Let's call it

This is what drives academia.

Diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) has resulted in moral rot and the elimination of merit in universities.  I mean, DEI is the squishy mantra now running previously-important and relevant educational institutions.  I'm not sure how rabid it is in Canada -- although I suspect it's at the heart of every discussion, course curriculum and hire -- but the fiasco now-ex Harvard president Claudine Gay has caused underscores how off-track institutes of higher learning have become.

No longer does merit determine who gets hired.  No, it's DEI all the way.  YouTube is full of excellent coverage of Gay's duplicity.  I've watched a bunch and it's disheartening to see that Affirmative Action (AA) and DEI were behind the choice of her for president.     

Penny Pritzker, the billionaire (thanks to her family's wealth; didn't earn it herself) head of Harvard's board of trustees, hired Gay in a naked bow to DEI because Gay's academic qualifications were clearly not up-to-snuff for the job.  But, never mind all that.  Gay ticked all the boxes in the DEI world, so presto-chango!  She was hired!

Penny Pritzker, someone who's glad her father was born before her.

(Blogged this before, see "They've all effed up", 13 Dec. 2023)

Just to double down on the mess, Pritzker said Gay's resignation, "came with great sadness" and thanked her for, "her deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and to the pursuit of academic excellence."

Say what??!!  It has now become fact that Gay didn't just, "omit adequate citations" in her PhD dissertation.  She outright cribbed and plagiarized other academics' work word-for-word.  In other words, she cheated bigtime.  

It was all predictable when Gay was installed.  Thankfully, as millions in funding were being pulled by large doners, Gay was finally told to "resign".  The money was drying up.  But don't fret.  She is going back to teaching there and will earn $900,000 a year, so no need for a tag-day for Ms. Gay.

Why does it always take large, entrenched institutions weeks to see the writing on the wall and act?  They dig in, double down and try to excuse their way out of something they should know will not go away.  The press, one of the most important checks we have on bullsh-t, will see to that.

And speaking of bullsh-t, Trudeau and his family are vacationing in Jamaica, "at no cost to the taxpayer."  After several ethics violations, his office was quick to point out that he will be reimbursing the treasury board the equivalent of commercial airfares for his family.  Except that he's using an entire plane, not just a few seats, so that doesn't add up.  Add to that the cost of the RCMP accompanying him and we're talking hundreds of thousands.  What did your last trip to Jamaica cost?  Exactly.  

As for Gay, wonder how many Harvard grads are taking their framed degrees off their study walls?  

If you're wondering I might be coming down too hard, google Gay.  You'll learn that she fired two Black profs because their ideas didn't match hers.  Also, look into her beef with Roland Fryer, the brilliant Black Harvard economics professor, who dared to call her out and paid for it.  Free speech?  Forget about it.  If it didn't align with Gay's mantras, it was verboten.  

And naturally, Rev. Al Sharpton had to hit the ether, braying and bleating out his usual, standard racism rant.  Hey, Al, Gay was hired because of reverse racism, so I wouldn't get too carried away on your career hobby horse there buddy.

I'm with former president of the University of California from 1958 to 1967, Clark Kerr, who said:  "My job could be summarized as providing sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty."

That's about it.