Some observers of North Dakota's Board of Higher Education expect "fireworks" at today's meeting in Grand Forks. What defines fireworks is anyone's guess. It is likely the board and Chancellor Hamid Shirvani will confront violations of the state's open meeting laws, having been spanked a few days ago by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
Meeting violations aside, board members should advise the chancellor to quit whining about "rumors, accusations, insinuations, complaints and charges" about his management style. In a lengthy epistle to board members dated Monday, Shirvani complains about "the politics of personalism" and "dysfunctional behaviors" of media and others, which he said constitute a "persistent pattern of harassment and humiliation ..."
Oh, please. The chancellor should put on his big-boy pants and own up to his culpability in creating the situation in which he and the board find themselves. If there are to be fireworks today, that discussion could set them off.
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