The new president of my alma mater was recently arrested for driving under the influence. He crashed his vehicle, drove on one of his rims for blocks with the cops following him and then refused a breathalyzer. I know this is a troubling time for him and his family and for the university as a whole, but I laughed heartedly when I heard the news this morning. I’m a bad, bad person.
I’m curious how this event will be handled…as we practically choked to death on all the “don’t drink campaigns†while I attended that school in the late 1980s. There’s a little secret about how much drinking goes on there (or did while I was there) because the kids who go there are upper-middle class and privileged and who also happen to be slightly smarter than the average bear.
I’ll be very surprised if the new president doesn’t become the old president soon. Keeping him around could be a good lesson in responsibility (major judgment error, go through treatment, come out humbled and better for it, continue to lead) but I think the Board will go into reputation protection mode and this will be the end of this president’s career at the school.