The man whose namesake “Kington Chair” (Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professorship in Environmental Change) that was supposedly to be given to Michael Mann, has resigned from UVa amid the turmoil of the recent ouster of president Teresa Sullivan in a shady weekend coup that bypassed the normal Board of Visitors schedule and several board members.
I don’t have a lot of time to cover ths subject this morning as I have deadlines looming, but here is a WaPo story:
U-Va. board member, professor quit amid uproar over President Teresa Sullivan’s ouster
The widening controversy over the university leadership claimed Mark Kington, the vice rector of U-Va.’s embattled Board of Visitors and an architect of Sullivan’s ouster who stepped down in a gesture of conciliation.
They really have a mess on their hands now.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Can’t wait till the book and the movie come out…
Kurt in Switzerland
Has anything emerged that links these events to the Mann business? I’m rather sceptical about such a link.
It can only help if they get politics out of science. Fighting like cats and dogs in the street makes for good entertainment though.
dearime:
To answer your question: no.
Another episode of short answers to stupid questions….
Wow, she gets to return to teaching sociology at $170,000/year? $170,000/year?????
This totally changes my idealistic perception of academics. 😉
Andrew
dearieme says:
June 20, 2012 at 11:35 am
Has anything emerged that links these events to the Mann business? I’m rather sceptical about such a link.
==========================================================
There are dots. Do they connect? I don’t know. Waiting for more dots.
I’ve tried to read between the lines, but haven’t been able to see any connections with Mann. Can someone provide the conspiracy here?
Politics being practiced by amateurs, kind of cute.
At least they aren’t in the White House.
Sarc/
They should replace Kington with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
I had my doubts about a connection to Mann et al, and was of the mind that this was related to Elizabeth Warren the senate candidate from Massachusetts her(Sullivan’s) co – author on a reportedly dodgy research book. With this resignation I am begining to have second thoughts.
Curiouser and curiouser. 😉
In Burrito says:
June 20, 2012 at 11:54 am
Wow, she gets to return to teaching sociology at $170,000/year? $170,000/year?????
=========================================================
That is peanuts, try googling professors pay. Yes those teaching socialism are part of the one percent. In fact many do not even teach much, their assist professors do that. This frees them time to research and publish, or often to write books, from which they often recieve more revenue.
Many are publicly supported at pay scales in excess of $350,000 to $1.5 million, and it is a shame.
Instapundit has the link to an Inside Higher Ed piece that is based on “stolen” emails between Rectors Dragas and Kington and the rest of the Visitors, regarding their strong desire to get UVa involved in online education, while President Sullivan pooh-pooh’ed their ideas. Partly because she was worried what the faculty would think, and the effect of this new effort on the faculty, and whether it would be a financial net gain.
See, when you repeatedly blow off the Board, eventually they get pissed and can you. Everybody has a boss. If you can’t or won’t do what the bosses want, they find somebody who can and will.
And notice how Rectors’ e-mails are quickly stolen by the student newspaper and distributed (no executive privilege at UVa), while employees emails are sacrosanct. The University of Topsy-Turvy.
[… formatting fixed. -w]
President Sullivan wrote a book 20 years ago with Elizabeth Warren. At the time the book was published, Sullivan and warren were accused of scientific misconduct, and that allegation has come to renewed focus because of the current Senate campaign of Elizabeth Warren, who has also made fraudulent claims of being Cherokee.
Um, are those Green Jobs?
Rattus Norvegicus says:
June 20, 2012 at 11:51 am
dearime:
To answer your question: no.
Another episode of short answers to stupid questions….
——————————————————-
Here’s another question: How do YOU know?
Short answer is you don’t, unless you are applying the rules of climate science and can divine the future.
The ‘star professor’ who resigned might be the same Dr William Wulf on the NAE, IEC, ACM, NRC and reviewing editor for ‘Science’ and ‘Popular Mechanics’. A remarkable CV, but a dyed in the wool warmists. I did have phone and email exchanges with the good professor in Spring of ’09, during which he ‘denied’ that there could be any error in government funded climate science. As always, the ‘star’ is in the eye of the beholder.
Could you have a least linked to a story other then that lefty spin-machine that calls itself a newspaper? Can’t trust nary a word in the WaPo.
From reading “most popular” comments at Hffpo, and huge hyperlink above, I get the impression that Kington and Dragas wanted to turn the uni into a place with a lot of online courses, as app. Harvard and Stamford are doing successfully, and no doubt with privatised financial gain in the crosshairs, and that Teresa Sullivan dug her heels in.
I also get the impression that Sullivan was glad Cuccinelli lost the last court case.
Perhaps Ms Sullivan saw the “danger” of online education, with open access to the likes of WUWT. But there’s no gainsaying she was liked. Yet likely committed similar sins to Mann (data obstruction).
A complex situation with embarrassing material on all sides? – requiring attempted “silence” all round at the top, an action guaranteed to fire up the youth at the bottom.
uh, WaPo not Huffpo
Keep in mind that kerfuffles in Academe are so vicious because the stakes are so low. It amounts to no more than a mosquito biting an iron bull.
Yeah, academic fraud can get messy.
At least they can agree on one thing: everything is America’s fault:
http://times247.com/articles/eu-commission-leader-euro-crisis-is-america-s-fault
Smokey says:
June 20, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Isn’t it always? 😉
These wonks will never admit they screwed up royally!
Hopefully, this will be a crisis too far & Le Projet will be finished. Not holding my breath though. They are certainly tenacious bastards!
DaveE.
DesertYote says: “Could you have a least linked to a story other then that lefty spin-machine that calls itself a newspaper? Can’t trust nary a word in the WaPo.”
Careful not step on wapo.