This morning, there’s this article in the Ann Arbor News,“Eastern Michigan University admits errors and outlines changes.” To quote from the lead in the article in the paper (which is different from what’s available on the web) :
In a marked about-face, Eastern Michigan University apologized for errors it made in the University House project and promised to do better in the future.
In its official response to the state audit of the president’s house, EMU said a number of changes are already in place to make sure errors are not repeated. “We’re ready to move on,” said John Beaghan, vice president for business and finance who prepared the response. “We’re saying ‘this is what happened, these are the changes that have been made, let’s move on.'”
On the one hand, this is obviously a good thing because finally, FINALLY, the administration has admitted that they’ve screwed up. On the other hand, this “let’s just move on” response doesn’t seem enough to me. I mean, don’t people generally lose their jobs for these kinds of mistakes? Arguably, that’s what has already happened with Kirkpatrick (the former president) and Schollaert (soon to be the former provost). But it seems to me there are a couple of other folks who should have to do more than say “sorry” for this mess.