Joan Gabel has been named 19th chancellor of the of the University of Pittsburgh.

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Tlsbhansen said:
Would be interesting to see what our "take home" income is related to other states. In your mind, being educated makes you better than those that work for a living? It is good there are so many non-educated workers who can pay for loan forgiveness for all of the $60,000 a year "educated" baristas with English Lit majors.
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That's a huge leap and assumption on your part.
 

Dakota2 said:
I was stating facts. In my world, facts are facts and stand by themselves. I know in your world that cannot be allowed. Only that which supports your delusional useful idiocy can be mentioned.
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Sure thing.
 

Dakota2 said:
Actually, South Dakota has become a net gainer of population while Minnesota is now a net loser. This is even more true when it comes to productive people (those fitting the description of best and brightest).
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Not sure what report you saw, but the US Census Bureau reports otherwise. Yes SD is gaining more people, but so is MN, just at a slower rate.

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Dakota2 said:
Actually, South Dakota has become a net gainer of population while Minnesota is now a net loser. This is even more true when it comes to productive people (those fitting the description of best and brightest).
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Name checks out.
 

Dakota2 said:
Actually, South Dakota has become a net gainer of population while Minnesota is now a net loser. This is even more true when it comes to productive people (those fitting the description of best and brightest).
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Curious, if the place is such a nirvana why don't more than 895,000 people live there? You'd think they'd be moving to SoDak in droves for all those quality of life benefits you claim the state offers. Per population size in the 2020 census South Dakota would rank as the U.S.'s 15th-largest CITY. Has to be some reason why more people don't live there. Can't be the winters because Minnesota has 6x the population and weather that's every bit as brutal.
 


Dakota2 said:
Most educated in terms of years of indoctrination. Not the same as educated.
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I had to laugh at safer... Y'all ain't going to come down n fuck with these here dumb hillbillies.. who I guarantee you are happier and safer...


Oh and slightly higher taxes is laughable.....
 
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Off-GridTNgopher said:
I had to laugh at safer... Y'all ain't going to come down n fuck with these here dumb hillbillies.. who I guarantee you are happier and safer...


Oh and slightly higher taxes is laughable.....
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Random guy from Tennesse enters the conversation for some unknown reason 🤔.
 


Fox News has leaked out over every discourse in America like an old syrup bottle that tipped over in the back of the fridge.

What does all of this have to do with Gopher Football?
 



50PoundHead said:
It hasn't been an easy-go for her from the start given COVID descending upon the world and everything that happened after. So she had a full plate. That said, she made some missteps. Much to do and I don't know if this batch of regents is up to the task of both replacing her and getting a new president in place.
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Are you talking about replacing Sviggum? Or otherwise, I don't get what you mean by the bolded. Aren't those the same thing?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't mean this in mean way, but I'm not sure how much more I can lay it out.

Lets say the head of MNDot owned a license plate company on the side. Then MNDot started using that license plate company. Every person who needs a new license plate has to buy it from MNDot and MNDot buys it from the company.

Do you think it's likely that MNDot chose that license plate company for reasons that are in the best interest of the taxpayers (Cheaper, reliable, quality, etc.)? It's impossible to tell because there is an obvious conflict of interest.

The head of MNDot's interest, in their position as the head of MNDot, is to look out for the best interests of the taxpayer $. They essentially are a fiduciary to the public's money. The obvious conflict would come in that they would have an interest in their license plate company being picked by MNDot whether or not it's in the best interest of the tax payer. The conflict of interest occurs whether or not the license plate company was really the best bid.

Keep in mind, the companies that are putting these people on their board know this as well. It's the reason they put these people on their board - they are hoping for favorable treatment. It's why board rooms are full of former presidents, former politicians, etc.
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The hypothetical scenario you lay out is a clear, blatant conflict of interest, no doubt.

I'm not sure I understand how or agree that it is a valid analogy to Gabel being on the Securian board.

