Let the experts decide Peña-Mora’s fate
The race card has been played over and over during SEAS Dean Peña-Mora’s battle to keep his position, but New York City Council member Ydanis Rodriguiez just initiated a game of 52 Pickup.
Rodriguez, a Dominican-American who represents Inwood, Washington Heights, and Marble Hill (all predominantly Dominican neighborhoods), has led the charge in rallying his residents to steadfastly defend Peña-Mora, who happens to be…you guessed it, a Dominican-American.
However, this sudden rally by Rodriguez is similar to the kind of opportunistic Sharpton-esque behavior that others have used to blackmail communities in defending individuals who merely happen to share a genetic trait. The three-year City Council member recently went as far as as saying, “the community is on alert” for any attempt to remove Peña-Mora. What is this, a hockey team ready to scrap if their star player gets checked into the boards too hard? Have the two even met?
Rodriguez even made a threat in saying, “I hope Columbia understands that their decision will have an impact, positive or negative, on the relationship between Northern Manhattan and Columbia.” This guy sounds more like Tony Soprano than a politician. And if that’s actually the case, the citizens of Northern Manhattan seriously need to readjust their priorities.
Where was Rodriguez when Moodygate was in full swing? Why didn’t he rally the troops to start a letter-writing campaign when provost Claude Steele and GS Dean of Students Scott Halvorson recently left? His surely lifelong passion in higher education employment decisions probably could have been of great help in holding onto our elite faculty.
I’ll admit that I don’t know much about the inner details of the SEAS kerfuffle. (And it seems neither does the rest of campus.) It appears nearly all the faculty wants him gone, and that many alums are dissatisfied as well. It also seems like he’s well liked among students and had a decent track record of success, including significantly raising SEAS’s ranking.
But Rodriguez seems to think his opinions belong among those of students and faculty who have had close personal relationships with Peña-Mora, know his workplace protocol, and have worked with him for years, simply because the councilman shares the dean’s ethnicity and former zip code.
Some of the quotes from Rodriguez’s rally are entirely ethnocentric. “He is one of our own. He’s from our own backyard,” said one Washington Heights resident and Columbia student. “The most important thing about Dean Peña-Mora is that he’s given all minority youth someone to look up to.” While it’s great that Peña-Mora gives minority youth someone to look up to, that role model doesn’t have to be restricted to someone of a particular ethnicity, and just because Feni may no longer hold his current job doesn’t mean he has to go door to door and tell every little kid in Washington Heights that he’s no longer suitable to be their hero.
Look, as much as I love people who also happen to be from my home neighborhood or coincidentally share my ethnicity, I’d argue that the ability to maintain dozens of departments at one of the world’s top universities, look out for the financial and intellectual health of the college, and lead the school into the 21st century all rank a little higher up on the importance scale when evaluating Peña-Mora’s job performance.
As a fellow Hispanic, I suppose Peña-Mora and I share the same ethnicity. But unlike Councilman Rodriguez and the residents he’s trying to rally behind him, I couldn’t care less that Peña-Mora and I happen to share a similar heritage. By Rodriguez’s standards, I should go on a hunger strike the next time a right-handed six-foot-two brown-eyed male professor is on the hot seat. I care a hell of a lot more that our engineering school is led by a fully competent dean who can direct the school into the murky Cornell-NYC future, maintain a cutting-edge curriculum, and have the full respect of students and faculty. If that guy happens to be Peña-Mora, then great. If not, so be it.
Whatever decision you make, PrezBo, make it solely based on your, the Board of Trustees’, and SEAS faculty’s opinion of Peña-Mora’s ability to perform his job. But don’t let this bully from a few blocks north influence your vote.
Jim Pagels is a Columbia College senior majoring in American Studies and English. He hopes Ydanis blindly backs him up if Spec ever decides to fire him.
That is incredibly racist to blindly support someone that you know nothing about, purely for their race. Don’t you want to most qualified person to have the job whomever that may be? Can you imagine if all white people rallied to vote for Romney over Obama because of their skin color. This is outrageous. Support Pena Mora because he a brilliant, a good leader, bringing in donations, building buildings, making discoveries, not becasue of his race. if the only think you can say about him is that he is Dominican and as a result is coronated in his position is pathetic.
“Support Pena Mora because he a brilliant, a good leader, bringing in donations, building buildings, making discoveries,”
We would… except he’s not at all a good leader.
What dean builds buildings?
“Can you imagine if all white people rallied to vote for Romney over Obama because of their skin color.” I don’t have to. That’s reality…
And, please, STOP using the word “racist” incorrectly. Educate yourself.
Many people WILL in fact do just that… Remember we live in a Country where segregation was acceptable and simply because the laws changed you can’t believe the sentiments are not lurking over us today.
What about students and alumni’s voice Jim Pagels? Just the Faculty and the Board of Trusteess’ opinions? Then why are you spewing opinions about how PrezBo should act, considering you are a student? Shouldn’t you include students in this conversation?
Spec has been committed to trying to get students’ opinions heard on this issue this year and I think a number of students, especially SEAS students, were able to do so through the plethora of articles published about Pena-Mora and opinion pieces critiquing both his competence and the overall administration of the university. This year, a committee was formed with students for input on deciding who the new CC dean would be – do you honestly think that opening up a dialogue online so people can post anonymously and pedantically like you did? Do you really think that would be at all productive?
