A little more news from Boston:

When BU's was-to-have-been new president, Daniel Goldin (former head of NASA) was being interviewed, he made it clear that he only wanted the job if the former occupant, and BU's autocratic leader for decades, John Silber, was willing to leave it.

It looks like Silber didn't get the message. Days before Goldin was to formerly take office, the school's board of trustees effectively voted no confidence. This was supposedly because they disapproved of Goldin's "temperament", but what really seems to be at issue, as far as anyone can tell, is Goldin's intemperate insistence that Silber give up active participation in the day to day operation of the school, and his office in the lavishly appointed suite known on campus as the "Taj Mahal". The latest on this issue, today, is that two of the most prominent trustees had actually resigned before the vote, complaining that decisions were being "rammed through" by Silber toadies on the board's executive committee.

It is not clear, at this point, whether Goldin will ever take the job. However, if he doesn't, then BU will have to find someone else -- Silber is simply too old to continue in the job indefinitely -- and it is also not clear where, under those circumstances, they will be able to find anyone with a shred of self-respect who would want it.