The president of Mount St Mary’s University was in the news a short while back because of his cavalier attitude towards students: his grand plan for improving student retention scores was to drive away students earlier, before they counted in the statistics, with the comment that This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t. You just have to drown the bunnies…put a Glock to their heads.
The faculty who criticized President Simon Newman, and who supported the students who reported the Glock comment, have been abruptly fired. One of them was tenured. Newman’s explanation?
As an employee of Mount St. Mary’s University, you owe a duty of loyalty to this university and to act in a manner consistent with that duty. However, your recent actions, in my opinion and that of others, have violated that duty and clearly justify your termination,said the letter.Further, the letter said that Naberhaus’s actions
have caused considerable damageto the university and that the university might sue him. In addition, the letter told Naberhaus he wasdesignated persona non grataand banned from the campus.
Wow. Not only does Newman hold a Glock to everyone’s heads, he’s willing to pull the trigger.
Time for a general strike by faculty and students.
Wow, that went from “unfortunate” to “grotesque” in no time at all.
Sounds like the school is going to find itself in the crosshairs of a nasty lawsuit.
Sounds like Simon Newman is unfit for the job. He should be fired, then sued. After all, he set the precedent.
Huh. I bet whomever elected(?) appointed(?) Newman to run Mt. St. Mary’s is regretting it now. He’s going to lose a ton of tuition money and get the school sued into oblivion.
Paraphrased for more accuracy:
Nobody was supposed to know. That’s the key to good marketing, which is what modern education is all about. (As a means to a healthy bottom line)
Criticizing the university president, when he is clearly wrong, is part of that duty of loyalty.
Apart from everything else that is wrong with this situation, I have to wonder where the Glock fetishism comes from. I see it in other places too. Why wouldn’t it be good enough to shoot your students with any other brand of murder weapon?
They did. Newman is NOT the university. Newman is the one who is being inconsistent in his duty to the university. He’s the one who should be fired.
Where is this guy’s bishop? This is a catholic institution, right? What happened to the culture of life? A Glock to the head?
This is exactly why colleges have boards — someone higher up needs to step in and put a stop to this before it spirals out of control.
So, “tenured” means an employee that worked extra hard to stay in their current, untenable position? Does it mean anything else? Didn’t think so.
It is “damaging” to react to a horrific analogy?
In summary:
– A breaks a window.
– A’s employees {B,C,D,E,…Z} react and point to the window
– A fires C, G, & Q, with the rationalization “pointing at the broken window was very damaging, so out they go!!!”
Since A is the president of a teaching school, he’s teaching the wrong lesson.
Apparently Christians have redefined ‘tenure’ to mean you can be fired arbitrarily.
@olav #8:
Exactly. My university, for example, is quite partial to matchlock pistols. There’s nothing which beats the sight of a traditional execution on the lawn in the early morning winter sunlight.
Admittedly a 400 year old pistol has a fairly high chance of misfiring, especially in the wet, but one can just ascribe that to the intervention of a loving God and let the student off with a mild rebuke instead.
Brain-coated Glock$ are a much-prized acce$$ory and can be $old for more.
─────────────────────
On a more serious note, could this also have repercussions on Mount St Mary’s accreditation(s?)?
Olav @8
Because it sounds more bad-ass than “pistol” or the brand names of other guns.
I suspect bad-assery is also why so many guns are all black now when there is no need for them to be.
@17 I would legislate all guns be painted pink. Might help with the toxic masculinity aspect of gun culture.
Sounds like a dry run for a Trump presidency
This is why unions exist.
Good idea, sugarfrosted. Also, it might help if guns looked like female anatomy. And the trigger was the clitoris. Think of the lives that would be spared!
Classic strategy: Do something horrible and then blame the resulting problems on the people who point out the problem. What an assface.
Glock’s are cool to gun folks. It’s the most popular pistol among American law enforcement, commanding 65% of the market per Wikipedia. They have a polymer plastic frame so they’re lighter than the similar M1911 service pistol by a pound or so. If you have to carry it hung from your hips all day, then weight can start to matter. They are also popular among folks who conceal carry.
Besides, it sounds really badass to say “put a Glock to their head” whereas “put an M1911” just doesn’t have the same panache…I guess.
I would vote that President Newman become ex-President Newman or former President Newman soon but I won’t be holding my breath.
