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Talk:Farshad Fotouhi

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Detroit Joseph (talk | contribs) at 22:27, 19 February 2014 (→Biased Tone). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Anyone who believes the hagiography of the first six paragraphs is an accurate depiction of this Machiavellian Prince needs to do a Google search on crainsdetroit.com. Detroit Joseph (talk) 03:07, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

I have reverted the article to its last acceptable state. The latest version was heavily biased and violated our neutral point of view and biographies of living persons policies. I'm am not necessarily passing judgement on the statements reverted or the subject, I just couldn't let it stand as is. The sources need to be checked against our venerability and reliability policies before reinserting the information in an encyclopedic tone. John Reaves 06:53, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Since when is the truth bias? Are you going to wring your hands because the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article calls him corrupt? Read Crain's Detroit Business http://www.crainsdetroit.com/assets/PDF/CD89200615.PDF page 8 or 9. Should Ahmedinajad's Misplaced Pages article just be a carbon copy of his page on the Iranian government's website?
The verifiable info about Fotouhi's corruption is just the tip of the iceberg. It's probably true that he got the position of dean of the college only because he is a crony of the former provost. It's probably also true that Fotouhi was the dead last choice out of ten candidates for the job among the senior faculty. It's probably also true that Fotouhi was envious of Dr. Tadda, who used to have the biggest office in the college because of pure luck. But I don't see these facts I just mentioned in Crain's Detroit, so I'm not putting them in the article. Detroit Joseph (talk) 14:39, 14 December 2013 (UTC)
Your opinion on the man has no place here. Like I said, I'm not saying that what I reverted is untrue or true, it's was just written like a smear piece from the National Enquirer (a gossip rag with no journalistic integrity). Misplaced Pages's goal is to present all of the facts in a neutral tone befitting of an encyclopedia. Since you clearly have a bias, you probably shouldn't edit the article at all. If you continue to violate our policies on neutrality and reliablilty (which I've linked above) or continue to edit war you will be blocked. 19:05, 14 December 2013 (UTC)
Further, Crain's is a valid source, the problem is with the way the information is worded. John Reaves 19:44, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Biased Tone

Upon Favonian's suggestion I'm copying our conversation here: Shobeir_f (talk) 21:56, 15 February 2014 (UTC)


Thank you for reverting the latest edits and making it protected. However, the page still contains incorrect information. This has been going on for some time and I don't have the time to repeatedly correct it.

For example:

"He was appointed dean by the provost in March of 2011 to facilitate the transfer of the Department of Computer Science out of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and into the College of Engineering." This sentence is written to show that the reason for his appointment was only to do the transfer. However, the reference does not say that at all. It just says that he did the transfer. And the sentence tries to undermine his capabilities.

"He generated controversy with the firings of several people, including the Assistant Dean and non-faculty personnel who worked under Professor Greg Auner." The reference does not say anything about the assistant dean!

"After the firings, Fotouhi started a construction project to renovate and enlarge the Dean's Office." The reference does not say that at all!

And even if all these were corrected, the article has been edited in a way to show that most his contribution at Wayne State are negative; there is a whole paragraph about a paper article in there, and half the truth in that article is not mentioned; the part that is about the problems with the people who were fired. There are a lot of positive things going on under his management, and one has to put all that in here if someone wants to give a clear picture.

I don't think Misplaced Pages should be the place that former employees could take revenge from their managers. I was Dr.Fotouhi's former student a few years ago and created this page for him out of respect, and I know he is a great man. He has made many positive changes in the CS department and I know he is doing the same at the college. However, I do not have the time to deal with all these repeated revenge edits. I appreciate if you just delete the page. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shobeir f (talk • contribs) 19:46, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

