1.11.2010

Another danger of privatization can turn a university into a glorified trade school. Business programs and computer-science departments will attract wealthy supporters, but who will bankroll poetry? This concern is heightened because English--a high-enrollment, low-teaching-cost department--actually subsidizes disciplines such as nuclear physics and engineering, which require expensive equipment. Colleen Lye, a Berkeley English professor, says, "We have the No. 1-rated graduate department in the country"--according to the U.S. News survey--"yet our faculty and students feel second-class. For example, most humanities departments lost their phones this fall, while most science departments haven't."
--Tad Friend, Protest Studies


On a related note, this is a picture of a professor using the wall of a building as a chalkboard after a fire alarm was pulled during the protests:



Such an interesting story; education is a mighty and wonderful thing.

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