Poskanzer Shmoskanzer
Gilah Benson-Tilsen
During the Quest for the Next President of Carleton, I heard the opinion expressed that our president should be a black lesbian atheist. It didn’t matter what the candidate’s qualifications were. We needed a woman, a member of a racial minority, a member of a religious minority.
This was flippant, I’m sure. Yes, yes, we all know there are limits to what affirmative action should do, and we can’t accurately quantify the discrimination and reverse discrimination that exist.
But still! It is frustrating that every president must be white, must be male, must be Christian, must be heterosexual, must be… Carleton will never have a president with blue hair, and we know it.
The search committee certainly did everything they could to find the right candidate. That was what I said when asked for my reaction to their decision: I think they did well. I fully believe the search committee did everything possible to choose the right candidate.
When I saw the name of Carleton’s new president (Stephen G. Poskanzer, for those of you living in The Cave), the first thing I thought was, That sounds like a Jewish name. And the next day my mother called me to say that my father had done research and found the names of Poskanzer’s great-grandparents, and they were unmistakably Jewish names. This made my parents very excited. And Poskanzer’s from New York, went to Princeton and Harvard, worked at SUNY for twelve years – I suppose that means he has the right background. There may be some Northeastern privilege in there somewhere; you might find it if you tried. However, why try? When I saw the videos of Poskanzer, I thought, He looks like a nice guy.
I haven’t met him in person; I assume he’s nice, because in the videos, he has a friendly smile on his face. Perfect for Carleton, no? My reaction to him was above neutral, if not enthusiastically positive.
However, when my roommate watched the same videos of Poskanzer, she said to me, “He’s so generic.” And, I noticed, she was right. He wasn’t saying anything unusual or even humorous. He was sticking to the safe answers – though I’m sure he genuinely meant them – using big words, smiling big, performing for the camera, trying to be impressively intellectual, a conscientious man, a trustworthy man, one committed to the ideals of this educational institution and blah blah blah. I have to hope that when he takes on the duties of a real president he’ll relax a bit and leave behind that job-interview mode, start expressing himself with more humor. Poskanzer will be cracking jokes and spinning yarns just like Oden. Not that I expect him to be flamboyant- this place isn’t ready for a real flamboyant character. Just an occasional spark of life, if you don’t mind! Thankfully, the interviews don’t last forever.
And now, for the question that motivated this essay: do I care that he’s a man? Answer: no. Not really. Honestly, I don’t much care about the president of a college. There are Ivy Leaguers with female presidents, so it’s been done and we shouldn’t sweat it.
What do I care about, though, is political power. I would so love to see a female President of the United States (and I could name a few presidents who were less equipped to handle the office than the average U.S. female). I would really, really love to see that glass ceiling shatter into a million beautiful sparkly pieces. My mother is a feminist, and it’s time she had something to celebrate.
I suppose that’s only a dream of a better future where there are no wars and children have health care and cities have public transportation and no one wears shoes and we all sit around the campfire singing sweet love songs.
But right now, at this point in real time, HABEMUS PRESIDENTUM! And I have no complaints about Stephen G. Poskanzer. I wish him the best of luck!
