And, what do I read today? The president of a public university has been fired for errors in the enrollment numbers reported:
An internal audit by the university system that was made public last week blamed Mr. McCallum for inflated enrollment numbers, which were posted not only in university documents but also in official reports to the U.S. Department of Education
Seriously, even a drunk monkey could have predicted such developments! (editor: are you drunk now?)
It is like the old Soviet system--keep reporting good numbers all the time. Often this led to awards and honors. In the worst case, you get caught, which is better than not having a job because you are reporting bad numbers!
Universities, which one might think are the arbiters of truth, are now increasingly in the business of self-promotion, which often leads to bullshit, lies, and criminal acts like the North Dakota incident.
Running a university as a business with a focus on enrollment and financial bottom-line also means that we end up in situations like this: neither the university president nor the system's chancellor has any professional academic background, which one would think is fundamental requirement to lead in higher education. Oh well, ... can't do a damn thing about these, eh!
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