July 03, 2008
FSP talks about the ways in which scientists are - and are not - like rock stars. I've thought about this before, but more in terms of the similarities in being on stage and being public personalities. When I first...
July 01, 2008
Like we didn't know this already, but now it's confirmed: Mr. Garrison testified that although he stepped down from his post, he did not resign, a distinction apparently designed to give him the option of remaining at the university for...
June 27, 2008
Earlier this week Charles Vest, President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was named to the BOG. The new member announced today is a former WVU and Houston Oilers' QB, Oliver Luck. He's currently President/General Manager of the Houston...
June 22, 2008
While less religious than the general public, academics are still mostly religious. I'm not so sure about this though (emphasis mine): It also reinforces my argument that academics' unfavorable views of Evangelical Christians and Mormons are mostly due to hostility...
June 08, 2008
She read about it in the local paper in Florida yesterday. I explained the broad outline and her response was: "Well, it's a shame when one person can horse-ass up the reputation of the entire place." Indeed it is, mom,...
June 06, 2008
At the Board of Governors meeting this morning, President Garrison announced he would stay in his position through September 1. Now It's time to clean up the mess, and move forward to rehabilitate WVU's reputation....
His resignation will take effect on Sept. 1....
June 05, 2008
The other day I was talking to a neighbor about the Garrison/Bresch scandal, and I said that this whole thing made me feel like we were having the George Bush/he's either corrupt or incompetent discussion all over again. Turns out...
May 22, 2008
People always move on from college towns. And in my years here, several of my close friends, some of whom were otherwise very happy with life in Morgantown, have left because of their dissatisfaction with the management of the university...
May 07, 2008
A bold move, no? Love this picture. Accompanying story here....
May 05, 2008
Some of these are repeating from comments, but these are the relevant stories covering the WVU Faculty Senate vote that recommended that WVU President Garrison resign: The basic news blurb from our local AM talk radio station. Commentary from one...
Or thereabouts. Either he writes quickly or he had this prepared before the faculty vote. Since my appointment as President of WVU, I have worked with hundreds of students, faculty members, and staff who have stepped forward to address the...
"The WVU Faculty Senate has voted to call on WVU President Mike Garrison to resign "for the good of the institution" as a result of the Heather Bresch scandal. The motion passed 77 to 19 with one abstention during a...
May 04, 2008
Having to write a scathing review on a beautiful Spring day, because someone actually thinks that crappy manuscript X, which would be lucky to get a B- in a grad seminar here, should be published by what's arguably the top...
May 02, 2008
Now picked up in the Economist. HT...
April 29, 2008
A proposed new slogan for West Virginia University I just overheard in the coffee shop....
April 27, 2008
Provost Lang has submitted his resignation in response to the report on the Bresch scandal. Interesting wording ("privilege" twice in the first paragraph) and replay (all he's done for WVU). Doesn't sound very penitent. I wonder if this will be...
April 26, 2008
This fine alum posts on the intemperance of "radical" professors (emphasis mine): As I read the host of negative comments toward President Garrison I was reminded why, as West Virginians we are constantly defending our position in society. Some West...
April 25, 2008
The report investigating the controversial awarding of an advanced degree to Gov. Manchin's (D-WV) daughter is out - and it is scathing. The response so far? Well, among other things the usual critics of President Garrison are promising to propose...
April 22, 2008
The august university I work at has named a new (and inaugural) "Director of Sustainability" who will be responsible for efforts to reduce usage of natural resources and general efforts towards conservation. The gentlemen taking the position had previously served...
April 05, 2008
Warning, whiny rant ahead. This time of year is the hardest to be involved in academics, whether on the consumer or provider side of things. The earth is burgeoning, bursting with color, the weather is warming, the days are getting...
February 28, 2008
"I'm trying to figure out what part of this Univesity isn't run by idiots."...
February 27, 2008
... which my friends somewhat affectionately titled "Shit Slides Down." From social science to art to biology. Pretty neat....
February 14, 2008
It was a horrible day at Northern Illinois. And it brings to mind something that annoys me no end about West Virginia University. WVU is currently spending who knows how much money on a building spree, building new buildings and...
December 30, 2007
How odd. I was reading through the new issue of International Studies Quarterly (a big deal in poli sci and IR circles as it's the lead journal of the International Studies Association) and came across an article with this provocative...
