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January 6, 2009
Academic Nepotism and Panetta
I know that lots of them on both sides of the aisle do this kind of thing, but it always offends me and the big man is in the news, so here you go:
The surprise selection of Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in President-elect Barack Obama's administration would leave his public policy institute at CSU-Monterey Bay in the hands of his wife, Sylvia.Applauding Panetta's selection for the top CIA post, university President Dianne Harrison said Monday she had been "assured by Leon that Sylvia will continue to run the institute and it will be business as usual."
. . .
Panetta and his wife founded the institute at CSU-Monterey Bay in 1997 in partnership with the university to provide studies in government, politics and public policy. Panetta played a key role in Congress and in the Clinton administration to get the university established on the former Army base.
So before leaving public office Panetta got a public university established somewhere, then he and his wife found an institute, which they control so tightly that he can leave her in charge while he goes back to Washington? Ick. Just ick.
Further: A little googlng gets me nowhere - I find nothing much about Sylvia Panetta other than her husband and her co-directorship of the Institute, though maybe she, too, is a lawyer. Don't know. Academic politics as usual.
Further still: Whoops! I mistakenly deleted a comment from this post in the midst of spam clearance. It had something in it reminding us that the academically significant institute at Monterey is the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy. Sounds important, hunh? Oh - go here, scroll to the bottom, and check out her academic credentials. Of course, Wikipedia is currently leading off L.P.'s entry with "Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is a Democratic politician and scholar . . . ." As far as I can tell, the reason the article claims he's a "scholar" is that: "[h]e is the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, serves as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of the California State University system and is a professor at Jesuit-run Santa Clara University teaching public policy." He's a J.D. with a tell-all book about the Nixon administration, which sounds like "scholar" is a courtesy title.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at January 6, 2009 7:29 AM
Comments
That news story leaves out the best part: that Leon and Sylvia Panetta run an institute for public policy called...the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
Posted by: Jeff at January 6, 2009 1:51 PM