Well well…. our last column sure kicked over an anthill, huh? The name “BobLee” has seeped into some new nook & crannies and emerged with all sorts of colorful adjectives attached to it!….. hehehe. A few more transitional thoughts about UNC goings-on; and we will move on to more global issues.
Oh gezzzz, I just saw Pierce’s latest on “Testosterone”. We better keep our Kevlar civvies on for a few more days. …….
Quick note on that last column. Google was beseiged with inquiries for “Tijuana Donkey Show”.
Fabulous Little Carol (FLCarol) is not quite the cat’s pajamas the media stooges want us all to worship. More data keeps coming in to BobLee World HQ that won’t get disseminated anywhere but here. So disseminate we must.
FLCarol IS “charming”. Her petit statute contains a very convivial personality. Her academic intellectualism (yuck!) is paired with a legitimate “intelligence”. Intelligent and Intellectual are quite different…. similar only by their first six letters.
Intelligence is prized and essential for a high profile executive manager. Intellectual is a cumbersome millstone not unlike a hunchback or a harelip…. which, alas, cannot be surgically removed or repaired. FLCarol’s ability to cull the intelligent from the intellectual will determine her effectiveness.
“Intellectual” is the consolation prize Nature gave academics in lieu of common sense and/or biceps.
Whatever smoke the media blows….. the hiring of FLCarol is 100% a Tom Ross power play. Yes there was a search committee and yes there is a BOT and a BOG (79% of you still don’t understand the difference between the two beyond a “G” and a “T” on the end.) Tom Ross hiring A WOMAN was a given from Day One.
Tom Ross is an extremist liberal ideologue equal to the most certifiably insane in Chapel Hill. Race and Gender is ALL that ever matters. Yeah, I know Ross doesn’t look as scary as a Gene Nichol but they’re just alike…. ideological nutjobs.
NOTE: Yes. I thought Condi Rice would score big Diversity points with Tommy. But apparently she has a resume item that scared the bejebbers out of Tommy. 🙂
I appreciate that many of you will never cut Erskine Bowles any slack because of his ties to many high profile controversial Democrats. Yes, EB is a yellow-dog Democrat but he is not a liberal ideologue. EB has “intelligence” out his ying yang.
EB’s carnival sideshow with the Mary Easley Mess and his early-on blind faith in the Carolina Way foolishness after Marvin tweeted notwithstanding….. EB is “the smartest person in the room” in pretty near any room he is in. Tom Ross would like you to think he is too. He isn’t.
When the late and lauded Kindly Ol’ Bill Friday set up the governace system for the UNC System back in the late 50s / early 60s he purposely made it UNC President-centric. He gave himself virtual dictatorial executive powers. That’s fine you say because Kindly Ol’ Bill is/was universally applauded as a most Benevolent Dictator.
Alas, the same imbalance of power that Kindly Ol’ Bill established still applies to whoever occupies that office which is now Tom Ross. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen….. Tom Ross ain’t no Bill Friday or an Erskine Bowles or a CD Spangler. Ross might be an Unthinkable Molly Broad.
Convenient as it may be for board monkeys and N&O reader-rats to blame BOT and BOG members (some of them are worthy of public pilloring!) the only hammer resides with The UNC System President – Tom Ross.
Tom Ross is far less qualified to be UNC System Prez than FLCarol is to be UNC Chanc. Sleep well tonight with that knowledge. A palace coup “could” take out Ross with support of the NC General Assembly but it would be very very messy.
Cutting to the chase….. FLCarol is the new UNC Chancellor because she is “what” Tom Ross wanted. “Who” was incidental to Ross. It was all about “a “what”.
FWIW…. Those of you panicking that FLCarol intends to disembowel UNC FB / Bkball. Ain’t gonna happen. FLCarol is already fully aware that BubbaTheRealAD is “a Real AD” and not the stumblebum that Holden foolishly trusted. Imploding Kenan and Dean’s Dome ain’t on Carol’s to-do list. By the same token…. the KeystoneKops operation that Dickie allowed to run amuk is already corraled.
As one astute UNC observer notes: “There was no way Tom Ross was ever going to approve a white male regardless of his credentials.” Mike Krzyzewski has a better chance of having his jersey in Dean’s rafters.
The skill, or lack of, that will make/break Fabulous Little Carol will be her ability to cull, manage, appoint, and hold accountable highly competent Vice Chancellors and key department heads. Holden, bless his heart, was plum awful in that area. Dickie Baddour and Matt Kupec being the two most glaring examples. There were others.
No CEO or Chancellor can be an expert in all the disciplines necessary to keep a complex bureaucracy functioning. He/She hires competent specialists in those disciplines then demands qualitative and quantitative results from them. At least in “real world” situations they do.
“Getting reports in on time” IS one sign of a competent manager but knowing what the Sam Hill is going on within their department is even more critical. “Dipping one’s pen in company ink” is a no-no. Knowing the second verse to Hark The Sound is NOT a necessary skill set.
FLCarol has driven a Mini-Cooper around the hills of New Hampshire. Can she wrestle a stubborn 18-wheeler around Orange County? I guess we will find out.
Even if she proves incapable, Tom Ross will cover for her (as he did for Holden) because executive competency was never a factor in his appointing her. It was all about her XX chromosomes with Tom. Race and Gender = All that matters.
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The Boston Marathon Tragedy: How awful! It is impossible to comprehend the loss of lives and horrible injuries to totally innocent bystanders. A graphic reminder of how insecure we all are in today’s world. Not as enormous in scope as 9/11 but try and tell that to victims’ families and friends of this tragedy.
With 9/11 it took Ted Kennedy 24 hours before he blamed it all on George Bush. This time it took CNN and Chris Matthews less than six hours to announce on-air “it was probably some right-wing gun-nut, anti-abortion Tea Party crazy”. To quote Rahm Emmanuel….. “Never let any crisis go to waste.”
Three people died in Boston. Four Americans died in Benghazi. To the latter, Hillary said “what difference does it make now?” I never understood how she was allowed to slide on that. Oh well…… sigh.
How will this translate into even more loss of freedom to come and go in this country? Strip searches to attend sports events and to board public transportation?
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HOORAY! The REALLY important stuff about which semi-literate dribble/dunkers are “going pro” has been resolved for this year. Don’t you feel better with that burden now lifted?
OK, now back to finding cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and why TimeWarner only lets you DVR two shows at a time.
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If you haven’t read APierce’s piece on UNC & Testosterone you really should. He reminds “old grad” UNC alums that UNC 2013 is nothing like UNC 1965-1980. The only thing about UNC that hasn’t radically changed since then is Silent Sam and The Well.
Maybe you like the asexual uni-gender environment. It certainly is “progressive”. Maybe you don’t care for it. Just caveat emptor before your children / grandchildren enroll there. There ARE some fine alternatives.
