Politics, Leadership, And April 16th

(I spent a good amount of time trying to decide if this post is appropriate. I think it is more a personal statement about things that have bothered me for months more than anything else, and it should be read that way. I think we all have tried to come to grip with things that are hard to grasp. This is just another attempt.)

I woke up this morning to the news. Victims' parents are considering filing lawsuits against Blacksburg, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

It has been sixth months, but my initial impression of how the event has been handled has changed very little. Cho was a sick kid, and nothing ex ante could have reduced his violence. Nothing. There is no blame.

But President Steger and those in charge that day's first reaction was to cover their ass. They lied about the dorm being shut down. I walked past 20 minutes after the first shooting. People were freely entering and exiting. They lied about the lock-down system in the dorms. A card was required between 10:00PM to 10:00AM. An Email is instantaneous and does not need a committee. Steger did not know, but he refused to say he did not know." Steger's first reaction was to cover his ass. He got on the talk shows the next morning and covered his ass. Instead of saying, "We might have done some things wrong. We will examine what happened and make decisions later. Please let us grieve now. Please." He politicized and media-ized the event by getting on talk shows. He did damage control. He did what university presidents who make a half a million do, he played public relations. He has done the same thing for the past six months. He enacted reactionary policies that cannot prevent another incident but cost millions of dollars and makes some people feel better. We even have a Community Service Fair today in honor of the victims. And he kept the university focused on being a top-tier research institution while honoring those who lost their life with memorials and concerts.


Steger is a damn good politician. Damn good. But I do not consider him a leader. Russ Roberts defines leadership this way: "The essence of "leadership" is doing unpopular stuff, stuff that goes against the consensus and that later turns out to be right."

I do not pretend to know what will turn out to be right. But I do not think Steger is willing to do unpopular stuff, and I do not think he agrees with this definition of leadership.

I do not think Steger should be forced to resign. But if he was a leader, I think he would have accepted some blame and eventually stopped covering his ass. Eventually the politics has to stop. It has not stopped with him yet.

This comes off as a personal attack. And it is. But the problem with many so-called leaders, especially in academia and government, is that the fear of doing something different, something unpopular cripples them. It paralyzes them into being politicians. Maybe it is the voters and the public's fault for being fickle. Maybe professional and for-pay government and public service has become necessary.

But politics and playing politics is still disheartening.