Is academic nepotism a good thing?

By Jane Robbins. The retirement of Gordon Gee from Ohio State, and its inevitable connection to his other presidencies, including at my former place of work, Vanderbilt, provides an opportunity to talk about an important ethics subject: academic nepotism. Gee’s wife, Constance, was in my department when I was at Vanderbilt. She had come in with tenure, and when Gee left, she stayed (she has since retired). Constance Gee was not the only one in the department known to have come in as a trailing spouse, or to otherwise have come into a position through what is sometimes called the back door. Read more...