Jim, thanks for “spewing” your opinions, as they say. This is the right medium, the right direction, and the right point to be made.
well said, dq
I also like Peña Mora as a person, but that’s irrelevant.
The problem here is that this is an academic matter, not something to be solved by popularity contests or picket lines. In this context, I’m afraid that this kind of demonstrations actually hurt Peña Mora’s case rather than helping it. Furthermore, turning it into a racial discrimination case when it isn’t hurts the general cause of minorities, since employers might become reluctant of putting them in such positions.
“…any attempt to remove Peña-Mora…”
Attempt? Seriously? As if the administration might try but fail? If he gets fired he gets fired. There won’t be any “attempt” for the community to oppose.
Pena-Mora isn’t “Dominican-American”, he’s just Dominican.
…is white. And only 6’1″. Don’t let this fraud fool you.
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Thanks for your post. I would like to comment that the tafrif of car insurance varies widely from one plan to another, mainly because there are so many different facets which contribute to the overall cost. Such as, the make and model of the car will have a significant bearing on the fee. A reliable outdated family car will have a lower priced premium when compared to a flashy sports vehicle.
Read the daily news article by Juan Gonzalez …. Our speculations of race are substantiated by other professors… No what????
Be careful what the eiehblssamtnt tells you. The blue man was an extreme case? of misuse drinking gallons of untested colloidal silver he made at home. Silver has been used for thousands of years without problems. Now that Big Pharma is threatened, they have to put out false and incomplete information to continue to make big profits. Colloidal silver is cheap, effective, fast, and you don’t need a prescription. See the problem? They can’t make money off of you! Wake up.
The daily news article includes testimony of half a dozen clueless people.
Essentially all what they say is wrong.
The writer is probably a partisan (Juan Gonzales).
He found one faculty members that support Feni.
What about the 98 who want him to resign???
Are they all racists? By the way, very few of them are white.
The faculty keeps quiet and mostly do not talk to the media.
They want it to be solved internally.
I agree. Note that the one professor they found to support Feni is NOT in SEAS.
I still have not been able to find evidence of ANYONE supporting Feni who has worked with him closely. He’s a charmer, and people who have not worked with him closely tend to really like him. But it seems like anyone who worked with him for any length of time… loses trust and respect.
I love this swissmiss What’s wrong with liettng people know its been retouched. I just assume every image I see has been touched’. I also take issue with the hanger’ ideal of womens bodies on models. Linda, Christy, Naomi, and Cindy were all outrageously beautiful and unattainable but they were real with real womens bodies not 12 year old girls bodies.
Satan is just a metaphor. Human bengis are made of light and darkness. The light is God or the creative energy of the universe. The darkness is Satan or the absence of light. This material world belongs to Satan or the darker side of man and his attachment to this material plane. This material world vibrates on the lowest level of existence or light. Hence this world is hell and belongs to Satan or man in his absence of light. The lowest level. When Jesus struggled with Satan he was only battling the darkness in himself. When man evolves his spirit or energy, he will vibrate on a higher level of light. Man will no longer be bound to this dimension. He will walk in light between all dimensions and become pure light or God. Then man’s material existence will become the Kingdom of Heaven and he will become like the Christ. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. This is physics and metaphysics. Simple. God and Satan are just metaphors for the condition of our existence. We are still struggling to find God or light in ourselves. This WAS one of the great mysteries of the spirit. With the emergence of the New Physics and the study and use of Entheogens, man is at the verge of storming the gates of heaven. The metaphor is no longer a great secret.I don’t know what she’s talking about.
When all things are taken into consideration, it appears rather obvious that when almost 90% of the tenured faculty in Engineering are unhappy with the Dean with documented reasons, the dissatisfaction occurring over several years, that sentiment has to be given the #1 priority, wherever it leads.
RJvG
Well I took the test and found the results inntteseirg. Below are my results.Your Brain Usage Profile:Auditory : 61%Visual : 38%Left : 57%Right : 42%jess, you are mildly left-hemisphere dominant while showing a slight preference for auditory processing. This overall combination seems to indicate a well-working blend of logic and judgment and organization, with sufficient intuition, perception and creativity to balance that dominance.You will at times experience conflict between how you feel and what you think which will generally be resolved in favor of what you think. You will find yourself interested in the practical applications of whatever material you have learned or whatever situation you face and will retain the ability to refine whatever knowledge you possess or aspects of whatever position you are in.By and large, you will orient yourself toward intellectual activities and structure. Though not rigid, you will schedule yourself, plan, and focus on routine and continuity of operations, rather than on changes and disruptionsWhen changes or disruptions occur, you are likely to consider first how to ensure that such disruptions do The same balance is reflected in your sensory preference. You will tend to be reflective and measured in your interaction style. For the most part, you will be considered objective without being cold and goal-oriented while retaining the capacity to listen to others.Preferentially you learn by listening and maintaining significant internal dialogues with yourself. Nevertheless, you have sufficient visualization capabilities to benefit from using graphs, charts, doodles, or even body movement to enhance your comprehension and memory.To the extent that you are even implicitly aware of your hemispheric dominance and sensory style, you will feel most comfortable in those arenas which emphasize verbal skills and logic. Teaching, law, and science are those that stand out among the professions, along with technical sales and management.