Incompetence + Willful Blindness - Abstract and Media Release

Phyllis M Wise, Provost and Executive Vice President joined University of Washington (UW) (1 Aug 05). She recently took part in a television series which she claimed culminated a campus-wide effort to define core values as part of a new vision statement. She said that she explored the attributes that make the university "uniquely Washington" and focused on “discovery” as the heart of everything done there: a conclusion derived from a two-year experience. The author states in an equally all-encompassing statement based upon a twenty-year experience that UW has some of the most unprofessional, unaccomplished, unethical, and corrupt administrators and faculty members in the US.

Allen D Glenn former Dean, College of Education maliciously destroyed legitimate academic credentials of another professor while he claimed two dubious masters degrees and a doctorate himself. Close examination of his attendance at Kansas State Teacher's College and University of Michigan shows distinct anomalies which registrars at those institutions cannot adequately explain. They furnished criteria which do not support the experience or the degrees Glenn claimed. Ironically, Glenn attended University of Michigan during the same period as Wise: Wise spent the normal five-year minimum for masters and doctorate degrees while Glenn spent only two years for similar degrees. Evidently the Wizard of Oz intervened.

That investigation also raised questions about an academically incestuous appointment of Glenn's successor Patricia A Wasley, which certainly smacks of another instance of not what you know, but who you know. The registrar at Western Washington University failed to validate the degrees that Wasley claims.

Wise has reached her level of incompetence as an executive by accepting the position as UW Provost and Executive Vice President at a taxpayer-funded salary of $0.34 million and adopted the same laissez faire policies used by her predecessor to maintain denial of due process of law extant for two decades. Laissez faire policies do not classify as a defense and withholding public records or neglecting to verify or validate information about crimes compounds existing felonies.

Primarily an economic doctrine, laissez faire opposes government regulation or interference so that administrators can operate according to their own rules in violation of law. It effectively grants them impunity. Using laissez faire, Wise has not investigated crimes which she continues to cover up using willful blindness. In law, the term “willful blindness” describes contrived ignorance in which an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for wrongful acts by intentionally remaining unaware of facts that involve personal liability.

Changing the focus on promotion as a reward and increasing compensation for staying in a particular position (with administrative salaries capped commensurate with faculty member salaries) would probably dissuade faculty members from leaving the positions in which they excel. The essence of a good university does not depend upon administrators; instead, it results from a well-developed and well-paid faculty. Presently, the inanimate cart leads and the vibrant horse follows.

Wise must explain how she intends to end the academic abuse and criminal conduct then arrange for punishment of the guilty according to law. Emmert’s current practice of "disappearing" perpetrators with large payoffs then granting them impunity does not suffice. The Emmert and Wise vaudeville duo must quickly learn to comply with law or get out and allow properly trained managers, willing to comply with laws, to replace them.

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