Shame at last

Just the kind of headline you don't want to read when grappling with the morning's Go Lean (but not lightly). Fortunately the distance from breakfast table to lavatory is short. Thanks to the actions of the dead meat BoT approving the highly contentious ABOR board policies (see earlier posts for further details) the Horowitz PR machine has launched into hyper-drive. I was greeted by the headline, "Historic Victory for Academic Freedom at College of DuPage" on FrontPageMag.com.

You can, if you wish, read the whole thing; I was in two minds about providing the link; why give free publicity to this mob? The triumphant crowing is almost too much too bear: "victorious chapter...storied history of the Academic Bill of Rights." Wait, the following sentence states that the COD is the first (note again the first) campus to adopt the ABOR. Scarcely a storied history, more an exercise in futility. More fool the COD for being the first - a community college, in one of the most conservative areas of America. Reading further, " ...the DuPage Faculty Association (a unit of the National Education Association) launched a hysterical misinformation campaign in an attempt to derail the bill..." I suppose that includes my own measured thoughtful comments about the wisdom of the college inviting all the adverse publicity for really very little.

Not surprisingly, the appointed trustee who spearheaded the whole exercise in costly, divisive irrelevance made one final quote prior to riding into his Roselle sunset: “The adoption of the Academic Bill of Rights as official college policy demonstrates the commitment the College of DuPage has for the academic freedom of its students,” said DuPage Trustee Kory Atkinson. “The College exists for the betterment of its students and our students now have the explicit assurances of academic freedom that they are paying for and that they need to flourish.” This trustee had hosted the curious non-event that had been the ABOR champion's stealth visit to the COD in April.

While they may crow, it often pays to remember the old adage about he who laughs last. We await with interest to see what the new BoT (four of the six that voted for that historic moment have been vanquished) will do about it.