News Flash: Lesbians Rule UC

Many hours before the Sentinal hit our front porch, we had already received the email: Former UCSC Chancellor MRC Greenwood had resigned her job "to return to teaching." MRC is under investigation over two recent personnel actions, one of "her business partner" Professor Lynda Goff, and the other of MRC's son, James.

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I don't really care about the hiring of the son. The University of California is full of little favors like this.

And I don't really care about MRC's relationship with Lynda Goff either. Obviously they're friends and UC is full of friends helping each other out. One might say that that is what an academic life is all about.

The Sentinal article was pretty good, and I've come to respect Jondi Gumz's reporting. When she can get the information, she writes a balanced story. But Don Miller, now an editor but formerly a reporter back when the Sentinal was really bad, wrote something for the opinion page that really ticked me off.

While the University also said there are no allegations of "wrongdoing," this mess not only could undermine Denton. It also adds fuel to the fire of complaints by faculty and students of a highly paid "elite" at UC and to the whisper campaign that what is seen by some as a powerful coterie of lesbians has gained power and influence within the UC system.

For those of you who aren't up on UC Santa Cruz FooFahs, MRC's replacement, Denise Denton, is lesbian, and when she was appointed, her wife got a job at the UC President's office doing something she is world-known for, I forget what; something about diversity or international scholars. Anyway, MRC is also a lesbian, and was out when she was a Dean at UC Davis. But although everyone knew it, no one ever reported in the press that she was a lesbian. This bugged me, and I finally was able to write an essay about why it did.

I think it is a little late in lesbian history to have to assert, again, that there is nothing shameful about being lesbian, and especially at UCSC. There is nothing secret about being lesbian. The members of your household are no more secret than your race, religion, or class. Private, yes; secret, no. If you're keeping your lesbian life a secret, I call that shame, not modesty.

So, just like everyone else in town, the Sentinal editors and reporters knew that MRC was a lesbian. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that their editorial position was that MRC's lesbian private life was private and not an issue: Not News.

Returning to the Editorial: Yes, there is a highly paid elite at UC. And it has been like that for One Hundred and Twenty Five Years! Yes we're ticked about it, but it's not news.

But "powerful and influential coterie of lesbians?" Are you kidding me? (Did he write "coterie"?) Has the lesbian revolution finally completed? I didn't get the communique. But I did recently get a new job, and I do have more influence on affairs in my department. Oh WOW! I'm a member of the coterie too. Sisterhood IS powerful! woo hoo!