JRB in the DE, good blogging material.

Here is a nice article about the JRB mess.

There are three quotes I really like

The BOT commissioned a review of the process, and Wendler was cleared of any wrong doing.

Nothing like having someone investigate themselves and coming away clean.

Then you have John Dunn still not getting it

Dunn called the amendment "fundamentally wrong."

Mainly, Dunn said the dilemma with the JRB is the lack of a defined description for procedural problems. There is no indication of what constitutes a misstep, he said, and no real separation of procedural problems and perceived prejudice.

"They will argue there is a procedural problem, and then they will argue that you don't like them," said Dunn, who has been a deciding force on the fate of several faculty members since 2002.

I guess that Dunn is just confused. He can easily break the rules because he doesn't like someone. So arguing for both "a procedural problem, and they will argue you don't like them," make perfect sense. I guess in Dunn's perfect world you can fire someone or screw them over on a big promotion, give no reasons and not follow the rules and at the end be confused about why your victim is upset.

I think most people who get fired feel management doesn't like them (couldn't be lack of results), this is where lawsuits come from. Someone told me that the administration is moving to give professors better feedback so when they get fired they aren't surprised. Clearly this is a reason to fire the chairmen (there were a number of posts here about this before I had any readers). Imaging getting good job reviews for 6 years and then getting fired without a real reason? This is what Dunn has been doing. Was he right to fire them? I don't know, but clearly the process is broken.

Can someone explain the next quote to me

Increasing diversity among faculty members on campus creates a blurred line in the review process, said the Rev. Joseph Brown, director of the Black American Studies department.

"I'm never free to know the difference between procedure and prejudice," Brown said.

Is this guy living in the same world as the rest of us? He is worried about prejudice based on skin color at SIU? Without the "Increasing diversity" part I would have to agree with "I'm never free to know the difference between procedure and prejudice," part seems right. Exactly what Dunn was complaining about. No one knows the difference between procedure and prejudice ever, to think you are going to know what is in people's souls isn't realistic.

It is more likely you would get screwed over because you flunk students who deserve flunking or some PE coach in the administration wouldn't like your research work he can't understand. Since diversity is a real hot button among the administrators looking for more money in Springfield, maybe he it worried about the white men being discriminated against?

Does anyone feel that US based professors are discriminating based on skin color against other professors? Has anyone even caught a whiff of this at SIU? Are the Indian and Asian born professors discriminating against blacks, hispanics, whites or each other? The only discrimination I have seen based on race is the hiring practices over in EE/CE where the chair will not hire anyone who is an American born man (true and easy) because they might challenge his position as king.

This uncertainly is one of the basis of work life, I guess the difference between Rev. Brown and your average white male American is he has been taught that he might well be discriminated against based on skin color. Always looking over your shoulder waiting to be screwed over based on skin color must be really hard. But that uncertainty the quote refers to is something that all of us experience, hopefully he doesn't feel alone. One of the nice things about being a white man is when you get screwed over at work, mostly you can figure it was because you didn't do well enough (work harder). Hopefully in our lifetimes everyone reguardless of skin color will feel they earn their results and not feel something is being taken away from them because of skin color.

Good for the Faculity Senate for taking on the JRB issue. Hopefully, there were be rules and people will not feel the administration is acting in a random way at job review time.