Tag: Sasse

  • Conservative Think Tank AEI Names Ben Sasse Senior Fellow

    Conservative Think Tank AEI Names Ben Sasse Senior Fellow

    Former University of Florida president Ben Sasse is now an American Enterprise Institute fellow.

    The American Enterprise Institute, a prominent conservative-leaning think tank, has named former U.S. senator and university president Ben Sasse a nonresident senior fellow, AEI announced Friday. Its website says his work there will focus on “higher education, innovation, technology, American history and culture, and national security.”

    Sasse’s AEI post and his continuing voice at other major conservative institutions—The Wall Street Journal has run at least three op-eds by him this year, including one calling on university board members across the country to stand up to faculty “radicals” and “encourage greater intellectual diversity”—shows he’s not persona non grata after his abrupt exit from the University of Florida last year.

    Sasse attributed his resignation from UF to his wife’s health, though the student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator, has reported the board may have forced him out. During the first year of his roughly 18-month presidency, his office spent more than $17 million. Sasse denied wrongdoing and argued that driving new initiatives at UF required major investments.

    Sasse, a Republican who represented Nebraska in the Senate, remains a professor in UF’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. He previously was president of Midland University.

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  • Ben Sasse and Paper Tigers in Academia

    Ben Sasse and Paper Tigers in Academia

     This quote caught my eye in the Gainesville Sun today. It is about, Ben Sasse,  the likely new president of UF, and faculty opposition: “I think many of my colleagues feel that his  academic credentials are not where we would have wanted them to be.”

    I’ve deleted the name of the person quoted because that quote is representative of  law professors speak. They say things that mean nothing or, put differently, allow for total deniability while at the same time stirring the pot ever so gently.  It’s the reason I was always an outsider in the Ivory Tower. 

     The statement, and that of law professors’ generally, reminds of a something John Cage said, “I have nothing to say and I am saying it.”

    For example, note the speaker only “thinks” this could be the case. This leaves room to say, if asked to defend the statement, “It’s only what I thought or the impression I had. I could be wrong.”And then there is the word “many.” What is “many?” Is it 12? Could be. Is it a majority? Maybe, maybe not. 

     This reminds me of what I call faculty trolling. For example, say you think someone up for tenure does not deserve it but you are too much of a wuss to say it. You go office to office and say, “I have heard that some people are concerned about Joe’s (the candidate) scholarship.” Not you, of course, unless the person you are talking to says someone like “Yes, I too was wondering about this.” If that is the response, the troller has has hit pay dirt and gets a movement started without ever actually taking a position. If the answer is “I have not heard anything about that.” The troller moves on to the next office.

    And could someone tell me what “where we would have wanted them to be” means. How about, “are not satisfactory” What on earth does “where we would have wanted them to be” actually say. “We would have/” Would have what? In a different universe? On Mars?

    But wait. In the same passage the writer does use the word “we” which includes “I.” So it could say “I wish his credentials were better.” The problem is nearly everyone wishes everything were better. I  wish my car got better mileage but what it gets is fine. I wish my dinner was better last night but it was fine. Wishing for better or wanting better is saying nothing. 

    So what would my quote have been of the Sun had asked me? “I can’t speak for everyone but his academic credentials make him unfit. In addition, he is obviously the product of a rigged search that was guaranteed to produce a candidate to the liking of our right wing, mean spirited Governor.”

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