In wagering news

On Friday I figured the over/under for the departure of the president of Linfield University, Miles K. Davis (no relation), was June 1. But now a big money donor to the school has quit the board of trustees in disgust, and so the line has moved to May 27, the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend.

Can you believe that Norm Nixon, the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player, is in the middle of the scandal? Bizarre, is what it is.

Dr. Friedman [an English professor] said she had also reported that another trustee, Norman Nixon, a former member of the Los Angeles Lakers, touched her thigh during a university dinner and asked if there was a “Mr. Friedman.”

A lawyer hired by the university substantiated Dr. Friedman’s claim that Dr. Davis had put his hands on her arms but found that the conduct had not violated Linfield’s anti-harassment and sexual harassment policy. Dr. Davis said that an investigation had reached the same conclusion about the accusations against Mr. Nixon, who could not be reached. The university said he had “vigorously denied” the allegations.

Meanwhile, the journal Commentary has weighed in. No surprise there, they're not amused.

Throughout a controversy that has resulted in two separate no-confidence votes, Davis and the board that supports him have behaved like petty tyrants, altering the college’s governance structure, suspending mass faculty emails, and insisting that all “broad correspondence” be “vetted” by the vice president of finance and administration. Reportedly, “campus security had entered faculty offices and removed posters in support of Pollack-Pelzner.”

In an effort to squelch criticism, the college’s administrator’s caught the attention of major defenders of academic freedom, as well as the Anti-Defamation League. They have recklessly exposed the university to a lawsuit. And because of the incompetent despotism of some of its leaders, Linfield is now a national story. The university exists as a powerful reminder that threats to academic freedom often come not from ideologues but from administrators who fear criticism and have no business running a university.

I've omitted their links, which you can see in the original.

What a mess.