Call me old fashioned, but I thought that when a public institution hired someone for a big job, all qualified applicants would get the opportunity to compete for the position. If tax payers are footing the bill, shouldn’t the playing field be level and the process transparent?
Not at the University of Maine, apparently. After handpicking its spokesman for a six figure salary job, it now appears Eliot Cutler has been tapped to lead the new graduate business and law school, named the Alfond Professional and Graduate Center. How lucky for him!
This new school — combining a business and law graduate program — is purportedly going to take the beleaguered USM campus in a “transformative” direction.
Nobody at the University asked me what direction it might head in order to be truly transformative, but maybe that’s because I’m just a lousy civil rights lawyer who lost a statewide election with less than 15% of the vote.
If I had been asked, however, I would politely suggest that the appearance of a good ol’ boys club is nothing new. And surely not transformative.