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How not to do it
Earlier this fall, University of Richmond president William E. Cooper chose exactly the wrong words to describe his plan of raising the school's academic standards. In a "state of the university" address, Cooper announced that "the entering quality of our student body needs to be much higher if we are going to transform bright minds into great achievers instead of transforming mush into mush, and I mean it." Students and alumni are predictably outraged at the insult Cooper has offered them; some have begun wearing "Mushheads Unite" buttons to school basketball games, and an online petition arguing that Cooper should be replaced had garnered enough signatures that the university's board of trustees in now looking into the problem of what can be done about Cooper and his impolitic commentary. So loud has been the uproar among offended students that no one appears to have noticed that Cooper's comment insults the Richmond faculty just as thoroughly as it insults students. When he talks of "transforming mush into mush," he seems to be saying that the experience of attending Richmond only confirms and maintains the muddleheadedness students bring with them to college.
Cooper arrived at Richmond from Tulane in 1998 and has since then devoted himself to improving the university's reputation. He's undertaken a $200 million capital campaign, he's committed the school to footing the bill for students' demonstrated financial need, he's extended benefits to same-sex partners of faculty and staff, and, this fall, he raised tuition 31%, claiming that the increase will help finance improvements and renovations.
Richmond's board of trustees met yesterday to decide whether to relieve Cooper from his post. The board decided not to.
Thanks to Maurice Black for the link.
Posted by acta online at December 3, 2005 08:53 AM
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