If you're keeping score, we look at: Aaron Brooks, Scott Cowen, Ed Blakely, Greg Meffert, Mark Kurt, Eddie Jordan, Allstate, DePauw University, Clarence Ray Nagin, and Chief Riley. Let's jump in!
Aaron Brooks got cut by the Raiders. He was 0-8 as a starter for Oakland. Remember this is the Aaron Brooks that dissed New Orleans; and also the Aaron Brooks that called out his Oakland teammates for not hustling. Mr Pot -- Mr Kettle.
Wet Willie's homage to Mr Brooks.
Scott Cowen, Resident of Tulane University, has kept up his stellar record. This time, "Based on Tulane University’s environmental policies and the way it handles its endowment, the Uptown university has received a C in a national survey by a Massachusetts research firm."
World class, Scott. "It received failing grades for not disclosing such endowment-related information as the stocks it holds and the way it votes those shares." Whaddya bet a lot of those shares are in Newell/Rubbermaid?
In more Mook news, Cowen's post-Katrina response has him in hot water with the AAUP. In case you can't read it, here's a snip:
The report criticizes the administration's "refusal to provide any but the most generic evidence with respect to the declared state of financial exigency." By doing so, it deprived more than 200 terminated faculty members of the ability to assess how such evidence applied to their particular cases. In declining to relocate faculty members into alternative positions, the report says, Tulane violated its own policies. In splitting the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences into separate schools without faculty consultation, it violated faculty bylaws and AAUP policies. Its "recent and ambitious plans for rebuilding," it states, "undercut its own claims of continuing financial exigency"
Basically, 210 faculty got whacked by Cowen, and an additional 90 bailed immediately afterwards. Cowen surgically cut selected programs and eliminated Computer science so that he could get his grubby paws on David Filo's and Jim Clark's endowment money. $60M to spend as Cowen sees fit.
Part of the joke is on Cowen. He kept BME, partially because of one of their stars, Natalia Trayanova. Of course, good faculty are mobile, and she wasn't about to stay around for this bloodletting. She's now at Johns Hopkins, bringing in millions and millions of grant money. Another long-sighted smart move, Scotty!
His abandonment of Engineering has been a boon, however, to UNO.
He does have enough money in the kitty to fire the football coach, pay him over a million dollars to leave, and get a more expensive coach. Jeez, couldn't that money have gone for engineering? Nyaaahhhh. Levees? We don' nee' no steeeekeeeng levees!
Oh, and Newcomb women don't forget. To quote Nelson Muntz, Ha ha.
Our Tsar, Blakeley I, is taking his $150k salary and....going on a 10 day vacation to Australia, China, and other places where he "will continue his ongoing work as a planning consultant". He reminds me of Ron Forman and his "deputy mayors".
Ross said Blakely's two-week jaunt will include "working on his climate change research project with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy." Blakely was hired last fall as a research fellow at the Massachusetts-based think tank; it is unclear how much time he expects to devote to that job.Blakely also continues to be employed as a professor by the University of Sydney in Australia. According to a news release on the institution's Web site, "the university and the city of New Orleans have come to an agreement which will allow him to continue his teaching and research commitments.
Man, how can I double and triple dip like that? Oh, here's a way: "Five months after news broke that the city’s former technology chief was holding parties on a 53-foot yacht that belonged to a city contractor, Greg Meffert acknowledged in a recent interview that he never owned the boat — despite his repeated claims that he did — and that the yacht has always belonged to a group of his former employees who had a lucrative city contract he oversaw."
His free use of a yacht owned by a city contractor is a clear violation of state ethics laws, whether or not he planned to buy the boat, Loyola Law School professor Dane Ciolino said.The boat was purchased a few months before Katrina by the four partners in Imagine, which has held lucrative technology contracts at City Hall since Meffert arrived in 2002. The group includes St. Pierre, Scott Domke, Paul Hastings and Mark Kurt, who last year replaced Meffert as chief technology officer.
Kurt resigned his city post last week.
Once again, Ashley for CTO.
Good news: people are testifying. Amen, let's make sure that this guy's testimony is not in vain. Of course, with Eddie Jordan, anything can happen. Ask the mook to resign.
Allstate? Mooks to the nth degree. Allstate is based where I teach, and I typically have many Allstate employees in my classes. Of course, they're not the ones making these decisions, they're just doing their jobs. However, to quote Luke Jackson: "Calling it your job don't make it right, Boss".
And aren't you glad you don't go to DePauw?
Oh, and Nagin is still Nagin. Maybe we could get a former candidate for office to run against him?
Glad to see Nagin and Riley's 2:00-6:00 "let's get the people coming home from Vaughn's" plan is keeping the murder rate in check.
H/T to Adrastos for the Chronicle article.
Wow, you're on a rant roll today, Perfesser. Loved the Rhonda Shear link...
Posted by: Adrastos | 24 February 2007 at 11:25 PM
Is the cop on Blakely's staff accompanying him to Australia?
Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 25 February 2007 at 12:08 AM
Well, Adrastos, that's because I've been UP!
All night!
Posted by: ashley | 25 February 2007 at 12:24 AM
In fairness, many in the sports fan community would point out that it's not an either-or situation, that the athletics-related donations being used to pay for football, etc. were made for just that, that they didn't donate into the general fund.
