Assignment Desk
Have we got a story to pitch to the AP - how colleges are attracting presidents by building lavish housing, including million-dollar solariums. Why, back in my day, college presidents were content with a marble foyer or two. What is it with college presidents these days? They must not have any siblings and are used to having a lot of space.
Million-dollar solarium? Christ, that sounds robber baron. Too bad Mary Sue doesn’t have a rakish moustache that she can twist, while counting her money in front of orphans.
posted by js on December 15th, 2003 at 9:43 am“Prepare my velocipede while I retire in the solarium, Nedly. I mean to have a ride!”
Atta woman, Coleman! What better way to shatter that patriarchal glass ceiling than holding out for a million-dollar solarium. Then again, by pressing hard for a million-dollar solarium, Mary Sue Coleman is just enforcing the cultural stereotype that ‘girls like flowers and plants.’ For shame, Ms Coleman, for shame.
But maybe a million-dollar solarium was the price UM had to pay in order to lure Coleman from that tropical paradise that is Iowa. She probably cried herself to sleep all last winter, lamenting the beautiful lush green foliage of her native Iowa. And any way you look at it, $1,000,000 is a small price to pay for getting the bragging rights of having hired the first female president in UM history!
posted by Boris on December 15th, 2003 at 11:41 amYou know, that’s all we ask for in our living arrangements when we move to AA - just the basic amenities. (They don’t spend as much money recruiting grad students - I think my solarium is only worth half a million.)
posted by Nick on December 15th, 2003 at 2:20 pm