Monday, August 30, 2010

The Entrepreneurial University, my white ass

UNC has a new chancellor, one Holden Thorp, the winsome lad with the John Edwards hair depicted below.  Apparently, Mr. Thorp, a scientist, has a bee in his bonnet about universities being entrepreneurial.  He even wrote a book about it with some guy named Buck.


In Thorp's view, all classes should have "impact."  That means that they should be "relevant."  To effect this, professors teaching courses about things that happened in the past should as a matter of course analogize to the present, so that kids can see how they have "impact."

I can assure you that, as someone in the private sector who is searching for suitable job candidates, what I'm looking for is ones who can recite for me ways in which their professors told them that things from the past were similar to contemporary life. I certainly am not looking for people who have honed critical faculties, who are creative, or who are able to think for themselves. May sweet little baby Jesus save us from neo-functionalist morons like this.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, no doubt our economy will flourish with more critical thinkers with Art History degrees.

Anonymous said...

Our economy will flourish when China removes all trade barriers to our exports of enhancement cream!

Anonymous said...

I've a yonek in my schwengel with menschugan, thanks be to yenkaschnazen!

Anonymous said...

We finally have an idiot savant running the university.

Anonymous said...

and don't get me started on Patti...