[Muanet] serving the need of corporatism

[Herb Thompson]

Hi
38 years ago, I was one of the many faces in the crowd when a young 
university undergraduate at the University of Berkeley named Mario Savio 
denounced the American university system for serving as a group of 
factories that turn out certain products needed by industry, while 
forgetting their role to act as conscience and critic of society. I think 
his words ring truer today than they ever did, even in that time of social 
sickness.

We debate the content of corporate logos or how many signs we should place 
on the lawn. We hire people based on the amount of money they can 
accumulate rather than the quality of their publications. We use 
microphones to talk to hundreds of students filling up the large lecture 
halls without ever learning their individual names because we no longer 
have time. Management coopts academics into a game of "pretend 
participation" determining strategic plans and visionary statements which 
will all go on the shelf in the back rooms of the Chancellory when complete.

In the meantime the important decisions continue to be made in secret. 
Academics are invited to meetings only on the basis of signing affidavits 
of secrecy not to tell anyone else what goes on in the meeting.

What is going on in fact, is the selection of yet more management people 
who have been head-hunted by other management people to run the place. 
Another VC is being selected in much the same fashion as the last one - in 
secret, without staff input and with union presence allowed only at the 
whim of the Chancellor as long as nobody tells anybody else anything.

"As things fell apart, nobody paid much attention". The Talking Heads

Herb