Texas Opinion on Higher Ed

At The American Statesman:

Armey, echoing some of the fiery rhetoric he employed as a Republican congressman from Dallas, opened with the premise that higher education costs have steadily climbed in America as quality has gone down.

He charged that universities serve “the comfort and security of the faculty” rather than the educational needs of students. And he urged regents to require university presidents and other administrators to scale back the authority of faculty members in university governance.

Here are a few zingers from Armey, himself a former professor and chairman of economics at the University of North Texas:

“Ninety-nine percent of all bad ideas are born in universities.”

From people like Armey, clearly.

Ph.D. stands for “privileged higher than deserved.”

Meh--depends.

“A lot of hogwash is generated and they call it research.”

Only in the Education department.

Tenure “gives everyone who has it” the ability “to be a bully to everyone who doesn’t have it. I believe tenure actually diminishes academic freedom.”

Only if you lack balls to begin with.

The faculty lounge is “one of the most brain-dead locations in the United States.”

That would be because there is no such place as a "faculty lounge" on an actual university campus. Seriously.

Mostly this is depressing but unsurprising. The true problem with the university system is that the public education system is ill-equipped to prepare students for entry to university, and once they get here they have to relearn everything from the ground up: No five paragraph writing assignments. Think critically, don't regurgitate. Yes, evolution is a real theory--just like fucking gravity.

Etc.

I Love Mail

I like getting the mail when I come home in the evening. I particularly like it when I get reading material and not spam. Today I got the new issues of The American Archivist and Realms of Fantasy, and because I am me I tossed TAA on the couch and opened up RoF.

RoF has a story by Way Jeng called "Somebody Desperately Needed to Be Neil Gaiman."

What would Neil Gaiman have done if he were sitting where I was? Probably start writing a story. He'd have one right away, no problem. He was Neil Gaiman. He could do that sort of thing, being Neil Gaiman and all.

[...]

It was not easy being Neil Gaiman. I suspect it's not easy to be anyone, except possibly one of the homeless people by the train station. You don't have to do very much at all to be one of them.

It's a really well-written story. And of course, the rest of the mag isn't that bad either.

Later,
me