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es to such basic accoutrements of civilization as you know lights and refrigeration is it time to consider burying power lines so they ll be less vulnerable to the extreme weather events that seem likely to occur with alarming frequency in the world brought about by our stubborn refusal to reckon with global warming can de regulated union busting utilities like the justly maligned pepco be expected or compelled to do a better job of getting customers back online when mass outages occur with little advance warning as was the case with the sudden violent storm that occurred on the sweltering evening of june 29 or is it time to hunker down with our ukuleles and our generators and admit that we are in this as in so many things fundamentally screwed and on our own ah kids modern life the feisty old broads of roxie s world know better than to be nostalgic for any mythical good old days because the good old days were always already complex and flawed and unjust to whole bunches of people still they are tempted from time to time to sigh that things are a bit less pleasant than they used to be my typist pauses here to check on which character it is in flannery o connor s story a good man is hard to find who declares that everything is getting terrible turns out it is not the doomed talkative grandmother but red sammy owner of the barbecue place filling station where the family stops for lunch before the grandmother s flawed recollection sets up their fateful rendezvous with the murderous misfit everything is getting terrible it s a useful funny haunting line even if one doesn t share red sam or the grandmother s nostalgia for a brutally ordered past sometimes even one strenuously committed to seeing the glass as half full is inclined to feel that perhaps a lot of things are getting rather terrible all those complicated questions of power are however above my pay grade instead of answers or recommendations all i have to offer are a few photos that document the devastation wrought by the derecho in the physical space of roxie s world they also document pepco s failure nearly two weeks after the storm to clear the neighborhood of potentially dangerous debris here for example is what is left of the utility pole that was brought down by a large tree in the yard right across the street from the moms house the photo was taken on monday but the large piece of pole is still dangling out over the street in the middle of thursday afternoon at night that dangling remnant is just about the spookiest thing you ve ever seen and whenever the wind blows moose s heart skips a beat or two as her post derecho stress disorder kicks in and she wonders what might happen if another big storm kicks up while that pole is still hanging around the next photo shows the two pole solution pepco contrived over on the moms side of the street after the top quarter of our pole snapped off in the storm workers installed a new much taller pole right next to the old one which still seems to have the wires for phone and cable running off of it moose calls this photo bi polar disorder finally up in the next block you see what s left of a massive tree that fell right across the road and landed on a car these neighbors are trying to sell their property which right now looks as the sign says impressive but not in a way likely to entice buyers all photos by moose 7 9 12 woodcutters of the world i invite you to roxie s world there s a fortune to be made in chopping up firewood for winter the moms promise to buy a cord or three to prepare for the power outages the next snowpocalypse will undoubtedly bring and pepco my pepco is it any wonder your name is a curse word the nasty hilarious song on everybody s lips no it is no wonder at all we ll embed the song and dedicate it to our good friend physioprof who will appreciate the salty anglo saxon vocabulary srsly pepco how hard can it be to clear a f cking tree your customers long to know peace out and leave the lights on baby posted by roxie smith lindemann at 2 55 pm 6 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels takoma park weather wednesday july 04 2012 you light up my life photo credit moose 7 3 12 south haven mi happy fourth of july darlings the moms and ms ruby are in michigan fortunately where there is electricity and air conditioning and unspoiled food and a really big pretty lake which is good because back home five days after the epic what the heck is a derecho anyway that struck the dc area the house still does not have power we ll spare you the anti pepco rant for now but if you really want one go here it s a holiday and we ve got a parade to get to ms ruby and cousin scooter will be sporting patriotic dog gear what will you be wearing wherever you are we hope you have power today and fun lots and lots of fun peace out posted by roxie smith lindemann at 10 07 am 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels holidays weather tuesday june 26 2012 sullivan s laws question of the day how could a university president hired from the outside who s only been on the job for two years inspire such fierce loyalty that faculty students staff and alumni from all over the state would interrupt their lives and summers to stage a mass insurrection against an ill conceived and badly managed plot by a corporate board to force her to resign answer for the ages it s right here in a wapo story on how hard university of virginia president teresa sullivan a leader with a relationship based relationship centered presidency worked in those two years to win hearts and minds in charlottesville you should go read the whole story but here s the money quote from the start sullivan outlined what she called sullivan s laws never surprise an administrator never punish the messenger don t hide bad news meet it head on people and time are our greatest resources don t waste them when dealing with a difficult matter don t leave anyone out or else be prepared for fallout we ll pause here briefly while you all swoon over such inspiring common sense from an academic administrator who gets that strong effective leadership is first and foremost about listening and honesty crazy no wonder they wanted to dump her also however i m thinking someone should take that sentence about dealing with difficult matters and needlepoint it onto a pillow for rector helen dragas who could definitely use a lesson or two in fallout avoidance don t leave anyone out especially if the person you are thinking of leaving out is like a rockstar goddess among the group of people who will be most affected by the decision you are secretly engineering why because inclusivity is cheaper than paying hill knowlton to clean up your mess any hoos uva s board of visitors meets at 3 this afternoon to vote on sullivan s possible reinstatement wapo games out how the voting is likely to go here paws and fingers in roxie s world are crossed that cool heads and common sense will prevail as the board goes for its big do over we recommend that you follow the action on twitter which has been an amazing source of real time information throughout the crisis at uva even if you are not among the twitterati you can search on the hashtag uva for the latest tweets by the way wapo has done a swell job on this story you d almost think they were still a serious newspaper with actual reporters and everything srsly props to higher education reporters daniel de