Arkansas Blog

I wonder if Luser can still say with a straight face that he has still not considered resigning as he did last week. I will answer my own question! Yes he can! Obama approves this message. Lu the rats are leaving the ship. Read Kane Webb's column carefully, Lu! Or if you want you can skip to the end! That does have a nice ring to it. That wetness you feel is not the faculty pissing down the back of your leg, it is water! Well maybe a little piss too.

Unless something changes at the Board level, nothing will change. I don't think it's fair to hold Lu solely responsible for all the UCA crap. The buck stops at the top of the heap. The Board is either culpable or inept...or both.

Several board members, and many other recipients of Lu's gifts, are guilty of contributing to Lu's quest for high political office. The charitable donations bought name recognition for Lu and the image of his being a generous community supporter that will generate eventual support at the polls. The personal gifts, jobs, housing, etc. are part of the mutual back scratching that all involved hoped would lead to "Gov. Hardin" being in a position to bestow larger gifts such as commission appointments, jobs for children/grandchildren, etc. to them and theirs. You have to forgive the nonprofits for accepting what was offered; they take what they can get. But board members and other recipents knew exactly what they were doing and were willing participants. It is not a coincidence that most of the recipients of Lu's generosity are Repubs. Brummett, at least you have 'fessed up and come clean! Rush, it looks as if your money was not well spent. You need to buy another horse.

Todays Dem-Gaz editorial page re: Lu is a melange of CYA ala Webb and circle the wagons ala Greenburg. While Greenburg is never wrong ( a Pulitzer prize confers that right upon a recipient) I am still waiting for his confession that locating the Clinton Library in Little Rock has been an overwhelming success for Little Rock in spite of quesionable tactics to make it occur. Which in turn puizzles me regarding his lightweight criticism of Lu's tactics to further Lu's (now deceased) future political aspirations at the expense of UCA faculty, ordinary students. and Arkansas taxpayers. Unless Lu can quickly earn a Pulitzer prize, then he could regain some small measure of integrity by following Webb's advise.

Something about this situation makes me want to watch, "Jacob's Ladder."

As a UCA alum with no dog in this hunt other than future contributions, it seems Lu must step aside for the University to move forward. It ain't personal Lu, it's just business. The shit's too deep.

Kane's mealy mouth "editorial" was disappointing, but not unexpectedly weak. I never read the DemGaz editorial page and Max tempted me with this blurb regarding Kane's work. Never again.

Has anyone heard that Luser asked his supporters to stay off the AT blog to make it look like "the Luser story" is dying down? Guess what Lu, that tactic will NOT work. Max can you give a hint on the release this week of the latest LuCA/ Baker slime? By the way for those of you who feel the necessity to worry about Lu's financial future if his ship sinks, Lu could tell you about his Senate/ Higher Ed pension that should now be well over 100,000 per year now as it grows compounded at a 3% rate plus his LuCA annuity and Ark Tech retirement (yes Lu double dipped while teaching at Ark. Tech and being in the senate pension plan). Lu if I am wrong about the pensions, allow the systems to show your pension status. I am not holding my breath. The Tech/LuCA plans should be worth well over a million even if Lu were "fixed income scared" of the market-- and maybe 2-3 million if he had quality exposure to the market. And yes due to his senate service he gets cheap (yes he has to pay a little bit) health insurance for LIFE.

Yes Lu has been calculating and planning how to live like a king even if his empire fell apart or he may just be damn lucky. Lu, if you want to stay off here let Rush Harding 3 bring proof that any of the things suggested here are untrue. Rush wants proof about your alleged dealings let him start here. Prove these wrong-- any of them, Lu or Rush.

Well, I sat down to do some work, but I can't let Lu think people will let the story die. This story is beyond Lu's going or staying. Surely there will be a full financial audit of UCA to find out where the taxpayers' money has gone. When that happens I am afraid we will see that UCA is in financial difficulty because of Lu's freely spending money on self and friends. Maybe some of the stories do lean toward a witch hunt, but a full financial audit and a review of charges of academic misconduct will prove him innocent or not. If people actually have hard evidence of wrongdoing it isn't a witch hunt. I hear that faculty members have hard copies of grade-change evidence and other inappropriate academic interference and will produce that when asked.

Why can't we stop bureaucrats and politicians from pillaging our tax money for their own profit? If the governor and the legislature allow the board to pay Hardin a nice fat "severance package" for leaving I will not support any of them again, ever! I think I'll start my own PAC to support politicians who help dump Lu!

