Things have come to a rolling boil. Following last week's senior faculty vote of no confidence in the president, the faculty of all university divisions (including mine) met and resoundingly confirmed the no confidence vote. The president called a meeting for faculty this morning (during my Secularism class), where he was met with an organized litany of grievances from representatives of the divisions, which I'm told added up to a conclusive picture of flawed leadership and faculty frustration. He's acceded to some faculty demands - he won't be interim provost but let faculty and deans help select an interim and search for a new provost, and has organized a meeting of deans and trustees. He says he has no intention of stepping down, but to the faculty who've organized all these meetings he's a dead man walking.
So what was I doing talking to him this evening at the university holiday party? I was minding my own business talking to some faculty colleagues when suddenly there he was, hand out: "Hello, Mark." What could I do? He knows me from the time back in 2005 when I invited him to my class on the religious right (but didn't ask him to speak!). I suppose I could have not taken his hand (or thrown my shoe at him), but manners took over. "Exciting week," I observed as noncommittally as I could, shaking his hand. He agreed. He seemed smaller than the last time I saw him. I said I'd missed most of the meetings because of classes. He said he thought progress had been made. I said many faculty were likely to check out as the winter holiday comes. That might not be such a bad thing, he said... My colleague S walked over and reported she's recently been in Omaha. (Kerrey's from Nebraska.) He didn't ask why, but instead asked if she'd seen the recently opened Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge over the Missouri... A pedestrian bridge for Omaha folk who want to go to Iowa?
After he moved on to another hapless victim, my colleague A said with a smile, "oh boy, you're in trouble now!" I trust not, though to some of my more militant colleagues it might seem I already crossed a virtual picket line by going to the party in the first place.
