I’ve stayed away from commenting on the proposal to spin USF’s smallest campus away as a separate polytechnic university because I’ve been fairly busy with other things and because I’m confident in the ability of both faculty governance and my union to represent the interests of faculty in the system. For the record, the USF faculty advisory council has taken a stand against the spinoff, and the USF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida recommended a delay to consider the proposal more fully. The deliberation of faculty governance and a faculty union (let alone the analysis of USF’s central administration) may not be respected tomorrow when the Board of Governors votes on the idea of splitting off USF Polytechnic, but it’s the serious look at this.
And then news came yesterday that USF Polytechnic had used $10,000 in donors’ money to buy statues from Star Wars, putatively to spice up the entrance to a business incubator in rural Polk County. Please forgive me, but the jokes write themselves, as those writing comments in the St. Pete Times political blog entry discovered…
- “In their defense, it wasn’t Jar-Jar Binks.”
- “I find your lack of faith [in the polytechnic] disturbing.”
- This isn’t the business incubator you were looking for.
- It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the campus as father and son.
- Don’t be too proud of this polytechnic terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a state budget is insignificant next to the potential of the Farce.
All I can think of is the one question for Robert Goodman, son of campus chancellor Marshall Goodman who runs the incubator: you know folks have accused the campus of nepotism with your hiring, and you still purchase a symbol of the Bad Dad of All Time? As Christine Lavin would ask, what were you thinking???
What Was I Thinking?, by Christine Lavin