Here's a sampling of some business school-related news headlines over the past couple months:

"Chicago Booth extends dean hunt"

"Boston and George Washington Universities announce replacements for long-standing bosses"

"Harvard appoints Nohria as next dean"

"UNF appoints Samant business school dean"

What's going on with US business schools? There is something to be said for lower-tiered schools moving deans around casually (because in that case there is usually some room for improvement, and more prestige.) But Harvard, Booth? GW?? Some of these top American schools are literally just pulling people from other schools (Doug Guthrie, the new guy at GW, was taken right from NYU Stern.)

For the new deans in these places, it may just be a case of the grass being greener on the other side.

However, it may also be symptomatic of fundamental issues with the institutions themselves. Doug Guthrie, along with Nitin Nohria, the new dean at Harvard, specialize in what is being bizarrely termed "business ethics," the new buzzword in MBA studies

Seemingly, the top business schools know that something is happening in the economy, in business education - maybe even at a societal level - and they're trying to scratch this existential itch by playing a game of musical chairs with deans.

All I have to say is, "good luck with that!"

Also, this is not a US - only trend. European schools are scooping up and recycling deans as we speak. It looks like Dipak Jain, formerly from Kellogg, is going to INSEAD, and Henley just nabbed a new guy.

But I think it's more about timing than anything - this is summer break, and summertime is when schools make all their administrative and bureaucratic changes to minimize the impact during the school year.

Who knew? More dean shuffling: Booth found a dean, Sunil Kumar... and he is, get this, straight from Stanford! There would be some kind of irony there, if this b-school musical chairs wasn't so widespread and ultimately sad... You know, the whole business elite moving from the west back to the east.

I love how they frame him: "He brings the right blend of vision, entrepreneurial energy and academic leadership that will build on the contributions of Chicago Booth at a time of tremendous momentum and achievement."