Aren't the following true:
- Gabel would be paid $X for service on the board, regardless how Securian did as a company, and regardless if they picked up additional work from the U
- the work they were doing for the U had already been agreed upon before Gabel was offered the board seat, and possibly (probably?) before she was even named president here
- Gabel doesn't "own" Securian, but may have held stock of them (don't know)
- it's not unusual for a major university president to be on a board
- the U Regents offered/told(? this part is more murky, not sure if this can be clarified) that she could be on a board as part of how they got her "total" compensation up higher

The last part especially, UPitt exactly said that she could do that, and is how they were offering her "total" compensation that I believe is 40% higher than what she was making here.



I can totally understand that it was going to, and she should have known better, look bad. That's fine, I don't need to challenge that necessarily.

I'm challenging that there was actually the potential for a bad thing to happen here. So far, no one has been able to articulate hypothetically why this is, which I find odd if it is so obviously a blatant offense.
 
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hello-world said:
This is a mountain.

The issue isn't her taking a board seat. It's that she tried to take a board seat at Securian, specifically. In other words, she was going to get paid ~$100K per year in passive income by a investment manager to do nothing. Her biggest asset to Securian was her position at one of their biggest clients.

The U pays Securian to manage part of its endowment. If the U can't impartially judge its investment advisors without conflicts of interest then it can't act in the best interest of the endowment. She should have been fired on the spot for trying to accept that position and Securian shouldn't have offered it in the first place.

It was a bribe.
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These are quite the hyperbolic statements.

You're saying because Gabel is on the board, advising the company about things completely unrelated to the U (for all you or anyone knows, she could have recused herself from the room if the U came up) .... that renders the entire finance dept in the CFO's office incapable of judging how the investments have gone and if they should terminate Securian's contract in favor of some other company.

That seems like an incredible reach.

hello-world said:
Nobody would care if she had taken the same position at Target. (In fact, would probably see it as a good thing).
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And then "suddenly, out of nowhere" Target agrees to be the headline sponsor on a brand new basketball arena and a new Target store opens on campus.

You can always cook up scenarios to make someone look bad, when those scenarios haven't actually happened.
 

Scottsdale Gopher said:
This is noble, but high-level execs serve on boards so that they can network with one another and help each other further the interests of their own organization and the region where their company operates. Such a policy would have a detrimental effect on the University as it would significantly reduce the ability of the lead executive to collaborate with the organizations in the region that can help fulfill the University's mission.
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Not to mention the lack of the ability to attract people to fill the president's role.

It's quite obviously an expected part of the job. You want the University to have good relationships with private companies, for many reasons.

The people taking these roles expect the opportunities, as part of their total compensation.


UPitt just said "yeah, that's fine, sounds good". And I imagine it's not that big a deal at many other major universities in the country.
 



Gophers_4life said:
Also the brutal winters. :(

Keeps housing prices (somewhat) down, though!
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Yeah, after living in so many different places you see how much better MN is warts and all. Not even close. These are places are such disasters that people don't understand until their in the middle of it.
 

mngolf said:
Yeah, after living in so many different places you see how much better MN is warts and all. Not even close. These are places are such disasters that people don't understand until their in the middle of it.
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I remember a friend moving back from Florida noting how it's just nice how folks will hold a door open for you once in a while was a nice change.

Remembering Florida they said: "People budge in line for communion, cut each other off in the church parking lot ..."

I don't know if that's all of Florida or even representative, but man that's rough. It does demonstrate how the little things matter to people.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Are you talking about replacing Sviggum? Or otherwise, I don't get what you mean by the bolded. Aren't those the same thing?
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Good catch. They are the same thing.

Steve Sviggum is not running to remain on the board. I have mixed feelings about that.
 

Dakota2 said:
Actually, South Dakota has become a net gainer of population while Minnesota is now a net loser. This is even more true when it comes to productive people (those fitting the description of best and brightest).
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Gaining population and what he stated are two different things. Gaining or losing population is usually not related to education.
 

proudgopher said:
You must be joking. "Safest?" Most of my relatives and friends don't dare go downtown Minneapolis anymore, especially after dark. Huge change from years past.
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I'm sure the highest level of crime in any state is the biggest city. This was not pertinent to what was stated about the state as a whole. And by the way, the highest per capita crime rates are states south of MN.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I remember a friend moving back from Florida noting how it's just nice how folks will hold a door open for you once in a while was a nice change.

