[IP] Re: Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We Know It - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Tim O'Reilly" <tim@oreilly.com>
Date: April 28, 2009 7:29:48 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: "ip" <ip@v2.listbox.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We  
Know It -  NYTimes.com

While it's true that the Op Ed was overly broad, it reflects the  
experience of a surprising number of academics in certain disciplines.

I recently stayed at a postgraduate institute associated with a major  
Ivy League university, and was quite fascinated by how frustrated the  
director was by the narrow focus of his own institution (ancient Greek  
classics), which had moved away from being an institution devoted to  
learning, and had become exactly what the NYT op-ed describes, namely  
a training program for specialists who are splitting the finest  
hairs.  He's been working for years to move the institutional culture  
back to one where the mission is really education, rather than ever  
more abstruse research into topics that mean very little to anyone,  
and are only designed for academic tenure.

I don't think people in "real world" disciplines realize just how much  
some of the more extreme humanities disciplines have fallen into the  
"how many angels can fit on the head of a pin" trap.

On Apr 28, 2009, at 4:08 PM, David Farber wrote:

> From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed@reed.com>
> Date: April 28, 2009 4:34:57 PM EDT
> To: dave@farber.net
> Cc: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We  
> Know It -  NYTimes.com
>
> I agree with Ben Kuipers below. But here's a simpler observation:  
> what hubris allows a religion professor in Columbia to indict ALL  
> graduate programs in ALL universities without doing any research  
> whatsoever?
>
> Any serious professor in any serious graduate school would have  
> never allowed him to get a Bachelor's degree, much less a graduate  
> degree with that attitude towards the craft of learning...
>
> Flunk him out.

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