Jay RosenJul 21, 2023

Amazing story. Have you followed it?

Texas A&M announces a new journalism dean. She's black and she's qualified— and an alum of the school! Ex-New York Times too.

They announce her appointment in a splashy event.

Dark forces of reaction mobilize.

The offer is watered down to one year, with no tenure. She says no way, and withdraws. National news is made. It's negative. And today, the president of A&M resigns!

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/21/tamu-president-resign-journalism/

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/11/texas-a-m-kathleen-mcelroy-journalism/

#journalism #uspol #science

Texas A&M President Katherine Banks resigns amid fallout from failed hiring of journalism professor

“The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately,” Banks wrote in her resignation letter. “The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.”

The Texas Tribune
Show threadJay RosenJul 22, 2023

An even more incredible turn in the Texas A&M story, after the president of the University resigned July 20.

The current chair of the journalism department, who recruited Dr. McElroy, released a statement accusing the former president of rank duplicity.

More serious: he says someone altered the draft offer letter to reduce the McElroy appointment from five years to one, without telling him.

It's his signature on the letter.

Read his statement:

#journalism #uspol #texas #science

Show thread🐀 ␆Jul 22, 2023
@jayrosen_nyu A technical observation - one would think that a key requirement of an electronic signature mechanism is that post-facto modification of that which was signed is made extremely obvious, and that the signature is revoked.
Show threadcohomology is FUN!
@walshman23 @jayrosen_nyu I think “electronic signature” is being (mis)used here to mean “image of the person’s handwritten signature”.
Jul 22, 2023 at 6:16pmWeb
Show thread🐀 ␆Jul 22, 2023

@cohomologyisFUN The whole protocol here seems to invite surreptitious modifications.

On a technical level this would be blindingly idiotic as part of a real system, but I bet the thought was that institutional norms would prevent surreptitious mods to signed drafts, and their conversion to final offer letters. Kind of a "gentlemen do not modify each others' mail" thing. We know how that ends.

Show threadcohomology is FUN!Jul 22, 2023
@walshman23 it’s about as secure as a printed letter with an inked signature, given that someone can forge your signature. Which is to say, not very! Especially since the recipient probably doesn’t know what your signature looks like anyways.
Show thread🐀 ␆Jul 22, 2023
@cohomologyisFUN @jayrosen_nyu I think you're right. Sounds almost like there's a Word template out there which has the signature pre-baked. This is an invitation to shenanigans, of course, but as I mentioned in a diff reply that excluded Jay (because he has better things to read), maybe they were counting on "institutional norms" to prevent the shenanigans. Bad plan, but at least the pres was honorable enough to resign, once caught. Like Nixon.
Show threadScissors Cut Paper...Jul 24, 2023

@walshman23 @cohomologyisFUN @jayrosen_nyu

So, many folks in capital P Positions have minions who are delegates and can send electronic and physical communications on their behalf. This is only a problem when someone wants to subvert the system.