Trouble on the East Hill?

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

Via Crooked Timber, it seems that the president of my alma mater has resigned in less than clear circumstances.

Lehman became president after I'd left Cornell; I never met him nor followed his short tenure there. Most of my years on the East Hill were dominated by Frank H.T. Rhodes, who'd been president since 1977. My last year saw the beginning of Hunter Rawlings' tenure.

Lehman's career is impressive. He clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens in the Supreme Court, wrote the brief that won Edwards v. Aguillard, the first case to ban creation "science" from genuine science classrooms, and was dean of the University of Michigan's Law School before coming to Ithaca. He is also the first Cornell alumn to serve as President.

If his leaving is in fact due to hand wringing by the Board of Trustees, it will be another argument for returning administrative control of universities to where it used to reside, and where it belongs still: in the hands of the faculty.