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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Gov't signing bonuses: Your Tax $ in Action |
| 2003-07-18 |
| Edited for brevity. The president of University of the District of Columbia has given a $10,000 signing bonus to a family friend he hired for the school's No. 3 job despite her lack of qualifications. Susan D. Saunders, the university's director of government affairs, said UDC officials authorized the $10,000 signing bonus for Wilhelmina M. Reuben-Cooke after the City Administrator's Office, the D.C. Office of Personnel and the university's Human Resources Department reviewed the deal. D.C. Council member Harold P. Brazil, who called for Mrs. Reuben-Cooke's resignation on Wednesday, said yesterday the signing bonus adds to the "appearance of favoritism" by UDC President William L. Pollard. The at-large Democrat said he didn't know if signing bonuses are common in academia, but the deal invites more questions about the hire. "That becomes part and parcel of the fundamental question: If she doesn't meet the prerequisite of the job, why does she have it?" Mr. Brazil said. Mr. Pollard hired Mrs. Reuben-Cooke as the school's provost and vice president of academic affairs — a $137,000-a-year job for which she lacks the requisite experience and education. She started her new job Wednesday. Mrs. Reuben-Cooke, who was a tenured law professor at Syracuse University, is married to Edmund Cooke, a District-based lawyer who helped Mr. Pollard secure his $200,000-a-year job at UDC a year ago. Ain't it nice to have friends in high places? |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #10 Chilcoot Charlie sez: We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-7-18 7:14:28 PM |
| #9 Mrs. Reuben-Cooke as the school’s provost and vice president of academic affairs — a $137,000-a-year job for which she lacks the requisite experience and education. Mrs. Reuben-Cooke......why do all negro women have two last names now....? |
| Posted by: Fed UP 2003-7-18 3:25:44 PM |
| #8 She's a law professor. Therefore she has a JD. Very few law professors have PhDs. The institution of empty "qualifications" is one of the establishment left's key tricks for keeping guild control over education. For example to qualify as a public school teacher you have to have some degree in it, which is another chance to indoctrinate you, etc. etc. I know nothing about the people involved, except that the complainer is a Democratic DC Councilman, which isn't encouraging (to say the least). There's no accusation that Rueben-Cooke's incompetent. Barring such substantive issues, I don't know why anyone should be in favor of these barriers to entry. |
| Posted by: someone 2003-7-18 3:05:24 PM |
| #7 The "experience" required for a school provost and vice president of academic affairs, in my short tenures as a graduate teaching assistant and as an assistant professor, usually involves several years as an acting department/division head: Politics in Academia mirrors politics in other organizations, with a few kinks particular to that area of human endeavor. The "education" qualification is usually an earned Ph.D. from an accredited institution of higher learning: You usually don't get tenure if you don't have one, but if she doesn't, then I'd suspect that something fishy was going on at Syracuse U. as well as at U of D.C.. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-7-18 2:29:53 PM |
| #6 Ri - Nope. This is the U. of the District of Columbia, which has been plagued by this sort of thing since it was founded, about 25 years ago. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-7-18 2:19:27 PM |
| #5 She's already a tenured prof, what further "experience and education" is she supposed to have? How about something called "qualifications"? From the Washington Times: "Would it be preferable that I select someone else's crony?" Mr. Pollard said in an interview with The Washington Times. It's his own crony that he ended up hiring instead of "someone else's". |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-7-18 1:45:52 PM |
| #4 Is this the same Columbia University with that beauzeau who wanted to see 18000000 American soldiers dead? [/stupid question] |
| Posted by: Ri'Neref 2003-7-18 1:39:43 PM |
| #3 Yeah, Peshawar and all that--hence the posting in the SAST category. Key phrase you glossed over: job for which she lacks the requisite experience and education... But she does have the requisite connections, n'est pas? |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-7-18 1:37:37 PM |
| #2 The District's finances and personnel actions are so bad they make Congress look really, really good. Of course, the school situation in the District is also so great that a year or so ago they had to delay opening schools because they were in such poor maintenance. All this when for School Year 1999-2000 "the District [of Columbia] spending $10,107 per pupil from all revenue sources for current expenditures, compared to a national average of $6,911." according to the U.S. Department of Education. |
| Posted by: SamIII 2003-7-18 1:36:07 PM |
| #1 Peshawar^∞, and looks bogus to me... She's already a tenured prof, what further "experience and education" is she supposed to have? Some bogus how-to-control-academics degree? |
| Posted by: someone 2003-7-18 1:20:04 PM |