The film Troubled Waters is a documentary by a producer, Larkin McPhee, with impeccable credentials and nearly twenty years experience in the field. Her documentary was pulled at the last minute by a still unclear mechanism. There were claims that the film "vilified agriculture" by a dean at Minnesota.
Unfortunately, it appears that the University of Minnesota would prefer to deflect attention to their PR VP, Karen Himle, rather than acknowledge their own role in the matter. I simply do not believe that Ms. Himle did this on her own. Someone in the administration is responsible for this and they should admit it. President Bruininks? Dean Levine? Provost Sullivan? Who?
I also note another event that casts doubts on the competence of the present administration. I am somewhat surprised at lack of attention by the local media to the release earlier this week (Tuesday) of the decision of an appeals court that the provost of the University of Minnesota had acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner. Although a piece has appeared in the nationally prominent Inside Higher Education, there appears to have been no mention of it yet in the local press.
Irony: Our provost is a lawyer and serial law school dean. He's a specialist in process and procedure and has even written a book on the topic: "Proportionality Principles in American Law."
The lack of judgment shown lately on a variety of topics by the university administration has been appalling. The present administration at the U seems to understand neither the concept of academic freedom, nor that of conflict of interest.
Let's hope that the next president comes from outside with clean hands and that the many mistakes of the recent past are not repeated.
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Added later - Sunday, September 26
