DRAKE is a FLAKE

This is about a month old, but I thought it would be worth mentioning because I'm a student at UC Irvine, and stuff like this doesn't happen openly very often.

In the beginning of September, Erwin Chemerinsky, the constitutional law scholar at Duke University, signed a contract to be the inaugural dean of the new law school at UC Irvine. However, a week later, Chancellor Drake flew to Durham and fired Chemerinsky, explaining that he wasn't aware that Chemerinsky's policital views would be reason for criticism from conservatives.

this article: click me will go further into the case between Drake and Chemerinsky; describing Drake's motives behind firing Chemerinsky. The article is well written, and contains sources from the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles TImes.

After reading the article, as well as it's links, I feel that Drake had made a serious mistake hiring and firing Chemerinsky within almost a week. Drake, as I suspect, knew Chemerinsky's political background and views before hand, and should have taken it into consideration before having Chemerinsky sign the contract. Furthermore, Drake's decision reflect very if not extremely poorly on UC Irvine as a whole, including it's students. Because Drake is the head -honcho of all of UCI, his decision and actions reflect those of the staff and students. His actions even question the rectitude of our institution.
However, people of Drake's position don't make these kind of decisions without heavy pressure or thought. As mentioned in the article, Donald Bren's political ideals could have had some influence on the decision. And I seriously do not doubt that. Because Donald Bren is a serious donator to UCI, It is possible that Bren's Republican ideals clashed with those of Chemerinsky, and therefore would displease the largest benefactor to UCI. And who, in their right mind, wants to displease the man who's name is on two of our buildings (Bren Events Center, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science) and who just donated 20 million dollars to put toward a new law school?

So, while I feel somewhat betrayed by the fact that Drake's decision is reflecting poorly on not just him but the rest of UC Irvine, I cannot be totally upset because I would have probably done the same exact thing if put in his position. like the say, "politics makes strange bedfellows"