Duke Presidency/Lax article

[johnb]

This is from the Chronicle of Higher Education. In it, a university president gives some perspective on being a president. While we are now familiar with 'being Nifonged,' in the world of university administrators, Brodhead's no-win situation is apparently being referred to as 'being Duked.':

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i10/10b00501.htm

[Indoor66]

This is from the Chronicle of Higher Education. In it, a university president gives some perspective on being a president. While we are now familiar with 'being Nifonged,' in the world of university administrators, Brodhead's no-win situation is apparently being referred to as 'being Duked.':

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i10/10b00501.htm

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[johnb]

sorry about that. here are the pertinent paragraphs.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Lessons from the Top 11/2/07
By STEPHEN J. TRACHTENBERG

Last summer I finished a 30-year run as a university president — first at the University of Hartford for 11 years, then at George Washington University for 19 years. I'm pleased to report that I have served without ever having a deficit budget, being indicted, or even being accused of any impropriety. I like to think that's in part because I have learned some lessons along the way.

First, I've learned that academic bureaucrats at all levels need luck — in generous quantities. Consider the case of Richard H. Brodhead, president of Duke University, an admirable man and able administrator. When players on the Duke lacrosse team were faced with charges of rape, many people demanded to know how it was possible that Brodhead did not understand that lacrosse players were seen as notoriously "thuggish" and "entitled." Why had he done nothing?

When the charges turned out to be bogus — the plaintiff was not credible, and the prosecutor appeared to have engaged in serious misconduct — many people wondered how Brodhead could have let the situation get so out of hand on such flimsy evidence. Why had he done nothing?

That double bind is now known as "being Duked." It arises from the public's preposterous expectation of omniscience in college presidents, as well as in lower-ranking administrators in proportion to their status. (In other words, it only gets worse with each promotion.) Thus, the head of a university with 30,000 students, 5,000 faculty and staff members, and another few thousand adjuncts and visitors is supposed to control the behavior of all those people. But would anyone expect the mayor of Burlington, Vt., a city with a population of about 40,000, to know what mischief any of his fellow citizens might be contemplating at every moment?