Judging from the email in my inbox, UB President John Simpson and his merry band of California carpetbaggers can’t be sent packing soon enough.
There is that lingering problem of his anointed successor, Nostaja, though. What’s up with:
the timing of Simson’s “retirement” announcement, on the first day of class no less. Guranteed to make sure those meddlesome faculty are tied up with teaching duties and can’t provide the input into the selection. By law they are have to be consulted.
What legal authority Jeremy Jacobs had to appoint Scott Nostaja, Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, to serve as Interim President.
Its always fun to take a trip down the ole memory hole. How many of you recall the search for Carpetbagger Simpson?
NAMES TO BE KEPT SECRET FOR PRESIDENTIAL FINALISTS;
STEPHEN WATSON. Buffalo News. Buffalo, N.Y.: Jul 28, 2003. pg. B.1
The search committee — led by Jacobs, chairman of the UB Council and Delaware North Cos. — has made public extensive information about the timing of the search and the challenges facing the next president. But the committee has kept information on applicants for the position secret, and committee members signed confidentiality agreements.
SUNY guidelines say that when the committee reaches the point of selecting finalists and inviting them to campus, “their names are to be released to the public, along with general information about their background and qualifications.”
Further, the guidelines say, “Campus visits are designed to allow a large number of campus and community members to meet and hear from each candidate.”
- Well that never happened did it?
NEW UB PRESIDENT WASN’T FIRST CHOICE OF COMMITTEE;
STEPHEN WATSON. Buffalo News. Buffalo, N.Y.: Oct 28, 2003. pg. B.1
SUNY guidelines on presidential searches state the search committee should pass along its recommendations to the UB Council, which sends three names to the SUNY chancellor. The chancellor sends one name to the board of trustees, which gives final approval.
John B. Simpson was not the first choice of the committee seeking a new president for the University at Buffalo, according to officials familiar with the search process.
Eugene H. Levy, an astrophysicist and the second-ranking official at Rice University in Houston, was the leading choice when the UB search committee sent three names to the State University of New York chancellor, the officials said.
“The first choice did not accept the job,” said one high-ranking UB official, who asked not to be named, a contention confirmed by two other officials.
Search committee and SUNY officials have refused to disclose the names of the other two finalists for the UB presidency, even though SUNY guidelines say their identities should be made public.
But officials familiar with the search, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Levy and Susan Prager, a former Dartmouth College provost, were the other two finalists.
Jeremy M. Jacobs, the chairman of the presidential search committee and the UB Council, was out of town and not available to comment Monday.
One finalist did drop out after meeting with SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King and his senior staff, but that finalist was not the first choice of SUNY officials, said David Henahan, a SUNY spokesman.
Isn’t it time to remove Jeremy Jacobs from heading another botched, ultra-secretive search for the next John Simpson President? After 13 years on the UB Council, he was appointed by Pataki in 1997, he should know the legal limits of his authority, wouldn’t you think?
And maybe its time to get some community input into the selection of the next President of the University at Buffalo. After years of ignoring Buffalo, all the while telling us how they contribute so much the City, they need to hear from of the residents directly. That way, the next President might know that there is a mass transportation available right from the steps of the South Campus. Maybe the next President can have a plan on how to invest in the area around the Sotuth Campus instead turning his back to it and pretending it doesn’t exist, while the students continue to get mugged, raped and murdered. Maybe the next President will question the wisdom of spending millions on a loser sports program while filling our neighborhoods with coddled jocks and frat boys with nothing better to do than trash our neighborhoods and get Williamsville High Schoolers drunk enough to …
On the plus side of all this, Scott Nostaja’s extensive experience in the entertainment business should be perfect for a University whose administration seems determined to put academics a poor second to real estate and public/private partnership deals.
Oh yeah, I knew the little woman standing by reminded me of something.
What’s up with that “spend more time with the family” thing, anyway?
Head south on Rt. 16 out of the village of East Aurora, and eventually you’ll pass 455 Olean Rd., which in 1975 was the home of Jacobs Chevrolet-Triumph. How’s that for strange bedfellows? Looking over old photos and brochures, trying to decide which ones to add to this post was not easy. In 1975 Chevrolet [...]
It’s the last opportunity for players eager to make the final 53-man roster to make an impression on Buffalo’s coaching staff. Tonight is the team’s preseason finale against Detroit and job are lit...
