Monthly Archives: February 2008

Today’s Detroit Free Press reports that ousted, discredited former EMU president John A. Fallon III is writing a book about his tenure at EMU. The newspaper reports that EMU lawyers have requested copies of his “book outline,” which may mean a book proposal, in court papers.    Somebody will no doubt post a link the the article soon.   But I have two questions about this: Who among the people who know John A. Fallon III would believe that he is capable on his own of writing a paragraph, let alone a book?  And who would believe a book by him on EMU would be at all reliable?   This is the former chief executive who has virtually no accomplishments as EMU president to brag about.  That Fallon is apparently seriously engaged in preparing a book, or thinks the threat of doing so will help his struggle to get cash from EMU, demonstrates how badly the Board of Regents handled this president from start to finish.   At no well run large organization would it have taken 5 months for the  governing board to dismiss a chief executive officer who had either failed to ensure that the truth was told about a murder of a community member, or had participated in the cover up of the facts of that murder.  Fallon’s sole defense for lies told to Laura Dickinson’s parents and the public about her death was that he too had not been told the truth — a defense that is premised on the president not doing his job.  Letting psychopathic subordinates mislead you is not a demonstration of presidential leadership.  Yet our Board of Regents – which, admittedly, was going thru a lot of confusion at the time — let Dr. Fallon stay on for months and months after the utter failure of his presidency was made plain as day.