Remember! Elliot “Spike” Maynard is buddy buddy with Don Blankenship.

Keep that in mind when voting for State Supreme Court of Appeals.

I’m going to be insanely busy at work for the next couple weeks. We’ve got a new software package, and I’ve got a month to learn it and write the documentation.

In theory, it’s interesting, but what I’ve noticed mostly is that it runs really slowly, which could be a problem. We’ll see.

But mostly, I’m all but counting the hours–it’s finals week, and students are already leaving, and so soon we’ll actually be able to drive around town. Woo!

Got an e-mail “Statement from WVU President Mike Garrison” in response to the faculty senate vote last night.

He doesn’t address the vote or issues of the faculty senate at all, and if you read between the lines, he pretty much says, no way am I stepping down, I don’t care what you all say.

If he loves this university, then he should be considering what is best for the university, not what is best for him. And I didn’t get that from his e-mail.

As mentioned previously, everyone around here has been in at tizzy over the Heather Bresch scandal, and the actions or inactions of WVU President Mike Garrison.

Michael and I are in disagreement over what should happen. He says that there’s no proof that Garrison did anything wrong, so he should resign or be censured. I say, of course there’s no evidence. He’s a lawyer; He would have first and foremost covered his tracks.

And I think that’s where much of the university–and even the state–stands as well. Split over whether Garrison did wrong or not, and what those actions or inactions mean for WVU.

Well, today is the faculty senate special meeting to vote on whether Garrison should be forced to resign or be censured.

Mind you , this time last year the faculty senate was debating a vote of no confidence, in response to what was seen as a rigged selection process, as well as Garrison’s ties with various politicians throughout the state.

There may be no evidence as to Garrison’s wrongdoing, but I’d like to point out two things. First, this was the kind of problem many faculty members were worried about when Garrison was selected. Second, whether Garrison took action action that was unethical or not, he is perceived as acting in an unethical manner, and is thus tarnishing the reputation of the University (WVU has lost at least $1 million in donations due to the scandal.)

Even if Garrison did not directly influence the committee that gave Bresch her unearned degree, he also did nothing to distance himself from the decision and to reduce the appearance of impropriety. And when you are president of the state flagship university, appearances are just as important as actions.

ADDENDUM the First:
Faculty Senate made a vote of no confidence, and recommended that Garrison resign.

It doesn’t matter in the slightest, since the faculty senate has no power, but apparently the faculty senate overwhelmingly disapproved of Garrison’s actions (77 to 19).

A year ago when the university selected a new President, a lot of people–including a number of faculty and staff–voiced concern about Mike Garrison.

They worried about cronyism and his links to state politicians and his links to the Board of Governors who selected him.

Unfortunately, a year after his selection, he has placed WVU in the national news for cronyism and links to state politicians as an independent panel decided that Heather Bresch was erroneously given her MBA.

Why is this a big deal? Because Heather Bresch is the daughter of WV Governor Joe Manchin. Because when reports first surfaced that she had not in fact earned her degree, her first call was directly to Mike Garrison. Because when a committee was rushed together to look into whether she had earned her degree or not (they were given a single weekend to collect evidence) several Garrison staffers were on the committee. Because despite almost no evidence that she had in fact completed her course work, the committee ruled that she should be granted the credits retroactively and given her degree.

I held my tongue on Garrison’s selection last year, despite my concerns, hoping that he would show that his detractors were wrong. But now, a year after his selection, it seems that my concerns may well have been justified.

Mike Garrison, when you are in the public eye, when you represent WVU, you must act in a way that is above suspicion when it comes to the University. If there is any doubt as to the ethics or morality of an action, you must err on the side of caution, keeping the reputation on the University in mind. You failed to do that in this situation, and have instead tarnished the reputation of WVU.

This is not a good way to celebrate the anniversary of your selection.

For the first time since I’ve been voting in the primaries, WV is going to have a say in the presidential primaries.

This means that for the first time in years, lots people are going to actually be voting in the state and local primaries.

Which is why I would like to point out that Chief Justice Elliot “Spike” Maynard is up for reelection this year. (Yes, WV elects supreme court justices. That’s another subject entirely.) Previously, I had no problems with Spike Maynard. But that was before his ties to Don Blankenship became public knowledge.

Who is Don Blankenship?