Operation Iraqi Freedom started on March 20, 2003, in tanks on the Kuwait-Iraq border, in aircraft launching from Saudi and Qatari airfields, and on ships in the Persian Gulf. It ended last night, on August 31st, 2010, in the Oval Office, in a disjointed speech, on national television.
Taking the place of Operation Iraqi Freedom is Operation New Dawn. As more Americans die in Iraq, and as troops stay past the 2011 deadline, and into the 2012 election year, Republicans will rightly ask what is so “new?” President Obama may have handed his opponents a “Mission: Accomplished” banner, which would be unfortunate. Because despite the President’s wish to “turn the page” in Iraq, the country, and our co-mingled troubles, still exist. Note that the excellent Washington Post correspondent, Tom Ricks, in his book “The Gamble” on the Surge, speculated that the major events for which the Iraq War will be known have not yet happened. The war continues, but by a different name.
Still, such a marker is a convenient time to ask how history will judge at least the first act, now that Operation Iraqi Freedom is complete. Here is the opening sentence to the book I would write on the subject:
In an overabundance of caution, and reflecting the vengeful mood of a country still wiping its bloody nose, President Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq, and after meeting only one of the stated goals of the conflict, ended it by staunching the worst of the blood spilt in the civil war he created.
President Obama is not in that sentence because he did not materially contribute in any way to the ability to change the operation’s name last night. It was Bush’s war, for good or ill, and he ended this phase, with the Surge in 2007, a new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), and the troop draw down starting in 2008. In this example, President Obama is Andrew Johnson, not Richard Nixon. Lincoln ended the war, albeit infinitely more cleanly and decisively, no matter how many Union troops stayed in the South for years afterward. President Obama is due no more, and probably wishes no more, in any event.
Why? Because America in 2010 is in far more danger of losing a long war in which it is stuck than beginning a new war with mixed evidence. I am more worried about our ability to pacify Afghanistan than our propensity to end up in open armed conflict with Iran or North Korea. Israel may bomb Iran, but we won’t. Afghanistan, however, is another matter. And so the proper topic to discuss today is what actions, by a President, allowed yesterday’s speech to happen, if we wish to see another one cheering our exit from Operation Enduring Freedom.
I understand Alan’s desire to beat the WMD and Neocon Hawk drum. It is effective and popular. Fortunately, I think history will give a more nuanced response. One tiny example; Alan says:
What we didn’t find was enough, or of the right type, to justify an invasion, 4500+ Americans lost, 45,000+ injured, and 100,000+ Iraqi’s killed.
But such debates are only relevant today if Secretary Clinton starts war-mongering in the UN about dropping bombs on Iran. The bigger question now is how to find “success” in Afghanistan. The litany of reasons why Afghanistan is a more difficult problem than Iraq is long and well known: it is larger, younger, more divided, less developed, and has a greater history of violence. The Persians, Turks, Brits and Germans (in that order) all recently successfully conquered Iraq. For such a list in Afghanistan, I have to go back several thousand years.
If I look for Hope in President Obama that we will be successful in Afghanistan, I am left with two troubling pieces of evidence from last night:
1) Then-candidate Obama predicted the Surge in Iraq would fail, and he was wrong. Very, very wrong. He predicted the fresh troops would make no difference, and then, when they did, he said military victory with no political reconciliation was no victory at all. Iraq does not have a government - what is different now? He spent too long reformulating the strategy for Afghanistan, only to end up with essentially the same plan he previously derided. The only thing similar between Iraq and Afghanistan is that it is hot in the summer. Just because a Surge was the right strategy for Iraq does not make it right for Afghanistan, especially when the only clear goal I know of for Afghanistan is to start leaving next year.
2) In an Oval Office speech, only the second of his 20 month tenure, on the end of major combat in Iraq, he spent nearly half the time talking not about Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the military, or foreign policy, but the economy and jobs. Either he is “taking his eye off the ball,” or has political ADD, or is pandering for elections. I find all three a problem, and I question his seriousness, and whether he considers fighting our nation’s wars a priority.
Sometimes I don’t like being at the right place at the right time.
Today was one of those days as we were driving past Tops Supermarket just as a tragic and scary scene unfolded in the parking lot of the Niagara Street location.