December 10, 2007
This is from a nice post taking down the "I didn't get hired because I'm a Repubican" whine/OpEd that people are talking about today, but I like this description: Anyone who's spent any time in academia knows the grim reality:...
December 07, 2007
Sorry for the light posting; I'm very busy. Should get easier if I can find a good set of stairs....
December 02, 2007
With "when I was working on my PhD," and "summer camp/athletic" with "high school/girlie" and Jay could be writing about my experience: [T]here were years of my life when I would have agreed with Valen about the menace of being...
November 26, 2007
The lizard gets it, but the gays don't: The pets of Palm Beach Community College employees will qualify for discounted group medical insurance beginning in January, but domestic partners are still barred from receiving similar benefits. And guess what? It...
November 15, 2007
There are a couple of excellent discussions happening in the IR-o-sphere, one regarding graduate degrees and the other about Dani Rodrik's new book [Warning, NSFNG]. First, a discussion going between the Duck of Minerva and Lawyers Guns and Money, with...
October 15, 2007
If you want to learn about one of the most prominent political scientists there is, I give you this profile which compares Bruce Bueno de Mesquita to Nostradamus (seemingly in a positive way)....
October 14, 2007
These desks are supposedly messy. None come even close to the masterpiece that was the desk of Bill Keefe. If he sat in his chair, you could not see him behind the piles of articles. And they were not stacked...
October 09, 2007
LesboProf has started a list of annoying academics: The Parent, The Cynic, The Slug... Check out the whole list....
September 17, 2007
So the hiring committee for our new law school dean was announced last week. It features one law student. The committee that hired our new university president earlier this year included two students. I'm just throwing this out there and...
August 28, 2007
So let's see, if professors, for the most part, don't like online classes, and students don't like online classes, why on earth are they becoming more and more prevalent? Gee, I wonder......
August 19, 2007
Another summer down. Back to school tomorrow. Less than twelve hours to go, and I'm still hunting for some motivation or something....
August 17, 2007
Important survival tips: The tool to ponytail ration is astounding!...
August 07, 2007
What sorts of fears and assumptions does this little headline tap into, eh? Woman's body found in NYU prof's bedroom Scary faculty, preying on America's youth, right? And then... Police found the decomposing body of a 20-year-old woman inside the...
July 12, 2007
Last weekend the blog was silent because I was off in Portland (Oregon) at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology. It was the first time I'd attended that conference, despite the fact that normally it's held...
June 16, 2007
...but the conclusion reminds of my doctoral leg process seminar....
June 14, 2007
Did any of the rest of you know that there's a guy in B&E who writes on political economy issues dealing with pirates?...
June 13, 2007
The alma mater of our dear friend Jane is shutting down....
June 10, 2007
Via Pharyngula, we get some initial results of the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is done every few years (two? four? I don't remember), and is an attempt to study the general characteristics of the population of the...
May 18, 2007
In the last couple of months, I have filled out two online surveys of regular blog readers, both part of dissertation projects by political science graduate students at the same university, and both referred by Bitch, PhD. This is a...
May 16, 2007
And please join us in a very enthusiastic round of applause for Armand, who has just received promotion and tenure!...
In the mail today arrived the health newsletter sent to all those on the state insurance plan. Generally it is full of useless tidbits and bland advice about various healthy living items. Presumably, the prevention advice will save the subscribers...
April 30, 2007
So I was looking over the list of the top graduates in each of the 24 programs in the Eberly College (that's the Arts & Sceinces college at our university) and while you can't always tell from first names it...
April 19, 2007
As I've been ill this week I've been slow to start grading the term papers I collected on Tuesday. But one of the first ones I've graded was great. It was great in terms of substance - but I was...
April 16, 2007
Our thoughts are with our neighbors to the south tonight and in the days to come as they mourn their loved ones and try to put their own lives back together....
April 08, 2007
And he's a retired Marine too: "On 1 March 07, I was scheduled to fly on American Airlines to Newark, NJ, to attend an academic conference at Princeton University, designed to focus on my latest scholarly book, Constitutional Democracy, published...
March 31, 2007
Is it wrong that these things matter? Probably. Do they matter? Yes....
March 27, 2007
Not getting into the content of the crazy meltdown because plenty of other people are on it (here, here, here, and here, among others). There is one thing that interests me though... what is Althouse doing with her eyes? Is...
