UCF Loves Tacky Merchandise

From a reader:

You will probably remember the UCF administration's posturing after Bud Light distributed some gold and black beer cans in the Orlando area. The university is careful not to encourage underage drinking in any way, so athletics licensed this handy belt buckle that also allows young tailgaters to open vintage Coca-Cola bottles.

Rumors

I probably won’t post them, but please keep sending in rumors and gossip about the Provost search…they are very entertaining and help break up the day.

What an Ambitious Little Fellow

From a reader:

Thought you would like to know what I just heard: Hickey has applied to become president of FAU--so much for that cover story of retiring because of age - ha!

They are only Pretending to Search

Except for the first sentence, this is a good article about the search committee for the new Provost. From the article:

Peter Panousis, the dean of the College of Sciences, was chosen to be the chair for the search committee.

He said President John Hitt was the primary person who appointed the committee.

“President Hitt chose people who were known to be positive supporters of the university and could make a very critical analysis of the skills of those we will interview,” Panousis said.

The search committee is made up of 32 members, including the chair, and includes four sections.

Transaltion: Hitt is obsessed with loyalty and picked only those he perceives as being loyal.

Here’s the thing: search committees are Kabuki Theater. Hitt knows or will know who he wants to hire.* This will be signaled to the search committee who will then make sure to recommend his candidate. That UCF is paying money to an outside consulting firm to help with the search shows a total disregard for money.

* Here’s a good rule of thumb for UCF applicants. If you don’t know before you apply for a job with UCF that you are going to get the job, then you probably won’t be getting the job. This is almost always true for USPS and A&P positions and usually true for faculty or administrative faculty (e.g., department chair) hires.

I’m Not the Only One

Recently, I had a nice lunch with some friends (yes, I have friends), and the conversation shifted to UCF. Even though I was the only person at the table with a UCF affiliation, I wasn’t the one to move the conversation in this direction.

One of my friends non-jokingly said “UCF is the MIT of the South.” I started asking for some justification of the statement when another friend, who has an impressive engineering background and no knowledge of this blog or my feelings toward UCF, said “I don’t think having a lot of graduates is the same thing as being MIT.”