UME Ft Kent to give former Gov. LePage an honorary degree–ABOUT TIME! Recall his denunciation of all teachers as “a dime a dozen.”

Read all about it in Friday’s Bangor Daily News story re interim Ft. Kent President (another non-Marxist, rest assured).

I heard about a proposed honorary degree for our beloved ex-Governor a few years ago. The Board of Trustees’s wholesale ignorance of history led them to argue that every current or former governor received an honorary degree from Orono. Not quite the case, as I pointed out to colleagues. LePage’s immediate predecessor, DEMOCRAT John Baldacci, did not receive an honorary degree, where the Trustees’ beloved Senator Collins DID. Pure politics by a Board falsely claiming political neutrality.

The upcoming honorary degree for LePage reflects the dominance on the Trustees of right-wingers from The County–an inverse correlation between its population size and economic power vs. power in public higher ed.

Don’t be surprised if the next Chancellor is also from The Country and, regardless, is a right-wing Republican or Democrat. Or perhaps LePage if he wants it.