Forced smiles as UVM presidency changes hands

By Ted Cohen/Patch.com

Longevity in the ivory towers of academia requires a unique charm - especially when you're passed over for the top administrative job you've only dreamed about.

Actually mere survival is hard enough when tenure and all that good political gamesmanship stuff is involved.

So consider the plight of Patricia Prelock, who, as acting president of the University of Vermont, had to write - and smile through - a welcoming message in the latest alumni news magazine for the incoming permanent president, Marlene Tromp, who got the job Prelock coveted for 30 years.

In her role as "acting president," Prelock wrote an introduction for Tromp in the latest edition of Vermont Quarterly, the school's alumni magazine.

And she put on a painful tight smile as she stood for a portrait that accompanied her "introduction" for Tromp, who came to UVM from her position as president of Boise State University in Idaho.

The same issue of the maggie also awkwardly carried a feature story on Tromp, who true to academic-survival mode also smiled as she posed for her own portrait.

The difference is, Tromp actually had something to smile about - after all she got the presidency - whereas Prelock had to put on a brave face because she was on her way out.

"It will be bittersweet for me to leave UVM," Prelock wrote. "I have dedicated the past 30 years of my life in service to this institution."

Ouch.

As she announced her reluctant departure to take a new position as senior vice president and provost at the University of Arizona, Prelock passed the baton to Tromp. (Cue forced smile here.)

"I know our entire community looks forward to welcoming her," Prelock wrote.

Sure. What-ever.

Prelock strangely - or maybe not - has never addressed whether she applied for the presidency. But if she didn't then the question is why wouldn't she have.

Again, she's not saying.

Meanwhile, if that's not curious enough, as UVM's top-guard politics were painfully unfolding, one UVM student had some fun at Prelock's expense.

As though she needs that, right?

An opinion writer for the scrappy Water Tower - UVM's satirical "alternative" student newspaper - had a blast speculating why Prelock was going to Arizona.

Suresh Garimella preceded Prelock as UVM president and was her "joined-at-the-hip" boss while she worked under him as UVM provost, the Water Tower reports.

Garimella left Prelock behind to become president at Arizona, and now Patty is headed there to once again work under her close friend.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...