Just thought I’d mention two press releases on the EMU web site. First, there’s this item, “Schollaert resigns, Loppnow named interim Provost; legal affairs department reassigned to president.” The article talks about how Schollaert had been thinking about stepping down as Provost for months because he wanted to get back to teaching, etc., etc. Hmmm. A likely story. Somehow, I think the deal with the infamous house, the fact that both the board of regents and the faculty generally had bad things to say about his work, the faculty union wanted him fired outright, and there has been a fair amount of “house cleaning” around here with the new (interim) president and such, somehow, I think that Schollaert was, er, encouraged to find his way out of administration. His resignation is effective next week, and he’ll spend the rest of this academic year on “administrative leave,” whatever that means.
The other piece of news on the EMU web site is that James Knapp has been named as the interim director of honors at EMU. Jim is a colleague of mine in the English department and a good friend– he came into the department at the same time I did, his kids play with my kid, etc. Jim will be good at this gig, though I personally hope he only does it for a year or so because we need him back in the English department. Of course, the thing is he even looks like an honors director, so I’m worried he might end up staying in that job for a while….