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Oh, I forget what names, but yes, he's done it.

Do you remember the reason?

Yes. He would--I mean, it's not just done out of hand. He appoints an ad hoc--let's say a faculty has nominated a certain person for tenure, and he has his doubts about it. He then appoints an ad hoc search committee, ad hoc committee to review--of outsiders--to review this. And usually, when he's done that because he thought that appointment was bad, the appointment gets canceled.

What kinds of issues would make him doubt a faculty--recommended appointment, a department-recommended appointment?

Cronyism. There is cronyism in the academy probably more than there is anywhere else. In politics you call it log rolling, I believe. But a faculty hates to deny promotion to one of its own. Junior faculty has a term of--I believe it's seven years. And if you're not given tenure at the end of seven years you automatically go, you have to leave the place. If you've been there for seven years, and you're reasonably popular, even though the faculty really doesn't think you're very good, they're not going to vote against you. So somebody has to be able to say “no”. And in an awful lot of universities, you end up with tenured faculty that never should have been tenured.