Cue a parade of idiots who will say “no problem here, if you embarrass your boss in private industry you’d get canned, so that’s how it should be.”
(Note: that’s only true if your boss is an assface. A good boss would promote you.)
I would say it’s a Glock because that is the fashion today
instead of just a gun to the head, or a .45 to the head or a .38 or a .357 to the head or even a Colt.
(When you are raising bunnies you do not cull with a gun of any sort actually)
this is cool though to watch this little story unfold. I can’t wait for the next development!
uncle frogy
As an employee of Mount St. Mary’s University, you owe a duty of loyalty to this university and to act in a manner consistent with that duty.
Academic Freedom does not apparently include speaking your mind.
What, other than write hagigraphies about the president, are they free to do?
This is a catholic institution, right? What happened to the culture of life?
Flaming swords are awkward; they set off the fire sprinklers and attract douchebros.
I think he liked the term “Glock” because it’s monosyllabic.
@20 “This is why unions exist.”
The last line of the article is apropos, indicates that the 2 professors who were fired were 2 of 12 (out of about 150 faculty at that university) to recently form a chapter of the AAUP at MSM. The AAUP is a professional association that houses a union as part of its umbrella organization…
Not anymore, they don’t. They’re barely hanging on for survival, and the Supreme Court may just strike the death blow soon.
We really are all bunnies, perhaps now he has been introduced to the Monty Python bunny.
Oh, look, they’re playing his song.
Okay, I’ll admit that I only skimmed it. But I think firing Glocks at bunnies after they’ve been drowned is just overkill.
Glockoma: a disorder in which all problems are seen as solvable with a gun.
@34
Totally stealing that
Robro@23
Glock’s are cool to gun folks.
eh. gun folk also complain about them endlessly. They’re basically the coca-cola of guns. They have brand recognition, are inexpensive, and, despite numerous health and quality control problems remain reasonably popular for that.
honestly, I think the monosyllabic thing actually is a major part of it. It allow it to maintain a mindspace based on half-remembered bits of nothing. As idiots who say things like this are never going to say you have to shoot the bunnies with a M1911. Or a Fabrique Nationale or Heckler and Koch goddamn anything. That’s too much word to remember.
Although I realize this is probably more information on the topic than anyone else here cares about.
Given how chest-thumpingly ‘Merican most gun nuts are, I’ve always found the popularity of the Glock (which is made in Austria) to be a little strange.
psanity at 32:
I was gonna say. Is this guy really Caldwell B. Cladwell in disguise? Someone needs to tell this guy his way of life is unsustainable!
Like AutoCAD, in other words.
(Although, I don’t think Glocks have flavor variations that are consistently amazing yet existential-despair-for-humanity-inducingly unpopular, so Coke isn’t the best example).
UncleFroggy: “When you are raising bunnies you do not cull with a gun of any sort actually”.
Am I wrong in my belief (based on faint memories that must be well over 50 years old…and in any case are not based on personal experience of bunny-culling) that you cull bunnies by using the eponymous “rabbit punch” to kill them (relatively) quickly and painlessly, and without external damage to the corpse?
@Artor, #5
Apparently not. See the statement from the Board of Trustees.
Also worth reading, the editorial response from the Managing Editor of the student paper.
@marcmagus #41:
There were so many hackneyed phrases in that statement that I struggle to place any trust in the Trustees.
Seriously, if you can’t communicate in plain English…
Absolutely read the editorial from the student paper. I wish professional reporters had half as much backbone.
Artor@5 has a faith in university boards that is just weird to me. I’m used to boards being annoyed that the institution would have to pay these mere teachers so much to work barely 6 or 9 hours a week — what a waste of money — and then finding it totally normal to set up hiring contracts for the executive staff like this one:
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/concordia-executive-gets-235000-in-severance-after-90-days-on-the-job
(Three courses is 9 hours in class per week. Assumption is no work occurs outside class hours.)
Poseurs like Glocks.
Jack Reacher likes Berettas….because they remain reliable despite the varying quality of locally available 9mm Parabellum ammunition around the world.
But since the president has the mindset of a gangster, he should try a Tech9. I bet he fires guns slanted sideways, because that is how they do it on film, ignoring the risk of getting the cartridge ejected right into the eye.
New news: Mount St. Mary’s faculty asks president to resign by Monday morning. Looks like Newman will have to fire the entire teaching staff now. And this has made it to Google News. Not a good sign for Simon.