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I am in academics. A chairman of a department would necessarily have a Ph.D. from a major school, most likely one noted in that field where he teaches, ethics in this case.

Most universities expect a Ph.D. among all their instructors, even at the lower levels. This buffoon seems to have no serious training except some at an experimental college which did not keep its wacky program going, from what I read.

Tenured professors are often lazy because they have a lifetime annuity. Many teach from the same notes, decade after decade. Tenure is a joke and should be abolished. That would reduce the incredible overhead at schools.

In technology it was easy to teach upper level courses a few years ago. Now enrollments are down in one school and all the tenured professors have to teach the introductory, required survey courses. That department looks very hang-dog now. Still they get about $60k for teaching 15 hours per week, about 8 months a year. They can do other work on the side, but they must attend boring faculty meetings.

Basically that's what I thought. I just checked the Michigan State University (grew up in Michigan) which has their tenured positions listed in a PDF file http://www.reg.msu.edu/read/ucc/Updated/07faclty.pdf . As I was scrolling down the pages the College of Arts and Letters is headed by Frank Rutledge, M.S. and there are a lot of other full professors and assistant professors with M.S. and M.F.A. degrees. This department seems to be the exception. In the School of Journalism one tenured professor James Thomas Detjen only has an M.A. and he's the John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Environmental Reporting. The College of Social Science is headed by Theodore Curry, M.B.A. There is also tenured Professor with an M.S.. The College of Arts and Letters Department of Theater has an acting chair is an M.A.

These are all exceptions, but someone chairing a department without a PhD does happen.