Dynamics of Cats : tenure principles

Should I be reading between the lines, on seeing Prof. Frank Douglas's photo on the linked-to page, that this is an endorsement of the theory that there is racism at MIT?

If so, we probably will be hearing more about this. Consider what happened at Harvard over sexism...

Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | June 4, 2007 1:02 PM

Insufficient data.
MIT is not exactly renowned for its liberal tenure policies, so it is hard to judge from a signle case.
But it is even rarer for senior faculty to resign in protest over the fate of a junior colleague.

My "secret sources" at MIT are not volunteering info, and very sensibly so.

Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | June 4, 2007 1:06 PM

I have a secret source at MIT, but I probably won't even ask -- he's in the Physics department, anyway, and I don't want him to get in trouble for talking to a blogger who suffers from verbal diarrhea.

(Like, say, for example, I've probably just given you enough information to figure out who my Secret Source is....)

-Rob

Posted by: Rob Knop | June 4, 2007 2:24 PM

i found this summary site and even a brief look tells us this one will get interestin'. An anti-embryonic-stemcell / pro-adult-stem cell researcher? game on. But a hunger strike? sheesh.

Posted by: Drugmonkey | June 4, 2007 3:45 PM

It also brings up an interesting point--what would it take for you to resign from your tenured position? I'd be interested in what some of the tenured folk have to say about that.

Posted by: JohnD | June 4, 2007 4:08 PM

The last time a tenured faculty member resigned, where I actually knew the professor beforehand, it was because he was caught spending research grant money on fixing his boat. And he was not in Oceanography. He was, however, in deep.

Really. I'm not joking.

I also knew an alcoholic psychopath academic-fraudulent Dean who "quit" because the university offered said Dean a deal cheaper than a protracted lawsuit: resign as dean, continue to draw Dean salary for 3 years, and spend one of the 3 years on sabattical (writing the planned book based on the academic fraud), then get the hell off campus. It was a sweet deal for everyone involved. Except, of course, those faculty members whose careers had already been derailed by Dean.

Qutting tenured position almost always means that there's some really deep doo-doo involved, which nobody wants to talk about to reporters.

Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | June 5, 2007 10:06 AM

Sherley has apparently left MIT for the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, whatever that is.

Posted by: Drugmonkey | November 29, 2007 4:19 PM

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