After the snafu between President Warrick L. Carter and Louise Love, interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, I’m left feeling more confused than ever by our administration.

To recap, our president told a cabinet meeting he was going to remove “interim” from Love’s provost title. She passed the news along at her Provosts’ meeting because Carter had already told a roomful of people, and the group took that information and spread it around like gossip in a girls’

locker room.

Carter caught wind of the news, and got upset because he wasn’t the first to alert the masses. He then revoked his offer to Love, admitting that he did it because it was “his news” and no one else’s to share.

On Oct. 8, The Chronicle had a rare opportunity to meet with Carter to chat about a number of things, including the situation with Love, during which he confirmed he was displeased that he didn’t get to let the cat out of the bag about her title. For this reason, he rescinded his decision.

The interview was an exciting chance not many of our writers have had, and I’m incredibly and truly appreciative of that. But it mustn’t go without saying that Carter clearly does not relish relinquishing his reins, and he made that obvious by how he handled the issue with Love.

Love has been interim provost for more than a year, longer than usual for an interim position. Carter said he wanted to remove “interim” from her title to make the job she’s already doing clearer to those outside of the college. He said there would still be a provost search regardless of Love’s title change.

It only makes sense to remove the prefix if it would make her job easier. But because Carter was personally offended by Love’s honesty with her team regarding the change, he took it back.

The situation is equivalent to giving someone a gift and then getting upset for not receiving public acknowledgement. I seriously doubt Love had any intention of stepping on Carter’s toes when she told her council.

Carter blatantly embarrassed Love, but his actions, yet again, caused far more embarrassment to the entire college. It reinforces the impression that our administrators aren’t team players and can’t agree on anything.

If Carter is serious about easing the turbulence that characterized the previous academic year, he’ll step back and weigh the consequences of his actions more carefully. Unfortunately, an impetuous gesture like the one we just witnessed can negate all of the administration’s previous attempts to restore harmony to Columbia.

Even if Love hadn’t told her council, chances are the news would have gotten out anyway. Perhaps he should be more upset with himself for not being more prepared with a formal announcement to blast out to the college instead of blaming others for taking away his moment in the spotlight.