If you hire bad people and expect not to get burned because — well, just because — guess what? You’re going to get burned.

Let’s christen it the Hamid Shirvani Rule, one North Dakotans should already be familiar with.

Tiny Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, is the latest to learn the hard way, the fourth time the rule’s been invoked. Shirvani resigned as president of the private school Tuesday, July 26, after only 14 months on the job. In a press release, Ham said it was not an easy decision and “is a result of a combination of family, personal and professional considerations.”

Ol’ Ham didn’t mention he quit three months after a Sioux City TV station reported he was being investigated for sexual harassment, a story the Briar Cliff administration dismissed as inaccurate. What’s not inaccurate is that a university in California for which Shirvani once worked doled out $10,000 and six months of paid leave to a former female administrative assistant under his charge for “events that took place.” While we would never suggest that events also took place in Iowa, you can suggest whatever you want.

You could even suggest events took place in North Dakota, if you wish. Take a flyer on it because, truth is, enough other stuff with Shirvani did. That would include but not be limited to chaos, conspiracy theories, palace intrigue, votes of no confidence and, eventually, a contract buyout that cost the state nearly $1 million.

One thing we never heard after Shirvani left, though, was the admission from his most strident supporters — the usual suspects when it comes to stirring up disorder in the higher ed system — that Hurricane Ham’s hire was an experiment gone bad, a regrettable mistake, an unfortunate embarrassment.

Maybe it will happen now that the Shirvani Disaster Tour has left Iowa in its rearview mirror, but don’t bet on it. Shirvani had his cabal of backers in North Dakota for whom he was supposed to serve a purpose, and even though he failed miserably, those backers will be loathe to admit error. As usual.

They would include people like former Rep. Bob Skarphol of Tioga, Rep. Roscoe Streyle of Minot, blogger Rob Port, former Grand Forks Herald Publisher Mike Jacobs and then-State Board of Higher Education chair Grant Shaft.

They are not alone, but all publicly praised or vigorously defended Shirvani to some extent in his strong-arm attempt to fix the “dysfunction” in the higher ed system. Some also took a shine to the idea of Shirvani putting uppity North Dakota State president (fill in the blank, but at the time it happened to be Dean Bresciani) in his place.

“It’s becoming clearer every day that Shirvani absolutely was the right person at the right time to lead the North Dakota University System and that university leaders like Bresciani are the real problem,” Streyle wrote in a column printed in 2013 in the Herald headlined “Lawmaker: Board should fire NDSU’s Bresciani.” Such a timeless classic.

No, Shirvani was not — never has been, never will be — the right person to lead anything in higher ed. He was what he’s always been, a goon and a creep who plays the victim when he loses his job. He hasn’t played the tiny violin yet in Iowa, but he did at all his previous controversial stops in Colorado, California and North Dakota. Give him time.

Shirvani just can’t figure out why things just keep happening to him when, using all the powers of his greatness, all he’s done is make things better. Well, Ham, you know the old saying: Sometimes events take place.

It’d be nice, given the news from Iowa, if some North Dakotans admitted they backed a bad guy and got burned. Of course, that’s making the dangerous assumption they believe he’s a bad guy, and that backing him was the wrong thing to do.

Readers can reach Forum columnist Mike McFeely at (701) 241-5379.