He is an out of state coal baron who spent millions of his own money in an attempt to put his own people in WV politics. Luckily, last election this backfired. Unfortunately, he’d already bought a seat on the Supreme Court.

Before you think he’s just some guy who is interested in WV politics because he works in the state, this is a man who assaulted an ABC reporter. “If you’re going to start taking pictures of me, you’re liable to get shot“. He helps to run non-union mines that have had a high number of fatal accidents in recent years. And ran a nasty campaign under the aegis of for the sake of the kids when he had in fact no interest in helping WV children. “You talk about the silo near the Marsh Fork School as if it were a negative. You should know that the silo, if anything, is an improvement for the school.”

So yeah, I think local politics are pretty important. And although we haven’t heard anything from Blankenship so far, we need to keep in mind who his friends are, and make sure they don’t end up helping to run the state.

I just didn’t have anything much to say, other than gratuitously insulting Nathan.

Blue & Gold game is tomorrow (if you click on the link, please notice that all profits benefit the Children’s Hospital), so we did the shopping tonight, because this side of town gets a little messy when there is football–of any sort–over the hill.

The good part, is that I may be able to get a little gardening in before it rains. (Insert long discussion about compost here.)

Oh yeah, don’t forget it’s Tax Day if you’re in the US.

We mailed our checks last week. Wasn’t too bad. And like John Scalzi says, we do get benefits. I’m particularly fond of the Interstate highway system, public education, and the Center for Disease Control myself.

So pay your taxes if you owe ’em. Then we’ll wait patiently for our stimulus check (which will be coming quite late for us, since we’re towards the end as far as SSNs go. Ah well.)

My only wish is the WV would fix it’s tax code, because even though Michael and I are both getting the max taken out of our paychecks (and then some in his case) we still owe the state.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time for the local Ramp Festivals!

April 19th is the Richwood Ramp Festival. (The website is painful, but does have some interesting information.)
April 26th is the Randolph County Ramp Festival.

And before you ask, not I’m not going to any Ramp festivals. I’m not THAT nuts.

Other good news on the WV front.

WVU School of Medicine was ranked in the top ten schools for Rural Health. But I think the most important part of the Rural Medicine program is that it has significantly increased the number of medical practitioners who go into primary care, and more importantly who go on to practice in rural areas.

Remember when I was all happy about good work news? It’s public now.

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Laura Roth as Assistant Vice President for Information Technology. This is a new position that will integrate all technology resources at the Health Sciences Center into a unified support structure. This includes networks, databases, telecommunications, the help desk, academic technologies, Computer Based Learning Center, classroom support (ETRU), telemedicine (MDTV), and web services for the School of Medicine.

Laura is perfectly suited to this new position. She started as a programmer with the University 23 years ago and has been the director of HSC Information Systems Operations for the last 12 years. Laura has received national recognition for her leadership here and has been a frequent presenter at AAMC meetings regarding technology issues.

I am confident that under Laura’s leadership the WVU Health Sciences Center will continue to create, innovate, and improve our information technology systems to meet the needs of a growing faculty, staff, and students. Please join me in congratulating her on this new position.

Laura is my boss’s boss, but I have had continued direct interaction with her since I started here in 2000. She has always taken the time to listen to our needs, and has done her best to look out for us. That the restructuring is going to be under her command gives me hope that some of the strain will be taken off my department and and our sibling department, the help desk.

But mostly I’m happy to see her get a promotion.

Just got some good news at work. Won’t be public for a few days, but I have hopes that it will make our lives a lot easier here in the coming months.

Wheee!

Avoid the following dates:

Sat, Aug 30 – Villanova
Sat, Sep 27 – Marshall
Sat, Oct 4 – Rutgers
Sat, Oct 11 – Syracuse
Thu, Oct 23 – Auburn
Sat, Nov 8 – Cincinnati
Sat, Dec 6 – USF

Unless of course you want to come sit on my porch and watch the drunks go by, in which case, COME ON DOWN!

The Steelers just signed a new contract with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. I didn’t pay much attention to this until I heard the following quote:

This is about being a Pittsburgh Steeler for as long as I can be. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I love Pittsburgh. I love the fans. I love the organization and I don’t want to go anywhere.

Danger! Danger!

WVU fans have heard similar things before!

I plan on being at West Virginia the rest of my career.

Hopefully Roethlisberger is a man of his word and not a big fat liar.