Arrogance: NDSU Official Says He’s Sick Of Newspapers Covering Petition Scandal
You really have to marvel at the arrogance of North Dakota’s higher education officials. NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor tells the Associated Press that the players have been “vilified” and that he’s tired of reading about their massive petition fraud in the paper.
He instructs the public to “move on.”
Taylor said the players felt terrible about the charges and resulting publicity.
“They were vilified many times over and to come up and perform like they did, it’s hats off to them. I’m tired of talking about it, and I’m tired of seeing it in the paper. People need to move on because it’s not changing,” Taylor said.
Given what a colossal embarrassment this is for the university, both in terms of the crimes committed and the university’s handling of the situation, I’m not surprised that Mr. Taylor wants the public to move on. That he would arrogantly command the media to stop covering the story speaks to what a bubble these university officials live in.
It’s yet another example of why the university system can no longer be trusted to govern itself. People like Taylor and his boss NDSU President Dean Bresciani are accountable to nobody, which is how they get away with this stuff. Those who are supposed to be in charge of the university system – Chancellor Hamid Shirvani and the State Board of Higher Education – feel no obligation to do anything about this situation because they aren’t elected by the public, and aren’t accountable to anyone who is elected by the public.
That has got to change if we hope to avoid spectacles like this one in the future. The independence of North Dakota’s university system must be ended.
Tags: dean bresciani, gene taylor, NDSU, ndsu bison, North Dakota News, north dakota state university
