Blog U.: To Waive or Not to Waive - Provost Prose - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: To Waive or Not to Waive - Provost Prose - Inside Higher Ed

BlogU

Provost Prose

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• To Waive or Not to Waive

  By Herman Berliner December 5, 2010 6:51 pm EST

  I am not in a position to gauge whether Cathleen P. Black should or should not be granted a waiver from the normal credential required by NY State law in order to serve as New York City Schools Chancellor. That responsibility lies with New York Commissioner of Education. If she is qualified, she should receive the waiver. If she is not qualified, the waiver should not be granted. And yet, the actual conclusion regarding the granting of a waiver is neither the first alternative stated above nor the second. It seems she will be granted a waiver on condition she appoint an experienced schools’ educator as the chief academic officer of the City schools. But is she qualified or is she not qualified?

  When I arrived at Hofstra many years ago, there were a number of tiny departments — one such department was Art History and Humanities. Yes there was already an Art department and yes, the Humanities person previously had a home in the English department. Why was this tiny four person department created? The answer is simple; there were personality conflicts in the Art Department and there was a difficult tenure case in the English department. The end result was that a new department was created which brought together the Art