January 20, 2005

"Speak truth to power" and simultaneously help your lesbian lover cash in at the taxpayer's expense

http://www.iSteve.com/05JanB.htm#denton.lesbian

One of the funnier parts of the Larry Summers' Brouhaha was this quote from the NYT:


Several women who participated in the conference said yesterday that they had been surprised or outraged by Dr. Summers's comments, and Denice D. Denton, the chancellor designate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, questioned Dr. Summers sharply during the conference, saying she needed to "speak truth to power."


Yes, I can't think of a better example of Speaking Truth to Power than one university supremo attempting to intimidate another one into not mentioning inconvenient facts.


But the Denice D. Denton Story gets better.


A reader sent me this article from the San Francisco Chronicle:


UC hires partner of chancellor: Creates $192,000 post for Santa Cruz chief's lesbian lover

The University of California has quietly created a new $192,000 management position for the longtime partner of the incoming chancellor at UC Santa Cruz.

Gretchen Kalonji, a professor of materials science at University of Washington in Seattle and an expert in international education, has been hired as director of international strategy development in the UC Office of the President in Oakland. She will also receive a tenured professorial appointment at one of the UC campuses -- possibly UC Santa Cruz.

According to UC President Robert Dynes, Kalonji's hiring was part of the recruitment package offered to her partner of seven years, Denice Dee Denton, an engineer who was appointed last December as the new chancellor of UC Santa Cruz. Denton will start in February and will receive a salary of $275,000 and a moving allowance of $68,750.

In addition to Kalonji's $192,000 annual salary, UC will provide her with the usual faculty housing assistance allowance of up to $50,000 to help with her transition to California and UC and pay her moving expenses. It is a substantial increase from her $134,424 salary at the University of Washington, where she holds the Kyocera chair in the Department of Material Science and Engineering and is director of the University of Washington Worldwide, a program that promotes research and study between students in the United States and abroad...

Her qualifications have not been questioned, but some observers wonder whether UC should be creating new management positions at a time when it is struggling with a budget crisis and is laying off workers, cutting student services and increasing student fees.

One employee union official didn't mince words.

"It makes me sick," said Mary Higgins, an administrative assistant at UCSF and statewide president of UC's clerical union, which did not get a raise this year. "It is a violation of the public trust and it is just more of the same. It is just like it is a total corrupt corporate enterprise."

But UC Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, the former chancellor of UC Santa Cruz and a scientist herself, believes UC should be commended for attracting and hiring two very qualified female engineers.


UPDATE: One Hand Washes the Other Dept.: I just found out a possible personal reason why Ms. Greenwood thinks the Denton-Kalonji deal is so wonderful. M.R.C. Greenwood was recently promoted to Provost (second highest official) of the entire University of California system, and, surprise, surprise, Greenwood's close friend from Santa Cruz Lynda Goff went with her and got an extremely vague-sounding, but no doubt nicely compensated, job as " Executive Faculty Associate to the UC Provost."

Greenwood's orientation is discussed here by an angry lesbian. (Yes, I know that raises the question of whether there are any other kinds of lesbians.)

Let me say it again: It's a racket.

Academic feminism is a financial scam that works to line the pockets of its proponents.


Steve Sailer's homepage and blog is iSteve.com

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