My advice would be that you enter the above on the article's talk page – just for the record – and then make the changes you deem necessary to the article itself. It will serve as a reference point if the issues resume after the current protection expires. Favonian (talk) 21:16, 15 February 2014 (UTC)
Thank you. I have made the changes. I didn't remove any references just changed the tone and sentences. Shobeir_f (talk) 22:39, 15 February 2014 (UTC)
Great man, please. Only a weak and insecure man needs a big office to compensate for his own inner smallness. Dean Kummler was a great man. The Kummler statue is inscribed "his heart was for the students." Fotouhi's heart is strictly for himself.
It's not just former employees who are angry. DONORS are pissed off too. "It was clear there was no hope for the TEAM project to continue under Fotouhi," said Strauss, who said he has terminated payments on his pledge, at least until another dean is in place. "I'm not going to give them another nickel." That's from Crain's Detroit Business. Detroit Joseph (talk) 02:09, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
Ok. Here we go again! This is why I requested if we could delete the page. I really don’t have time for these edit wars. Detroit Joseph has obviously exteremly biased and negatively opinion about Farshad Fotouhi. He should not use the Misplaced Pages page to take his revenge. Below are some of Detroit Joseph’s comments about Farashd Fotouhi on different talk pages. He not only expresses extremely negative comments, unproven and undocumented professional and personal accusations about him, but he even makes racial offenses towards him and absurdly compares him to Ahmadinejad to express his negative feelings:
On ]: “You need to read Crain's Detroit Business, to know that your hero, Farshad Fotouhi, is a very bad, corrupt man. Just because he's Iranian doesn't mean he's a good guy. Look at Mamud Ahmenutjob.” and “you just can't accept that Crain's Detroit and the Detroit News have called your Iranian friend out on his corruption. Detroit Joseph (talk) 01:31, 19 February 2014 (UTC)”
On ]: “Since when is the truth bias? Are you going to wring your hands because the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad article calls him corrupt? Read Crain's Detroit Business http://www.crainsdetroit.com/assets/PDF/CD89200615.PDF page 8 or 9. Should Ahmedinajad's Misplaced Pages article just be a carbon copy of his page on the Iranian government's website?” and “Only a weak and insecure man needs a big office to compensate for his own inner smallness. Dean Kummler was a great man. The Kummler statue is inscribed "his heart was for the students." Fotouhi's heart is strictly for himself.”
On ]: “Farshad Fotouhi is an extremely corrupt man who should never have been appointed dean of anything. His greed and arrogance are costing the whole university wealthy donors, world-class researchers, student goodwill and tenured faculty, and who knows what else. Detroit Joseph (talk) 02:13, 19 February 2014 (UTC)”
I’m also pointing out some of the guidelines from the Biographies of living persons page for reference: “An editor who is involved in a significant off-wiki controversy or dispute with another individual, or who is an avowed rival of that individual, should not edit that person's biography or other material about that person, given the possible conflict of interest.“, “Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid: it is not Misplaced Pages's job to be sensationalist, or to be the primary vehicle for the spread of titillating claims about people's lives.", “Do not give disproportionate space to particular viewpoints; the views of tiny minorities should not be included at all.”, “Given their potential impact on biography subjects' lives, biographies must be fair to their subjects at all times.”, “Pages that are unsourced and negative in tone, especially when they appear to have been created to disparage the subject, should be deleted at once if there is no policy-compliant version to revert to”
Could you please suggest what to do, if you don't want to delete the page? Thank you. shobeif_f (talk) 03:28, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
I'm not a rival of Fotouhmeister, I'm not an engineer. Wait, neither is he. But I've never been a WSU employee. My daughter graduated from WSU, and her best friend majored in engineering. That best friend of my daughter's tried very hard to get Associate Dean Gerald Thompkins reinstated at the College of Engineering. Thompkins was the top-ranking African American administrator in the college. And he was fired by... guess who.
When I looked deeper into it, the Grand Fotouhpoobah had also fired a lot of white and Jewish employees. The racism theory went out the window. But I found the reason for the firings: a construction project to enlarge the Fotouhnary's office. That construction project was finished in 2012.
In 2013, DTE gave the school a grant for renovations of things that actually benefit students. That project will be completed this year. Tells you something about the man's priorities, doesn't it? Detroit Joseph (talk) 22:12, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

A little timeline

For a little more perspective, let's zoom out a little:

  • 1933 College of Engineering is founded.
  • 2007 Dean Emeritus Ralph Kummler obtains major donations to expand the building in order to provide students with more labs and classrooms. He stays in his old, small office, in the old part of the building.
  • 2009 The Danto Center is completed. Kummler retires and dies soon after. An endowed memorial scholarship is immediately started by his friends, as well as plans to hire a sculptor to make a statue of him. Mumtaz Usmen is temporary dean.
  • 2010 Provost Ron Brown has the faculty interview new dean candidates. Six men are interviewed, the faculty are the least impressed with Fotouhi.
  • 2011 Brown unilaterally decides Fotouhi is the new dean, ignoring faculty objections. Fotouhi starts firing people left and right, and keeps doing so long after the budget is balanced. Paul Strauss stops his ongoing donations to the school. As a misguided gesture of goodwill, Fotouhi is inducted into the Order of the Engineer even though he is actually not an engineer at all.
  • 2012 Fotouhi moves into a temporary office at the Maccabees Building while a construction company enlarges his permanent office in the old part of the engineering building.
  • 2013 Someone (maybe Fotouhi, not sure) gets DTE to donate money for much needed renovations to the old part of the building.
  • 2014 Prof. Woodward resigns.
  • 2016 Fotouhi is scheduled to be evaluated, even though an investigation into his criminal activities was called for much sooner.

What Crain's and the Detroit News have published is just smoke. And where there is smoke, there is fire. Detroit Joseph (talk) 22:27, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

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