According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, some faculty members at the New School are considering drastic measures against president Bob Kerrey over a series of provost appointments that they feel has left the institution without a sense of consistency or a chance to grow. They’re meeting this afternoon to discuss the abrupt departure this week of current provost Joseph Westphal to work on the Obama transition team for the Department of Defense. Westphal, a former congressman and chancellor of the University of Maine, only served three months out of his two-year term.
That makes five provosts that the school has cycled through since Kerrey took charge in 2001. “That’s remarkable,” said Arjun Appadurai, an anthropologist who says a no-confidence vote is “certainly a possibility.” “We still don’t know all the facts,” Appadurai added, “but clearly there was nothing routine about this.” Ooh! We don’t even know if this means anything, really, but academics in a snit! Overhead-projector fight!
New School Faculty Members May Hold No-Confidence Vote in Bob Kerrey [Chronicle.com]
