Dan Goldin's `hit list' stunned trustees

Boston Globe ^ | November 2, 2003 | Marcella Bombardieri and Patrick Healy

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Boston University's Board of Trustees selected Daniel S. Goldin as president in July after a rushed search and only one brief meeting with him, then found themselves stunned by a series of demands from Goldin, including his plans to fire almost all of BU's top administrators and to live part time at his home in Malibu, Calif., several BU officials and sources close to the trustees said yesterday.

[jazzlite]

Wow! The potential corruption which can go in in the office of college and university presidents is now out there. My husband used to work on a college staff and he told me that essentially, the college president is about raising money, just like a politician, and that he is also, essentially, a dictator. Most of the time the trustees will go along with the head rolling, etc. I guess in this case, the choice was too threatening for people to stay totally quiet.

[Dahoser]

Sometimes the flashlight you need to see things turns up in an odd place. The Columbia investigation should not overlook this insight into the recent history of NASA.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I think the fears had more to do with Goldin than with their positions on the board.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

To think NASA had 10 years of this "leadership."

Goldin told some trustees that he had asked a psychiatrist to analyze Silber, and the psychiatrist concluded that Silber was a "paranoid megalomaniac," according to two sources close to trustees. Source

[Dahoser]

As if the psychiatrist was going to report back that Silber was fine---"Here's a wad of cash, go figure out what's wrong with that arrogant SOB who won't relinquish power to me and thinks I'm out to get him. (Here's the bigger wad of cash you get when you provide your findings on that arrogant SOB who won't relinquish power to me and thinks I'm out to get him.)"

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LOL

Paranoid? Me paranoid?

[Loyal Buckeye]

Based on this article, does anyone think it was a conincidence that BU made a bad hiring decision?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Interesting point. But it seems the selection was pre-determined and assisted by the old ramrod method.

[harrowup]

Goldin was a perfect Clinton sick-o at NASA and no one should wonder why that agency developed such arrogance and distain for self-examination.

Having said that, it would be very hard to out-arrogant Silber.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I don't know Silber but I know Goldin.

He and his adoption of Saganism dug a pit for NASA.

NASA needs a leader and a mission.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

What is hilarious about this is Goldin was paid $1.8 million to leave a job he had never actually started. He was terminated before he was to start work.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Worth every cent to get rid of him.

[Lessismore]

No wonder the US space program is totally screwed up.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes.

[Brian Allen]

<< Sometimes the flashlight you need to see things turns up in an odd place. The Columbia Investigation should not overlook this insight into the recent history of nasa. >>

Goldin was not an odd-man-out at nasa.

He fit into that systemically-corrupt Multi-Billion Dollar scam like a rat into a drainpipe.

[Brian Allen]

<< nasa needs a leader and a mission. >>

nasa needs a garage sale, an accounting -- and a burial.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No, he came in supposedly to cut the fat. He cut the fat but he cut the muscle too. He refused to listen to sound advice and got caught up with Sagan's "search for life" folly and dragged the whole agency into the toilet. Now they "educate" and "inspire." The bloom is off the rose. Good people have left in disgust, good replacements are few and far between. NASA needs a mission. A presidential directive to return to the Moon will get them back on track.

[Semi Civil Servant]

Goldin is more proof that if an idiot can somehow get to the top, most of America's businesses, governments, and institutions will keep offering that idiot top jobs no matter how crappy his past performance. It's pathetic.

"Chainsaw Al" is the prototype.

[Tijeras_Slim]

"The graveyards
are full of indispensable men." ~ Charles De Gaulle