In which Piers reads about accountability

In examining the news and my email today, I have noticed three items that are far apart in space but conceptually adjacent:

First, it is reported that the professor at the center of one of the uglier scenes at Mizzou this past fall is being charged with a misdemeanor.

Second, I read with interest that the Georgia state legislator in charge of education appropriations has told university administrators that unless they enact due process protections for their students, they can get to work on some serious (and state appropriations free) budget revisions.

Third, I read the acceptable use policy for my university owned computer, and the reminder that every single email sent on a university account is searchable, readable, and should by no means be thought of as private.

None of these developments qualify as what I would call pleasant, but that’s not the point. What they do show is that the university as a broad institution - especially in the realm of publically-funded education - should always be accountable for its actions and the actions of its administrators and faculty. I am free to do anything I wish in this job, pretty much. But I should be ready to answer for what I say and do. So should my colleagues and my multitudinous bureaucrat-administrators. If we will not embrace that notion wholeheartedly, it’ll be done for (to) us.