vise jenna johnson anita kumar and donna st george for thorough thoughtful coverage peace out jeffersonians and if there s any doubt as to where this blog stands on the matter of the people v helen dragas let us dispel it now posted by roxie smith lindemann at 11 51 am 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels higher ed strong women friday june 22 2012 in praise of incrementalism at some point in grad school moose acquired a postcard that has been on a bulletin board in one of her offices or another ever since it must capture a popular sentiment because thirty ish years later the card is still available on the interwebs here tis moose has shown this image to generations of students slogging their way through the often torturously slow process of researching and writing a dissertation it s an image that pops into her head every time she hears some pin headed administrator shriek about the urgency of reducing time to degree as if doctoral programs were assembly lines that could crank out phds as efficiently as detroit once cranked out cars it s an image that also seems relevant to the story that has rocked public higher education over the past couple of weeks the ouster of teresa a sullivan as president of the university of virginia just two years after being unanimously elected to the post by the university s board of visitors though details of what led to sullivan s forced resignation remain murky board rector helen dragas and now former vice rector mark kington who spearheaded the move to dump sullivan clearly felt the new president wasn t moving quickly enough to make changes they felt were needed particularly with regard to online education when sullivan addressed the board eight days after her resignation was announced she offered a full throated defense of her record and leadership style i have been described as an incrementalist it is true sweeping action may be gratifying and may create the aura of strong leadership but its unintended consequences may lead to costs that are too high to bear there has been substantial change on grounds in the past two years and this change is laying the groundwork for greater change but it has all been carefully planned and executed in collaboration with vice presidents and deans and representatives of the faculty this is the best most constructive most long lasting and beneficial way to change a university until the last ten days the change at uva has not been disruptive change and it has not been high risk change corporate style top down leadership does not work in a great university sustained change with buy in does work uva is one of the world s greatest universities being an incrementalist does not mean that i lack vision my vision was clearly outlined in my strategic vision statement it encompasses the thoughts developed by me and my team as to what uva can become in the 21st century and parts of it were incorporated into the budget narrative that you adopted last month sullivan may yet end up retaining her position which in our humble opinion would be about the coolest thing to happen in higher ed since the invention of the three ring binder in 1886 however it resolves this kerfuffle is well worth the amount of time attention and brilliant satirical energy it has taken up lately the chronicle of higher education has an excellent archive of coverage of sullivan s ouster and the aftermath just in case you ve been under a rock and need to get caught up to its credit uva also has an archive of official university responses and news coverage the intensity of the reaction on grounds as they snootily quaintly say in charlottesville and the fury directed at the bov s lack of transparency not to mention decency have been encouraging and inspiring to those of us who have been chafing for years under the yoke of the corporate style top down leadership that has come to dominate so many campuses sullivan s direct assault on that model in her statement to the bov is surprising only because most high level campus administrators are sufficiently drunk on corporate kool aid that they rarely speak unvarnished truth in public we re accustomed to hearing such critiques from cranky bloggers and other malcontents but university presidents these days are cheerleaders whose relentless happy talk in the face of budget cuts and declining wages for faculty and staff demonstrates that they are far more interested in protecting the brand than in telling the truth sullivan s defense of incremental change achieved through deliberate consultative and collaborative processes is a slap in the face to a board that operated largely in secret and seemingly on impulse in reaching one of the most consequential decisions within its power to make it is also however a stirring reminder of how ideally universities operate presidents though they are hired and fired by corporate boards are faculty members too they may be perched atop their campus s administrative hierarchy but the principles and mechanisms of shared governance mean that they are also accountable to those they lead they can t succeed without buy in from those further down the chain of command our blog boyfriend chris newfield argues in an otherwise flawless analysis of the uva debacle that sullivan erred in describing her collaborative method as incremental and conservative this kind of rhetoric allows the board to define her as slow and inadequate in a time of rapid change and to justify executive authority as that which is bold and decisive newfield is right that we cannot afford any longer to allow academic work and administration to fall into the innovation trap which casts as anti innovation anyone who appears to oppose innovation as defined largely by information technology corporations in their equally turbulent and oligarchic markets he s also right that we should concede nothing to management twits and should make the case that forms of reciprocal and relatively egalitarian collaboration generate richer deeper knowledge and more creative and robust solutions than does the thin knowledge and compulsive changes of tack of externally focused managers who respond to the influence that seems most powerful at a given moment all true but there is still joy in roxie s world over sullivan s unapologetic embrace of the term incrementalist our own campus is filled these days with ear piercing calls for innovation and entrepreneurship we ve had a number of conversations recently about the importance of laying claim to those terms and making sure that the work we do and the values we cherish don t get lost in the race to prove that universities are all about what is new and cool and innovative and revenue generating in our view the tougher yet deeply important challenge is to insist that incrementalism and innovation are not necessarily opposing terms we need both on campus and we shouldn t be shy about saying so universities are and always have been engines of innovation all that hoo ha about what goes on in our laboratories hospitals and performance studios isn t just hoo ha it s an accurate description of the incredibly bold original world transforming work that goes on at research universities every day at the same time incrementalism is a deeply ingrained aspect of academic culture perhaps because it is a deeply ingrained habit of the academic mind we may be innovators but we are also scholars we tend to be deliberate and studious not reluctant to change bu...