“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no sense of the odds against them.”
--- Robert Jarvik (inventor of the Jarvik heart)
This is a time that demands leadership – real leadership.
Our public universities are too often not being led by courageous leaders.
Our public universities are in danger of being purchased by secretive billionaires.
Don’t take my word for it – see the St. Petersburg Times article and editorial (below), along with the Reid Report and Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch (below).
Veto power for some controlling billionaire over whom a state university should hire?
That’s not “scholarship” – it’s a sin, a crime and a tort. Thomas Jefferson said, "I have sworn upon that Altar of Almight God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind" of humankind?
Why are public universities selling their souls?
Fear of ideologues and hunger for money -- from "friendraising" and "fundraising" from domineering moneybags?
Sadly, it seems that some public universities are run by political hacks, not leaders.
The President of at least one publicly-funded University in Florida publicly endorsed John McCain for President in 2008, as if he were some small-bore KKK-elected Sheriff and people should select the President of his choice on his say-so. (It would have been different if he had endorsed Barack Obama – that would have shown courage, vision and intelligence).
Appropos of Robert Jarvik’s quote (above), Florida State University Economics Department camp followers are not leaders – they fear change and they sell their souls for money. “They have given their hearts away, a sordid boon,” as the poet William Wordsworth would put it.
Too often, government-founded universities discourage legitimate inquiry and suppress dissent, too often lacking independence and intellectual integrity -- promoting and preferring toadies, rejecting scholars who make waves and “rock the boat.”
As our Founders taught, it’s our boat and we have a right to rock it. Take a moment to stand up for academic freedom and scholarly independence.
Contact for the FSU board of trustees can be found here or below:
University Relations
Florida State University
216 Westcott
Tallahassee FL 32306-1350
Phone: 850/644-1000
Fax: 850/644-3612
eMail: trustees@www.fsu.edu
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