Professor Punished for Witty Remark

Eric Cordian emc at artifact.psychedelic.net
Tue Dec 11 17:01:11 PST 2001


Declan opines:

>> Imagine the joy of being a university professor, and waking up one morning
>> to find that a big powerful organization run by the Vice President's wife
>> has issued a report practically calling you a traitor.

> I'm hardly defending the group's "blacklist," but "big and powerful?"
> Come, now.

OK.  How about "well-funded?"  :)

I count $1,270,000 in grants to the organization since its creation as the
National Alumni Forum.  The NAF sold the idea that alumni should
contribute to the NAF's "Fund for Academic Renewal" instead of directly to
their institutions.  The NAF then gave the money to the institutions as
targeted donations, removing the institution's discretion over how alumni
donations were spent.

They went after the $2.9 billion alumni gift market with big ads in Ivy
League magazines.  Later they changed their name to the more impressive
sounding American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and broadened the
spectrum of pressure tactics employed to shove patriotism down the throats
of universities behind the smokescreen of "promoting intellectual freedom
and raising academic standards."

In what sense is such an undertaking neither "big" nor "powerful?"

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"





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