March 12, 2007
Are there any readings (anything from Cambridge books to blog posts) that you'd definitely assign? Are there any particularly revealing cases that you would work off of?...
March 07, 2007
Aspazia has a little something to warm the cockles of your midterm-grading heart....
February 23, 2007
From the Chronicle: My tenure story is the all-too-familiar tale of the assistant professor hired to start a new program. That program becomes wildly successful, beyond anyone's predictions. Someone has to administer the needs of the program, so the new...
February 11, 2007
At one level I knew what I was getting into coming to a university that had virtually no collection in my subfield. On the other, I have never ceased to be astounded at how many ridiculous obstacles to research it...
February 09, 2007
...I'm looking forward to reading Harry Potter and International Relations. And while you're over there, you should check out the post after that book review, on why it is so difficult to debate the war in Iraq....
January 30, 2007
I could have used some professor magic today: DESTROY CELL PHONES. Fries circuitry in all cell phones within a 10 ft. radius. Professor must perform a DC 16 Electronics check if his or her own phone is in spell range....
January 29, 2007
Busy today, even to assemble a proper link dump. So I'm going to steal from LGM, and encourage you to read Mad Melancholic Feminista on the strict/nurturing dichotomy experienced by young female faculty: When younger female facutly aren't getting challenged...
November 27, 2006
...when he says "I'm sure there are college students for whom Iraq is very real." He mentions that war was real when he was a student at IUP, but notes that students at Bryn Mawr and Weslyan (CT) do not...
November 16, 2006
Just yesterday there was a news story about how a camera phone recording of abuse inside Malaysian jails sparked an outcry. Today it's abuse inside the UCLA library. The Crooks and Liars video is shocking. The campus police repeatedly shocked...
November 08, 2006
In Iowa's second district long-time International Relations committee member Jim Leach (R) was defeated by an international relations professor....
October 24, 2006
Well, this is about law, but close enough to The Academy...the Goldilocks problem: "Women attorneys are criticized for being too little of this or too much of that; not confident enough or too confident; not aggressive enough or too aggressive;...
October 20, 2006
Obviously written by one who knows the pit of despair. the purgatorio of the dissertation, a phase of human devolution about which I have absolutely nothing positive or inspiring to offer. For much of the 3.5 years I spent working...
October 02, 2006
And/or chattering magpies. They are at it again, and I am trying to drown them out with Girl Talk. It's not working. I can still hear the hee hawing....
September 20, 2006
It contributes to bias in the field. HT Crooked Timber and Lawyers, Guns and Money....
Larry Summers, when asked for a comment about the study discussed in this article. For 30 years, the report says, women have earned at least 30 percent of the nation's doctorates in social and behavioral sciences, and at least 20...
September 13, 2006
I strongly agree. And don't take sad, reactionary Samuel Huntington seriously either....
August 27, 2006
Either way, Profgrrrrl explains why nothing ever happens in academia....
August 25, 2006
They must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel, asking Latin Americanists to participate in the project. I found the questions about who is an influential scholar - discipline wide and for your own research - to be especially...
August 22, 2006
And WVU comes in at number 3! You just know President Hardesty is thrilled. Oh, and Texas is number 1. Hmmm - do you think there's some sort of Elizabeth E effect going on here?...
August 18, 2006
From our fine institution's campus drug and alcohol policy, sent to everyone via the campus email system: Federal Drug Trafficking Laws Federal law penalizes the manufacture, distribution, possession with intent to manufacture drugs (“controlled substances”). 21 U.S.C. § 841(a). Listed...
July 26, 2006
The Chronicle of Higher education, in a response to the decision not to hire Juan Cole at Yale, has a series of articles (look in the right sidebar) about blogging and its impact on academic careers. Michael Berube has a...
July 20, 2006
Can you remember why? It makes me sad to think how little those motives will be acknowledged if they go on to graduate school. They will probably go for the wrong reasons: to continue their experience as undergraduates. They are...
A few days ago, I posted about Ugly Gender Politics in Academia, and the case of some MIT faculty using the alleged behavior of a senior scholar during the hiring process to publicly air their intradepartmental dirty laundry. Normal academic...
July 15, 2006
From Steve Gilliard, a story about intra-departmental machinations by a senior scholar to derail the hiring of an up-and-comer. Eleven MIT professors have accused a powerful colleague, a Nobel laureate, of interfering with the university's efforts to hire a rising...