NACUA Day Two

An early start and a half day for some reason. The US lawyers were on tenterhooks awaiting the result in Fisher v University of Texas, but it didn't issue today.

The early briefing on the changing role of University counsel was quite interesting (the tl;dr is that there are new external compliance duties which weaken academic autonomy, get over it). One of the panelists said it was an important part of his job to "be the breeder of new General Counsel" from his office - as one may imagine the choice of words was deplored.

Two more sessions - conducting an effective investigation and managing faculty members. Lots of tips for new players, and a reminder for General Counsel to do the due diligence, get the background and motivations of the players sorted out and then plan next steps. Too many conversations start "we need to sack Professor Insulting for misconduct". 

I think it is asserted that this sculpture of LOVE is the original, and lots of people take the picture with the spurting fountain a little incongruously behind. We walked down there to see some of the monumental buildings including a very large Masonic Temple and the Franklin Science Museum.

I'd forgotten to bring my suit belt, so went to Macys to buy one. This time around the organ was playing, so I took a little video...

Some more pics of Philly:

For lunch, Lynda and I went to a "food court" called the 4 Seasons. Seemed to have a mostly black clientele. Everything is laid out in trays, all sorts of food from soups to sweets, and one loads up a foam container as one pleases and pays by weight. I sampled a bit of lots of foods for research purposes, and it was all fairly rich - even the salads had lots of dressing, cheese and fried bits.

On many street corners are little shiny metal kiosks(*) serving food - grills with rice, any sort of sandwich roll or burger, hot dogs etc. It's telling that the standard menu has hot dogs in pairs, as if eating one hotdog is unknown. Everywhere is the Philly Cheese Steak roll, and lots of pictures of rolls groaning with sliced meat and cheese. It's seductive, I found myself thinking of the old Hungry Jacks Yumbo with nostalgia instead of disgust.

There are also newsstands which sell newspapers, magazines, chocolates, cigarettes and lottery tickets.  For some reason these are part of a chain run mostly by Sikhs.

Tonight the NACUA delegates are invited to the Barnes' Foundation for drinkies and a view of "one of the world's finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern art".

(*) I would call a small fixed food cart a kiosk. Not here, a "kiosk" is a machine from which one buys parking tickets.