RISD Provost to Step Down in Aftermath of No-Confidence Vote

May 4, 2011, 11:17 am

John Maeda, the embattled president of the Rhode Island School of Design, announced on Tuesday that the institution’s provost, Jessie Shefrin, had resigned, weeks after more than 80 percent of faculty members voted “no confidence” in both Mr. Maeda and Ms. Shefrin. The Chronicle published an article on Sunday detailing complaints against the art school’s leaders, who have made unprecedented use of social media including YouTube, Twitter, and blogs but have nevertheless left professors feeling alienated. Mr. Maeda announced the provost’s decision to step down in an e-mail message to professors and staff members yesterday afternoon. Fittingly, Mr. Maeda has set up a Web site about the search process for an interim provost. The administration plans to set up a search committee for a permanent replacement in the fall.

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mavprof

Perhaps what irks Mr Milbank in particlar are Governor Walker’s public appearances in which he’s defended his proposals consistently, articulately, and, yes, reasonably. So, what better opportunity to tear the mask off a politician Milbank later accuses of “hypocrisy” than by heavily massaging some inconsequential private remarks made by one’s chosen target to an oppo-prankster? Where in the context of the telephone conversation, Walker’s reference to “not one of us” means “not conservative,” but is massaged to render “not one of us,” so, “reasonable”?

Thus in his shabby hit-piece on Walker, Milbank counters with a hyperbolic calumny (“Under Walker’s tribal political theory, governing is a never-ending cycle of revenge killings”) that apparently so delighted Mr Berlinerblau he excerpted it in the title of his misguided posting. And in delivering this calumny (in addition to others, such as where Milbank likens Walker’s statements on the collective bargaining issue to “the words of a hooligan”), Milbank, posing as a defender of reasonable political discourse, does in truth exemplify (or to coin a word, “impersonify”) what he affects to abhor.

Better examples of “tribal” behavior in this Wisconsin political contest are not hard to find in the words, placards, and actions of the teachers’ union demonstrators and their supporters outside and inside the capitol building as well as in the petulant attempt on the part of the state senate rump who fled the state rather than engage in the normal and reasonable political processes in a representative democracy, though it’s reasonable to suspect Mssrs Milbank and Berlinerblau will persist in looking the other way.
electronicmuse

I regret hearing of Ms. Shefrin’s resignation. She did wonderful, productive work in a previous academic setting.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cshunt312 Courtney Hunt

After reading the article on Sunday, it seemed to me that President Maeda’s use of social media had very little to do with his perceived ineffectiveness as a leader. It sounds to me like he’s a poor communicator, regardless of the medium (the example of him talking with students face-to-face is the best example of that). I’m not sure why his use of digital technology is being emphasized in these pieces, and why the editorial slant with respect to it is negative. You could remove all those elements and still have a classic story of a leadership failure. The incorporation of social media may contribute some novelty, but it’s not a key theme.

Courtney Hunt
Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community
electronicmuse

Incorporation of social media is a key theme when someone elects to make it a key theme, which apparently is what Mr. Maeda has done, at least per this article.

My slant on social media is not negative, only realistic, particularly regarding their extremely low bandwidths, which casts doubts on the advisability of their use to lead people.

Part of being either a poor or effective communicator lies in choices of the modalities of communications used. Then, of course, there are indeed effective, as well as ineffective communicators, as judged quite independently from the means they have chosen.

In this context, I have little interest in someone’s personal skills; I wouldn’t speculate, nor do I have any realistic way to assess Mr. Maeda’s communications skills. However, it is not difficult to know about communications media, and my comments are about social media specifically.

Even the best communicator will find that a large percentage of well-known means of “communicating” will be truncated by the low bandwidth online medium.
http://www.facebook.com/andrew.wentink Andrew Wentink

Thought some of you might find this of interest……
http://www.facebook.com/andrew.wentink Andrew Wentink

Thought this might be of interest…