College president resigns after "drown the bunnies" comment

[jpak]

Source: CBS News

The president of a small Maryland college who likened struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned resigned Monday, nearly six weeks after the student newspaper published the comment and ignited a national firestorm of criticism.

Simon Newman, a former financial industry executive, was in his first year as president of Mount St. Mary's University, the nation's second-oldest Catholic university, about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore. The school of 2,300 was previously known mainly for its four NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances.

Newman caused an uproar over his plan to boost the student-retention rate by identifying freshman likely to fail and offering tuition refunds for those choosing to leave. Critics said Newman was too focused on eliminating, rather than helping, struggling students.

Newman had fired and later reinstated two faculty members amid the uproar over his plan to identify freshmen most likely to fail.

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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mount-st-marys-university-president-simon-newman-resigns/

[randome]

1. Damn. A well-rounded failure, isn't he?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[MBS]

2. and good riddance.

To understate the case, he was unbelievably unqualified for , and inappropriate for this job,
as both manager and educational leader.

[liberalhistorian]

7. Most business-trained

people (like this guy, a "former financial executive&quot are inappropriate for educational leaders.

[marions ghost]

13. Cannot be said too many times

Business types are disastrous for running universities

[MBS]

15. " " " " n/t

[houston16revival]

3. Just LOVE those

elites who know what is best for everyone and push their
controlling and self-serving power hungry agenda on them

Chalk up another one that is defeated by people's genuine
and heartfelt impulse to FREEDOM

Freedom was the original inalienable right

before there were government structures

and elites, and finance

Go Bunnies!

[Xipe Totec]

4. Who's drowning now, a-hole? nt

[liberalhistorian]

5. "Former financial industry executive",

that kinda says it all right there, doesn't it? The values and norms of that profession DO NOT MESH AT ALL with those of education and it certainly should not do so with a Catholic institution. I know plenty of people who floundered during their freshman year, and then later blossomed and often did better than those who seemed to be doing well the first year, myself included.

[Jerry442]

6. Save the bunnies. They're cute.

Drown the financial industry executives.

[Herman4747]

12. Yes!

[iandhr]

14. What? We shouldn't kill the wabbit?

[Jerry442]

16. Elmer Fudd is suspiciously close to the financial world.

Just sayin'.

[iandhr]

17. That is awesome.

I never saw that clip before.

[TacoD]

8. Wonder what kind of golden parachute he got (nt)

[gregcrawford]

10. It's a shame it wasn't a golden shower...

... Corporatists trying to pervert and corrupt higher education deserve to experience literally what they do to us figuratively every minute of every goddamned day.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Some Background

Previously at DU: Newspaper Adviser Is Fired After Students’ Scoop Roils Maryland Campus

Newspaper Adviser Is Fired After Students’ Scoop Roils Maryland Campus

By MIKE McPHATE FEB. 10, 2016

When student reporters at Mount St. Mary’s University, a small Catholic institution in Maryland, published an article in January that quoted the university’s president likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, they knew it might get a big reaction. ... It finally came this week, it appears — in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper. ... The university informed the adviser, Ed Egan, that he had been disloyal and was now fired, a move seen by many on the campus in Emmitsburg as a retaliatory strike.

The decision, along with other recent punishments of faculty members at Mount St. Mary’s, has triggered outrage well beyond its rural campus in northern Maryland, earning condemnation from thousands of academics across the country as well as national monitors of academic and journalistic freedom.

The article, by Rebecca Schisler and Ryan Golden, was published in The Mountain Echo under Mr. Egan’s tutelage on Jan. 19 and presented two explosive pieces of news.

The report said that the administration was planning to cull struggling freshmen from the institution as part of an effort to improve retention numbers — a big factor in rankings published in outlets like U.S. News & World Report — and that the university’s president, Simon Newman, had used disturbing language to sell the idea to a skeptical professor last fall. ... “This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t,” Mr. Newman is quoted as saying. “You just have to drown the bunnies.” ... He added, “Put a Glock to their heads.”

[Jerry442]

11. A truly slimy guy.

Do we know for sure that he was speaking figuratively about putting a Glock to their heads?