As Mitch Daniels was leaving the governorship of Indiana, he was named president of Purdue–a major research institution–by a board that he had appointed. Since Daniels was a politician with no scholarly credentials, the appointment must have raised some eyebrows.
The release of emails during Daniels’ governorship shows him to be petty, vindictive, opinionated, and intolerant of views he does not share.
He loathes Howard Zinn and his leftist history of the U.S.
In one email to state education officials, he wrote:
“”This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away,” Daniels wrote, referring to Zinn. “The obits and commentaries mentioned his book ‘A People’s History of the United States’ is the ‘textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.’ It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?”
When he learned that it was indeed used in a university course, he wrote: “”This crap should not be accepted for any credit by the state. No student will be better taught because someone sat through this session. Which board has jurisdiction over what counts and what doesn’t?”
Daniels demanded an audit of a professor who repeatedly criticized his policies.
The story concludes with assurance that Daniels is now a changed man, and all’s well.
and this guy is considered a very credible candidate for the R nomination for President of the United States–
http://bit.ly/wRYZHh
Mitch Daniels: the best presidential candidate not in the GOP race? His Republican credentials as Indiana’s governor are peerless. But conservatives are in no mood for a technocratic moderate
God help us all
I have no problem with non-academicians being university presidents as that possition is one involving a great many things, all of which are non-academic (Dwight Eisenhower, Woodrow Wilson, etc. made acceptable university presidents). I draw the line at idiots, though. I would like to ask Daniel’s if he has read the book. If he hasn’t, why does he have a strong opinion of it? Who has helped shaped his opinion? These are questions leading to how the man form’s judgements, which are proper for determining whether he is qualified to be a university president.
My guess is he hasn’t read the book; he is just spouting a conservative meme.
Woodrow Wilson was an academic and had a PHD before he became president. He joined the faculty of Bryn Mawr College (1885–88) and then Wesleyan University (1888–90). In 1890, Wilson joined the Princeton faculty as professor of jurisprudence and political economy. Wilson was very progressive except when it came to race; he was quite the nasty racist. Howard Zinn was a national treasure, we need more Howard Zinns and fewer Mitch Danielses.
Poor Purdue. As a native Hoosier, and even as an Indiana U grad, I feel for the institution that at IU we referred to as a “mecca for slide rule fanciers”. (Does anyone remember what slide rules were?)
Daniels goes down in history as the anti-public-education guv who spat on the state constitution and started the flow of public funds to private schools through vouchers.
Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
My aunt works at Purdue (as an advisor, I think) and she loves Daniels (she loved him as governor too) precisely because he’s “curt” in her words (“rude” is the word that comes to my mind). He expects everyone to come to meetings prepared with a very brief summary, he listens for a few minutes (maybe seconds), makes his decision and adjourns the meeting. I guess such short meetings would be nice if you happen to agree with Daniels’ dictatorial decisions. But I guess you’re SOL if you don’t. Sounds a lot like Mayor Rahmbo.
Dienne…PERFECT. He IS Rahmbo. There are many Rahmbo-like folks. They want to take down public education. Horrors!
It truly was disheartening to work in public schools while he was governor. He’s so scary because he comes across as folksy & non confrontational in interviews but while governor he went after women’s rights, worker’s rights, public school funding, services to the poor & outsourced any government service he could.
As a Purdue grad it made me sick when the trustees hired him.
“As a Purdue grad it made me sick when the trustees hired him.”
My mother is a Purdue grad and she had (still has) the same reaction.
From huffingtonpost: ” Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels pledged to promote academic freedom when he became president of Purdue University in January, but newly released emails show he attempted to eliminate what he considered liberal “propaganda” at Indiana’s public universities while governor.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request show Daniels requested that historian and anti-war activist Howard Zinn’s writings be banned from classrooms and asked for a “cleanup” of college courses. In another exchange, the Republican talks about cutting funding for a program run by a local university professor who was one of his sharpest critics.
The success of those efforts remains unclear; Zinn’s book, for example, is still used in some courses for aspiring teachers. But Daniels did launch an expansive push while governor to change what courses those hopeful teachers could take for credit at Indiana colleges. That effort is ongoing.
The emails are raising eyebrows about Daniels’ appointment as president of a major research university just months after critics questioned his lack of academic credentials and his hiring by a board of trustees he appointed.
Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, said it’s not unusual for governors or mayors to denounce art, music or popular culture. But he said he couldn’t find any other examples of governors trying to censor political opponents.
“What sets this apart is what appears to be a back-channel effort by the governor to limit access to ideas,” said Paulson, also dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University. “Under the First Amendment, the government is prohibited from trying to suppress expression with which it disagrees.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/mitch-daniels-censor_n_3607065.html
While I appreciate that the original AP story and others like this one focus on the former governor’s desire to censor Zinn’s text, the more disturbing aspect related to public education involves Daniels’ apparent intention to target Chuck Little and the Urban Schools Association through audits and funding cuts. The Association is a non-partisan group for metropolitan school districts that advocate for the interests of urban students and teachers. To target the group would be akin to silencing advocates for poor, often minority students who have been more deeply impacted by Indiana’s education reforms than their suburban or rural counterparts. In a state where school choice programs and groups like DFER and Stand for Children are making unprecedented headway, Dr. Little and the IUSA are often the only voice before the legislature for Indiana’s urban students and schools.
We should all email Purdue’s President’s Office and the Purdue board expressing our frustration.
Thank you, Diane for this great article! I have always seen past Mitch Daniels’ folksy facade but he was so adept at avoiding being exposed. Now the world can see him for what he is.
I am very concerned at what he will do to Purdue. It was entirely too convenient for him to appoint the Board of Trustees who elected him behind closed doors. They, too, refused to reveal any correspondence they had before they elected Daniels.
Another Purdue grad here. School of Liberal Arts, which I’m sure Daniels will dismantle because it is such a great all-around education.
One of the classes I took that opened my eyes was Communications and Social Knowledge, which introduced me to the brutality of putting smallpox in blankets and passing them out to the Native Americans.
And how brutal the Spaniards and Columbus were to the natives when they discovered gold–feeding babies to their dogs, for one instance.
I had never heard ANY of this, not even in my basic history class at Purdue.
By the way, the faculty and students protested Daniels’ appointment and it appears they are continuing to do so here:
https://www.facebook.com/SOAPurdue
If anyone’s interested, here’s a really good article on the connection between Mitch Daniels and charter schools:
http://my.firedoglake.com/dougmartin/2011/03/30/fbi-investigating-gulen-charter-schools-gulen-leaders-lavish-gifts-and-dinners-on-mitch-daniels-and-other-indiana-officials/#comments
I am a Purdue grad and selected as an outstanding alumnus.
Mitch did a great job as Indiana’s Governor.
I am very proud that he is Purdue’s President.