[MD] The Academy is Evil! Here's what I'd do instead...

[118]

On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 6:08 PM, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
> Part II
>
> [Mark]
> Government funding of all literature and the removal of for profit publishers.
>
> [Arlo]
> You caught me completely off-guard with this one, you commie bastard. But I am
> not sure what "literature" you mean, academic publications? Textbooks? Novels?

[Mark]
No I meant journals.  Like Science.
>
> [Mark]
> Equal distribution of grants despite that research may be contrary to the
> current Government position; grants that are provided through the general
> publics acceptance, rather than some old network somewhere.
>
> [Arlo]
> Well this is a criticism of the government, which is the body that determines
> whether or not someone receives a government grant.

[Mark]
Yes, but the academics play along, and are on government panels that
decide these things.
>
> [Mark]
> The restriction of the use of science by politics.
>
> [Arlo]
> You mean political science classes are not able to refer to, say, genetics
> research, in their classes? Maybe you can explain this better?

[Mark]
In my opinion polysci is not a science.  What I am getting at is the
cozy alliance between academia and politics.  I find it somewhat evil.
 I have railed against Scientism in the past, and I guess this is just
an extension of such.  Parading scientists or doctors in some kind of
dog and pony show is what I mean.
>
> [Mark]
> Removal of silly disciplines such as economics and sociology from the public
> sector.  You don't need college education to understand these.
>
> [Arlo]
> What do you mean removal "from the public sector"? You mean removing them as
> programs from institutions? Or as degrees?

[Mark]
Make them privately funded.  The government really should not be
involved in either.
>

> [Mark]
> Are you an insider or just a critic?  What do you know about Academia, are you
> a professor?
>
> [Arlo]
> I am not a professor, but I've worked within the Academy for the past fourteen
> years, doing mostly instructional design but with a strong emphasis on
> information technology.
>
[Mark]
OK, then perhaps you see where I am coming from.

> [Mark]
> It is no longer the leading edge of knowledge, that happens in industry.
>
> [Arlo]
> What is?

[Mark]
Sorry, I was referring to science.  For the money spent, industry
seems to be more efficient.  If money was taken away from university
research and put into industry, more would get done.  Maybe the
jobless rate would go down.

>
> [Mark]
> College is just a training ground.
>
> [Arlo]
> Well this gets at my recent comments to John about the function of the Academy
> as an accreditation agency for employment. How would you suggest we change
> this?

[Mark]
I have no problem with that.  Some good football and basketball stars
also come out of universities.
>
>
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>