Just seconds before we arrived, An 8 year old boy was killed when an older motorist backed into him, pinning him against the wall near the doors of the Niagara Street supermarket.
As we pulled in, a crowd of people were dragging a man out of his car after he tried to flee the scene, pinning him to the ground while others kicked and punched him multiple times. Store security quickly cuffed him and tried to keep him away from the emotional witnesses as they continued to follow him around, throwing punches and yelling at him until Buffalo Police arrived to put him in a vehicle.
This video was taken just seconds after the driver was pulled from his car (see picture). He is seen standing up against the cement pillar while witnesses continue to attack him, punching him in the face numerous times. It wasn’t clear if the man was under the influence of something or was in shock after taking the beating that he did, but either way, he didn’t appear that he knew what was going on. Even getting a bit belligerent with the people around him.
Details are still sketchy but needless to say it was a very scary, emotional scene I wish I hadn’t witnessed.
Preseason games, particularly the finale are commonly pointless. If a head coach hasn’t been able to figure out who will start or at least be a key contributor by this point of the summer, odds are that team is in a world of trouble when the real games begin next weekend.
But every team in the [...]
The editor of the Buffalo News met with members of the African- American community Wednesday to respond to criticism about an article that detailed the criminal history of victims of the City Grill shooting. Our Ryan Burgess has the story.
A few days ago, a friend asked me how I defined love. After consideration, I gave this friend my best explanation of the elusive emotion, in what I thought was a concise several minute summary. I then asked him to define the same. In return, he put his hand over his heart and said, “It’s right here.”
My immediate reaction was laughter at the obvious gender difference in our communications….as a woman taking the roundabout path …and my male friend getting straight to the point. But then I was touched by the truly heartfelt manner in which this caring man expressed his love ideal.
Today I discovered a song written and sung by a Canadian musician named Garnet Rogers. It is titled, Stars in Their Crown. It is the most beautifully descriptive song about love that I have ever heard….no matter if your definition is wordy and complex, or simply what you feel in your heart.
I have also included the words for those who like to read as well as listen….
That pair in the corner,
They’re here every Tuesday
They come when the market first opens its stalls.
And it’s got so that lately
I’ll wait just to see them
Their heads bent together,
As they come down the hall..
And her hair has grown whiter
His has grown thinner
And their pace has slowed down,
As the years have grown long
But they keep step together
Amongst strangers who hurry,
These two old companions,
Walking slowly along.
They always take the same table
And they open their menus,
And I watch as his hand stretches out to touch hers,
And she, with the other, reaches under her chair,
And fumbles her glasses from out of her purse.
And she reads him the specials,
He does the ordering,
They joke with the waitress, about watching their weight
But the waitress says nothing, she just snaps her gum
And then brings their dessert,
That they’ll share from one plate.
Sometimes I watch them too closely,
They notice me staring
And they smile at me vaguely,
Not really seeing my face
But they know I’m a stranger,
Not one of their friends
Who have died, or long since
Moved away from this place.
They keep to themselves
They’re each other’s shelter,
Two hearts grown together,
Two parts of a whole
And I smile at them shyly,
I know I intrude, on this pair of old lovers,
And I turn and I go.
But, you know that I’ve seen them
As they leave the cafe,
He pull out her chair,
And he helps her to stand
And he holds out her coat,
And he hugs it around her
And together they leave
Holding each other’s hand.
And there’s a love beyond words
In their every small gesture,
As the two old companions make their way through the town
A love beyond name, beyond years, beyond measure
And the days that they share
Are the stars in their crown
The Buffalo Firefighters Union and the City of Buffalo are once again at odds. This time over time off given to firefighter escorts and an honor guard asked to honor two fallen firefighters.
The Seneca Nation of Indians held a peaceful gathering on their reservation along Interstate 90 in Irving Wednesday, to continue the fight against collecting taxes on cigarette sales. In Niagara County, members of the Tuscarora Indian Nation took their protest to the streets.
A New York State judge has issued a stay against the state, temporarily preventing them from collecting taxes on the sale of Indian cigarettes to non-native customers.
Forbes Magazine has named the City of Buffalo as one of the top 10 tailgating cities in the country. Denver, Green Bay, Miami, Kansas city and Philadelphia also made the list.
Sometimes I don’t like being at the right place at the right time.