Lu, the UCA faculty have a pool on the date you resign. The winner gets a 24/7 designated parking space next to his/her building (you know, in one of those spots that used to be for handicapped but are now for FOOLS). They are hoping you will take your FOOLs with you when you leave, freeing up a free hundred thousand in salary money for better uses.

Dearest Lu,
Resign now, hon. Don't let the rest of the inappropriate behavior that's come to UCA since your arrival become known. What happens when its uncovered that your receptionist is living in a university house for below-market rent, and your special assistant is also living in a UCA-owned house? Lots of renovations on these houses and some new appliances I've been told. Oh and do they pay all the utilities and mow their own grass? You probably wouldn't want anyone looking into frequent raises for these folks either. And wouldn't it be unfortunate if someone looked into the number of new positions you created and placed people in without advertising or giving someone already on campus a chance for promotion in one of your salary-inflated giveaway jobs? Of course all those fall under the label of Extremely QuaLUfied, even if they've never worked in higher ed before.

Dearest Board of Trustees,
If Lu doesn't resign soon, you're just gonna hafta jump in and act like a board. I know it will be hard since you've been acting like you don't really need information beyond how strong the football team is gonna be for most of your board career. Clean out the president's office. Tom Courtway is clearly the only one who is above it all. Sorry, Jack, you gotta admit Tom is Mr. Clean.

Dearest Lu Supporters,
Get over it. He has not done anything for UCA except spent a lot of money on television and bulletin board advertising. He's got the capability of making a few people feel special because he remembers their names and waves at them on campus. And the occasional extra day off is nice too. A lot of the increase in enrollment won't stand up to close scrutiny. Exactly how do high school students count when you look at college enrollments? Experts (not Lu) have said that UCA can operate best at an enrollment between 8,000 and 10,000. The facilities and infrastructure have not received the kind of influx of money that a school of even 10,000 has to have. Maintenance and operating budgets have actually gone down. Ask any department chair or college dean how they manage faculty travel, copying costs, telephone charges, postage, etc. These budgets are how departments make things work on a day to day basis. Too bad the board and president don't care about academic maintenance and operation. And what's this about having to borrow money to meet payroll? You guys who keep saying that the increasing enrollment has increased the influx of money to UCA are definitely not familiar with the hardships the faculty and academic administrators have had to face for the last several years. After all isn't education what it's all about?

Dearest UCA Foundation,
I regret to inform you that until Lu is no longer at UCA, you will no longer receive my $$$. My annual contribution has not been much, I know, but would have bought a very nice gift basket along with the birthday cake for Rush.

Dearest Governor,
If the UCA Board doesn't do the right thing and pull Lu, you're going to have to place a new board without political and monetary motives (If that exists). I believe that anyone would agree that this board has not done its job to the best of its ability. We now know Lu hasn't.

Lu keeps stating that once he sits down with the faculty face-to-face, he will be able to put everything into context. How does one talk themselves out of a forged memo? It seems maybe he has taken a few weeks off to try and get his story straight (well and recover from eye surgery).
Did it seem strange to anyone else that Lu could not find a way to attend the faculty meeting the other night but made it to his roast-and-toast? Oh well, he gets another few weeks to get his stories straight...I mean prepare for his September meeting.

DHO, not a few weeks. Lu is scheduled to address the entire faculty on Thursday, August 28. The Faculty Senate President will be speaking after him. Lu is expected to apologize, and the Faculty Senate President is expected to enumerate the deeds that can't be brushed aside. This means that the Faculty Senate President needs to have two speeches prepared, one for the expected stubbornness, and another if Lu makes the right decision before Thursday. We can hope that he gives the second.

Well, either way ben-there, I can't wait to see how he tries to get out of all of this.

Also, in reading a recent article in the Dem-Gaz, I have figured out how Lu could avoid many problems. Keep his nose where it belongs. No matter how kind the intentions, university presidents should not be interfering with daily activities like housing. If he his spending time handling individuals, housing issues then NO, he is not the "highest paid employee at UCA".

There are people in housing, financial aid, admissions, etc., that I am positive are perfectly able to do their job without Lu trying to help any tom-dick-and harry that approaches him. In the end, he is making promises to students, then handing the promise to be kept to someone else. Meaning they better make it happen because it is coming from the prez. If Lu would stop trying to pretend he can make all folks happy and simply say, "you should go meet with housing", he would be more freed up to do things like have his memos checked by the people he is signing their names to.