I just want to be clear that from where I am standing DTLT is not dead, and from what I understand the great Jerry Slezak (who was already there when I arrived in 2005) has recently taken over the group. He will be hiring a new staff (something that happened 3 short years ago to no dire cries of an untimely death), and from what I understand a long list of amazing faculty that have done incredible work for over 20 yeas are still there.
So, needless to say, I was a bit appalled when I saw the exaggerated announcements of UMW’s death on Twitter so uncritically accepted as a foregone conclusion. And, of course, the retweets and likes almost immediately started to roll in, the eulogies were tweeted, and everyone was so god damned right. I remember more than a few folks telling me to check my ego when I decided to leave UMW, and I tried given no one person makes a group. And when a group leaves en masse as DTLT has the last couple of years, there is definitely a problem. Where exactly that problem lies, I do not know because I was not there, but given my own experience on the ground there for 10 years—I know one thing: it’s complicated. So, I would just say before everyone buries a university with as impressive a track record as UMW given a few pronouncements on twitter, I would recommend you save your hasty judgements, talk to folks on the ground, and make up your own mind as to what happened to DTLT.
Hear hear. The egos! If it’s not ME, it’s crap! If it’s not MY WAY, it’s dead. Etc. it survived the loss of The Bava. It’ll survive this.
Thanks, Jim.