I have to admit that I always thought that the U of Texas really should not be allowed to be in Texas and enjoy the support of a bunch of hard-working Texas success stories
–UT and its lefty faculty should be exported to Illinois or maybe Massachusetts where the progressives would appreciate them more than any sensible American would.
They proved it to me this past 2 years.
What a crock of cow manure the UT faculty and student body has become–I can’t blame the student body too much, since they have no sense.
I never liked their commie faculty or their leftist claptrap, but this scandal is too much.
All you jackasses who think that Universities are so special, just read this crap and get sick on you own time.
http://spectator.org/articles/58771/university-texas-show-trial
You have made an interesting connection here. The critical connection in the UVA case was that “proprietary information” included anything that could lead to to “competitive harm”. Finding out that politicians can get their kids into the law school with less than stellar grades would lead to a reduction in the application of other students – thus “competitive harm” (since students are what universities compete for).
This is why the UVA decision is so far-reaching – it takes the time-limited confidentiality required to consider whether research results constitute valuable IP (and to apply for such IP protection) to a whole new level. Any information which could be considered as negative to a Universities standing with potential clients (students) is now not subject to FOI.
Coincidentally, today the Supremes have upheld the ‘right’ of the University of Virginia to withhold information from FOIA requests even though that information was bought and paid for with public money, and used to forge (pun intended) public policy.
State “flagship” universities evidently have developed a sense of privelege and entitlement that mirrors that of the least transparent Federal Administration in history.
The only ‘upside’ I can see is that, historically, tyrannies are generally maintained by obsessive types who document *everything*, even if it is intended never to see the light of day, although it can eventually become public information – in a few decades.
The only thing surprising about this article is that a faculty member would make the backroom policy public. The T-sips are just compounding the problem by trying to sweep it under the rug. The truth is that every major university has the same back-room, under the table admissions policy – all of them. Why do you think they name buildings after someone?
This article doesn’t say anything about the faculty or research, it just confirms my long-held belief that a school is only as good as the children attending it.