tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post5717748540625972677..comments2024-01-09T03:06:16.501-06:00Comments on The Good Enough Professor: Want to Be My Provost or Chancellor? Quote a Poem I Don't Already Know by Heart.KWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07114727221915528878noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post-85738054161509875062015-08-08T18:55:00.296-05:002015-08-08T18:55:00.296-05:00Thanks for your careful attention to all these mat...Thanks for your careful attention to all these matters. I think about this stuff day and night but rarely write anything in a public or semi-public format because of despair, mostly. The thing I wish the agents of the neoliberal, technocratic corporate university model would realize is that it's every bit as much a shadows-on-the-wall game as what they think the artsy-fartsy academics are up to. <br /><br />I worked for a multinational corporation for 2 1/2 years while on a break from my Ph.D. program. I was already a trained anthropologist, so I was essentially doing fieldwork that couldn't be published because I hadn't done an IRB. My biggest takeaway is that not even *corporations* are running on the alleged corporate model of rationality and efficiency. The organization in which I worked had divisional in-fighting, communication problems between the sales field and upper management, a "ready, fire, aim" style of planning for the future that was mostly fear-based, and a problem retaining new talent (not to mention rampant sexism and a lack of diversity). My experience there led me to believe that the problems universities face are not necessarily qualitatively different from those that corporations face, because both are human organizations. Yes, the stated goals appear to be different, but both have always been nexuses of power of one kind or another. I feel like it would really help the cause of academia if we could somehow enlighten the public on the real lack of difference between supposed "real-world" businesses and alleged "ivory tower" academic institutions.Angelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03356192079923445345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post-37554518342203050942015-08-08T14:51:00.851-05:002015-08-08T14:51:00.851-05:00You are a kind and thoughtful reader of this situa...You are a kind and thoughtful reader of this situation. Certainly more so than I can bring myself to be. It is the language about needing to "do a little realignment of expectations and realities" and "plant[ing] this notion with Nick [Burbules]" that makes it hard for me to read this even as benignly as you have here. We are not so much seen as forest sprites, as unruly children. Of course, this email explains VERY CLEARLY why Burbules launched his "shared governance doesn't mean what you think it means" campaign in the campus senate last year.Jaybrielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07755755223806683027noreply@blogger.com