Remembering Florida they said: "People budge in line for communion, cut each other off in the church parking lot ..."

I don't know if that's all of Florida or even representative, but man that's rough. It does demonstrate how the little things matter to people.
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I lived there 6 years. Good ole boy network, transient people and tourists, old people going to die. All people that didn't give a crap about what was best for the state. And everyone who lives in Florida is from somewhere else. The people born there tend to leave. Most people who think Florida is so great have a plane ticket to go home after their vacation.
 

Gophers_4life said:
These are quite the hyperbolic statements.

You're saying because Gabel is on the board, advising the company about things completely unrelated to the U (for all you or anyone knows, she could have recused herself from the room if the U came up) .... that renders the entire finance dept in the CFO's office incapable of judging how the investments have gone and if they should terminate Securian's contract in favor of some other company.

That seems like an incredible reach.


And then "suddenly, out of nowhere" Target agrees to be the headline sponsor on a brand new basketball arena and a new Target store opens on campus.

You can always cook up scenarios to make someone look bad, when those scenarios haven't actually happened.
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I spend most of my week dealing with these kind of issues. There was a clear ethical concern here and it's clear you cannot or do not want to understand why so best of luck to you
 

proudgopher said:
You must be joking. "Safest?" Most of my relatives and friends don't dare go downtown Minneapolis anymore, especially after dark. Huge change from years past.
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Minnesota is a very safe state according to best available data.

Selective reporting and news consumption, along with rural fears of cities stoked by that media have convinced many otherwise. While almost every state has a few bad neighborhoods, by-and-large Minnesota is safer than average by almost any measure and in the Top 10 of a lot of lists.

Most of the other safest states have something else in common - they are blue states.
 

fmlizard said:
Minnesota is a very safe state according to best available data.

Selective reporting and news consumption, along with rural fears of cities stoked by that media have convinced many otherwise. While almost every state has a few bad neighborhoods, by-and-large Minnesota is safer than average by almost any measure and in the Top 10 of a lot of lists.

Most of the other safest states have something else in common - they are blue states.
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A reply to this involving the words "fake news," "George Soros," or "lib source" are all I need for a thread bingo!!! Boo ya!
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:

I can't think of a better indicator that someone is so down the rabbit hole of their ideology, about any topic, that they couldn't possibly understand any other point of view, than to have someone declare "In my world, facts are facts and stand by themselves.".

Granted I'm sure that makes life very easy to make judgment calls on just about anything.
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No better indicator of dumber than Karine than imagining that actual data is comparable to Bernie's "point of view".
 

The Strib has a big editorial today about Gabel leaving and the search for a new President.

an un-named 'editorial writer' says they spoke to a number of people at the Legislature who said Gable rarely if ever showed up to lobby for the U of MN and often failed to testify at hearings on higher-education funding. I would think that would be considered part of the job of the President - but apparently Gable didn't.

the editorial was quite critical of Gabel, and also laid out all of the challenges the U of MN is currently facing.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Curious, if the place is such a nirvana why don't more than 895,000 people live there? You'd think they'd be moving to SoDak in droves for all those quality of life benefits you claim the state offers. Per population size in the 2020 census South Dakota would rank as the U.S.'s 15th-largest CITY. Has to be some reason why more people don't live there. Can't be the winters because Minnesota has 6x the population and weather that's every bit as brutal.
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If a basketball roster was 35, you'd still only play eight or nine. Productive would be preferred over non-productive.
 


Gophers_4life said:
Not to mention the lack of the ability to attract people to fill the president's role.

It's quite obviously an expected part of the job. You want the University to have good relationships with private companies, for many reasons.

The people taking these roles expect the opportunities, as part of their total compensation.


UPitt just said "yeah, that's fine, sounds good". And I imagine it's not that big a deal at many other major universities in the country.
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Not a big deal because major universities around the country are spiraling downward in their academic missions.
 

mngolf said:
Gaining population and what he stated are two different things. Gaining or losing population is usually not related to education.
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Correct. It's related to opportunity.
 


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