Having said that, I pose this question: was the decision to fire and pay the contract of one coach and hire a new one such a wise move when the new coach which Tulane eventually could and did hire, as opposed to the one that they wanted to hire but who was really just using Tulane's interest as leverage with Stanford, coached a couple of teams who posted great seasons roughly ten years ago but saw his later teams fail to match that mark and then found himself let go from that head coach position and out of football for three years prior to only recently getting back into football only as an offensive coordinator of a team whose offense was fairly poor under his guidance? If Tulane is paying a lot more for the new coach than they paid Chris Scelfo then they're probably getting a bad deal and that can't be good no matter what.
Cowen, for all of his business school background, is anything but a good manager. An appealing pitchman, he is, indeed, but a manager he is not.
Posted by: Richard P. | 25 February 2007 at 10:41 AM
Additionally, Tulane's Community Public Service (CPS) grant program for faculty to do research-related work denied a grant application for Melanie Ehrich founder of CHAT (Citizens Road Action Team) because they did not feel that it was pertinent enough to the recovery effort. It was not Cowen who turned her down directly but a CPS committee. It still seems like a Naginesc lack of direction in the organization he heads.
Posted by: Ricardo G | 25 February 2007 at 02:23 PM
A mook rundown, and no mention of George Shinn? Check today's sports section. They take him down nicely regarding his new practice facility.
I wish the Hornets would just leave so they can entertain Shinn's evangelical friends in Oklahoma City.
Posted by: Mr. Clio | 25 February 2007 at 02:38 PM
Don't forget this choice quote from AB:
"New Orleans was my place of residency for six years during the season, but I only worked there. I'm not a New Orleans native, I'm from Virginia. So I just worked there. It was a job and I have a new job."
Posted by: Mr. Clio | 25 February 2007 at 03:00 PM
The worst mistake was Newcomb. Tulane will suffer for a generation, and the progeny will never know of Newcomb.
He has severed a generational link, and women live longer than men.
I know estates that have yanked their support.
Posted by: mominem | 25 February 2007 at 08:11 PM
The worst mistake was Newcomb. Tulane will suffer for a generation, and the progeny will never know of Newcomb.
He has severed a generational link, and women live longer than men.
I know estates that have yanked their support.
Posted by: mominem | 25 February 2007 at 08:12 PM
I think the Cop who travels with Blakley will be running the Recovery while Blakley does his 2 dozen other jobs.
Posted by: Karen | 25 February 2007 at 08:53 PM
DePauw's most (only?) famous alumnus is (drum roll, please)... J. Danforth Quayle. Wonder if you can get a baked potatoe at the dining halls there? 'Nuf ced.
As for Clarence Ray, well, every time he puts his foot in his mouth, an angel gets his wings...
Cut by the *Raiders*?! Cue Nelson Muntz!
Posted by: KamaAina | 25 February 2007 at 09:04 PM
The original document from Josephine Louise LeMonnier Newcomb, as far as I have seen, does seem to be fairly vague and does grant broad discretionary powers to the Tulane board. Nevertheless, Tulane went the route of establishing a coordinate college for women, which was something of a novel concept at the time, and one has to think they did so for some reason.
In any case, however, Cowen has stirred up a hornets nest and that can't be good, especially now.
Posted by: Richard P. | 25 February 2007 at 09:52 PM
Ricardo,
CPS is the Center for Public Service; I doubt you have much direct knowledge of the situation if you don't even know the name of the entity you are trying to take down.
Posted by: mpizle | 25 February 2007 at 10:33 PM
Mook rundown?
Only if they're in front of my car, and I'm behind the wheel. In New Orleans.
I'm sure I'll be out on the street very soon after being arrested for the deed, at least.
Sad, but true...
Posted by: liprap | 25 February 2007 at 11:38 PM
A Divisional VP at Newell Rubbermaid, Hartley Blaha? What a fucking name! I think you could do a few things with that name.
http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromMktGuideIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedMktGuideId=411937
Posted by: Marco | 26 February 2007 at 02:09 PM
Turns out the real joker in the Cowen deck is his directorship at mega-developer Forest City Enterprises (the folks behind the brewing Brooklyn arena debacle). How long, do you suppose, before Forest City turns up in town, all set to partner with, oh, I don't know, Cowen's BNOB associate Joe Canizaro??
Is it commonplace for university presidents to simultaneously hold corporate directorships? Doesn't sound right to me...
Posted by: KamaAina | 26 February 2007 at 05:30 PM
I always love me some mook rundown!
Posted by: G Bitch | 27 February 2007 at 06:23 PM
Hey Ashley - I'm a grad student at Tulane, though not in any of the engineering-related fields. Dean Altiero came to speak at our graduate school student association's meeting the other night, and was hyping this grand redevelopment plan for the School of Science & Engineering. They have brought in a high-powered advisory committee which is helping guide the new "plan", which will involve 6 divisions, including several new hybrid science and engineering departments; the hope is that these companies will be committing financial resources as well. And who's on this committee but current or former highly-placed employees of big IT firms, including Microsoft, Yahoo, and several others. The makeup of the committee and the plan to bring back engineering departments in a new fashion really struck me and others as odd, given the post-Katrina changes Cowen et al. made. Do you know much more about this?
Posted by: nolagal | 01 March 2007 at 01:27 PM
Nolagal, what I know is that Altiero is a puppet cheerleader. The people I've talked to that work in S&E say that all of the good people a) have left, b) plan to leave this year or next or c) are retiring soon.
Altiero is all hyped up about building a new school of Engineering, but the word is out that tenure means nothing at Tulane, even if you do bring in millions in grants.
They will not be able to attract the talent they are bragging about being able to attract. Not for a long, long time.
Posted by: ashley | 01 March 2007 at 05:18 PM
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