Biddy, We Hardly Knew Ye.

or, I Got Mine. Did You Get Yours?
In a "Decision" that made her tenure at Wisconsin shorter than LeBron's time in Cleveland, Biddy Martin has packed her bags, moving on to greener, presumably more lucrative pastures.

Carolyn A. Martin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a flagship public research university with 29,000 undergraduates, is resigning to become president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college with 1,750 students.

The sisters are doing it for themselves.
(and no, that's not a compliment. Just a comment on committment is all. Do you suppose like LeBron, and Obama too, Biddy got all the work done and completed all the goals she had laid out in one location before moving on to the next greener field?)

“Does everything that’s occurred over the last year play a role?” Dr. Martin, who is known as Biddy, asked in an interview. “It would be foolhardy to say it played no role, but neither I nor anyone else could say exactly what role it played. It’s been incredibly interesting. I really love it here, I got my Ph.D. here, and I feel like I’m leaving this university in a position where it will continue to make great progress.”

Like, is that an evasive answer, or what?

“It would be foolhardy to say it played no role, but neither I nor anyone else could say exactly what role it played. It’s been incredibly interesting. I really love it here, I got my Ph.D. here"...

This is what you get when you hire on "identity politics", instead of actual committment to a cause, or loyalty to an institution or a place.

Movin' on... for personal reasons, natch, becomes more important than staying put and getting the job done. Whether you're a college head honcho, a star basketballer, or a community activist in it for the poverty-stricken and the children.

Does this have anything to do with our lack of achievement -- collectively -- as a country? The catholic in me says yes. If everybody's just in it for themselves, but rides on the back of "bettering" others; so common in the "public service" field, shouldn't we at least be keeping score somehow? Promises made/ Promises kept?

Isn't fair that in a subjective scoring sport like basketball, we can and do, but in the softer social sciences and political circles, we pretend it's impossible to measure the facts on the ground vs. the spin they're given.

Yes We Can.
And it's better for all of us, if one day we do.

Best of luck, Ms. Martin. I hope Amherst proves enough of a career challenge you stick around for awhile accomplishing those goals.

“Amherst is an opportunity to try to preserve and enhance another form of education that’s also at risk: the liberal arts tradition in which I was educated,” said Dr. Martin, who grew up in Lynchburg, Va., and attended the College of William and Mary, before getting a doctorate in German literature in Madison. “Amherst is a model for institutions committed to diversity and opportunity. Its size seems less relevant to me than the way it has acted on those values, showing what can be done, even at a small place.”

The news about Dr. Martin was announced at noon Tuesday at a news conference in Madison and in a letter to the Amherst community.

Amherst’s president since 2003, Anthony Marx, who is leaving to head the New York Public Library, has gained national recognition for greatly increased increasing the college’s racial and economic diversity. About 22 percent of its students this year received Pell grants — federal assistance for low-income students — a substantially higher share than at most elite institutions. The college offers financial aid for low-income international students, and takes most of its transfer students from community colleges.

Movin' On... Movin' On.

Cullen Murphy, an Amherst trustee who served on the search committee, said he and his colleagues were impressed by Ms. Martin’s advocacy for the liberal arts, her belief in the importance of access, diversity and affordability, and her personal warmth and humor.