Remember, it is your attitude, more than your aptitude, that determines your altitude.” And (a favorite among the motivationals): “Life is about the journey, not the destination.” Blackwell’s journey has brought him, as people in the ed biz like to say, from Penn State to the state pen. His altitude at this point is so low that I think we can safely say he’s crashed. Should his name still be flying high on The Blackwell? ------------------------ UPDATE: The proprietor of the blog titled Red-State.com comments that “the university could decide to keep the Blackwell name on the hotel, only switch the honoree to another Blackwell...say, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell? The idea is not as ludicrous as it sounds. After all, OSU's chemistry laboratory is named for former governor Richard Celeste.” UD would like to suggest switching the honoree to Elizabeth Blackwell , the first woman to graduate from medical school in America. Before she became a doctor, “Blackwell, her two older sisters Anna and Marian, and their mother opened a private school in Cincinnati to support the family.” |