no director of admissions

so apparently both final candidates for the position of director of admissions rejected our offers, and after more than a year of searching, we are still without a director of admissions.

i don't know what the reasons for the rejections were, but i can tell you why i would never take that position - it falls under gargano in the university's chain of command. i wouldn't be surprised if this played a role in the candidates' decision. who would want to be in charge of admissions at the flagship campus in a diverse state, when your boss makes remarks in public forums about how students who can't afford to go to university should just go to community college? why would a person with expertise in recruiting a diverse student population work at a college that's increasingly shutting students of color out? how could the director of admissions sell umass to prospective students of color and low-income students, when the administration - with gargano at the front lines - is destroying all the programs that help such students adjust? why would anybody with any talent want to work for a vice chancellor who demands complete conformity and will fire any underling who disagrees with him, even in the underling's area of expertise?

this debacle is just one more reason why that clown and his protective boss lombardi should be sent packing.

new executive; new office manager; new social plans

i haven't been minding this blog lately. but with the crazyness of the end of semester over, and the changing of the guard at the GSS under control, i should be posting more regularly.

the new GSS executive takes over starting tomorrow. that consists of me (uri strauss) as president, anil duman as vice president, ahmed hassan as treasurer, and arnold ssali as executive officer. we look forward to imposing a reign of terror on the graduate students at umass. in the last year, we chastised you with whips. this year, we shall chastise you with scorpions.

we also hired a new office manager, who is a veteran of the GSS - daniel koroma. we look forward to a productive year of working with daniel and our other new staff, to be hired soon.

the GSS social committee, which wasn't able to meet so regularly since its formation in the spring semester, has been meeting regularly this summer. last week we had our first event of the summer - a graduate student get-together at the harp - a pub in north amherst with a nice patio, were we hung out. it as nice, but we need a better turnout than just 7-8 people. we're going again this friday at 5 pm (meet on the patio), and hopefully every friday this summer. we're also planning a BBQ on june 26 - stay tuned for details.

not an ambi-turner

here's what i learned by sitting in on budget hearings today.
first, i learned that this blog has at least one reader (hi susan!).

second, i learned that while mike gargano is perfectly capable of firing people, he seems incapable of hiring them. every office or program that did not have a director when he became vice chancellor on june 1, 2003, or which lost a director since then, seems to not have a director now. in other words, it seems that no new directors have been hired since the gargano first stumbled into the student affairs office.

what does this remind me of? ben stiller's character in zoolander: the model who isn't "an ambi-turner" because he can turn right but not left.

no wonder when the chancellor's plan calls for a new associate vice chancellor in the student affairs area, implementation falls to associate chancellor terry, while the hiring committee is
chaired by dean vanin.

election results

The following are the results of the Elections held on 28th and 29th April:

Executive for year 2005-06

President: Uri Strauss
Vice President: Anil Duman
Executive Officer: Arnold Ssali
Treasurer: Ahmed Hassan

Details of the Election are as follows:

President
Uri Strauss: 204
George Liu: 3

Vice President
Anil Duman: 142
Sally Greenhouse: 57
Will Fisher: 1
Martin Robinson: 1
Pankaj Bansal: 1

Executive Officer
Zhixiong He: 64
Arnold Ssali: 138
George Liu: 71
Pilar Robert: 1
Theresa Perrone: 1

Treasurer
Ahmed Hassan: 204
Zhixiong He: 1
Kerry Pierce: 1
Shahadat Chaudhary: 1
Ambarish Karmalkar: 1
Emre Ozberk: 1
Min Chen: 1

Thanks.

Abhishek Ahuja
Pankaj Bansal
Ambarish Karmalkar