Fish hasn't announced his future plans. He could retire, stay and teach at UIC or 'could be attracted by another possibility.'-- Dave Newbart, "UIC's star to quit, says job not as fun with budget woes"
In the past month or so, I've written a couple of entries (here and here) on Stanley Fish's fight with Republican legislators. I now learn (thanks to reader Robert Schwartz) that Fish is stepping down from his post as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The above-linked article cites budgetary constraints as the main reason for his recently announced resignation. Though "Fish, 65, did not directly blame the state's budget woes, which have cut more than $54 million from UIC's budget, as the reason he was leaving," he did say "he might have stayed in the job if the funding picture were rosier." The article quotes him as follows:
'I was invited here to raise the visibility of the university and the college and to attract to the college very high-quality faculty,' he said. 'Now we've had to pause the last couple of years and direct all our energies at trying to stay afloat. It's a different kind of work and not quite as fun.'
So where will Fish end up next? Help me come up with a short list, and then we start a betting pool (tacky? yes; but surely less objectionable than the Pope Death Watch).
Posted by Invisible Adjunct at October 26, 2003 11:54 PMWell, my feelings about the big fish and his latest published comments are well-known. So, I'll throw my hat into the ring and say that he starts a guru-esque think tank on the state of academia today. He invites important cronies to join him, and they sink slowly into oblivion from inhaling too much cigar smoke and ingesting too much scotch -- although each occasionally comes up for air on Larry King Live or Colloquy.
Posted by: Academy Girl at October 27, 2003 01:32 AMi think that the origin of the choice to quit in this article could be better informed with some local insights.... in short, there are better versions of this gossip.
Posted by: jeremy hunsinger at October 27, 2003 08:14 AMJeremy wrote:
"i think that the origin of the choice to quit in this article could be better informed with some local insights.... in short, there are better versions of this gossip."
It's not very nice to tantalize people like this and then . . . just . . . LEAVE!
Posted by: Academy Girl at October 27, 2003 10:39 AMis too nice, it encourages you to ask around
Posted by: jeremy hunsinger at October 27, 2003 01:57 PMI'll just throw in my two pence and go with AG's prediction: he'll huddle up with Derek Bok and John Sexton and they'll commission a study recommending ...that nothing much change.
Posted by: MisterBS at October 27, 2003 03:33 PMHmmmm. I'll be contrary. I think he'll take his UIC experience as a sign that he is Administratively Gifted and go on to run some small-but-wealthy private liberal-arts college into the ground as its celebrity president.
Posted by: Naomi Chana at October 27, 2003 08:46 PMAh-hah! Naomi -- a genuine contender in the competition!
Posted by: Academy Girl at October 28, 2003 01:12 AMHe'll move to Hawaii and write bad satirical novels featuring a character named Stanley Fish as their hero and based on his experiences in academe. All will feature cute puns on his last name in their titles. (The one about his leaving one post after another would be, for example, Fish Cuts Bait...).
Posted by: constance at October 28, 2003 08:44 PMHe'll return to the faculty at UIC, teach courses and write that one last book he's always meant to write, and retire in 4-5 years in order to spend more time puttering around his garden.
Oh, wait, no, that's what I'd do. The problem is, it won't give anyone cause to write about him.
Posted by: David W. at November 3, 2003 10:45 AM