• ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    I have such strong Deja vu from when the university I worked for until recently hired a new president.

    They selected a former Republican US senator who had previously been president of a small private college for one (1) year, before being fired for being so shitty at it.

    In order to make this selection, they broke Florida law which lays out a particular process for selecting a president, which involves publishing a public shortlist of 5 candidates. They claimed at the time that they were unable to do this as they couldn’t find 5 candidates willing to have their name published unless they got the job.

    Which, to me that sounds like something that specifically disqualifies you for the job. There are no technical requirements for the position; You can pick anyone. Literally the only requirement is being okay with your name being on that published list during the interview process.

    If you selected 5 random undergrads, 5 random grad students, 5 random staff members, or even 5 random alumni every single one of those people would’ve been more qualified for the job than the man they went so far out of their way to select. There are only like 10 guys in the country who have failed at being a university president, and seemingly they only looked at the people on that list when trying to select someone. Random lots would’ve had a higher chance of a successful outcome

    He quit after a little over a year, and is now under investigation because he tripled the budget of his office, and spent it on travel and giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to random Republican cronies who were never even in the state. What a great choice!

    I think this shit might piss me off more than anything else about the dictatorship of the bourgeois. We’re constantly told we live in a meritocracy and while I don’t even think meritocracy is good (everyone should have their needs taken care of regardless of their ability) it drives me fucking crazy to see that it’s not even a meritocracy, because if you’re rich and powerful you can literally only keep failing upwards. They will search out the people with the least merit to fill these positions, to the point where drawing lots looks like an incredibly reasonable alternative.

    Idk if it’s just my autism being like “It’s not fair!” or what but it pisses me off