Even more than the usual W-day
Feb. 9th, 2011 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoMeeting in Rockford this afternoon, then the usual evening shift for Wednesday. Temperature down to -7F when I got home. Gary and Red are at a dog class, won't be home until nearly 10, then really late dinner. And tomorrow morning a staff meeting at work, eeeww.
I'm left utterly puzzled by the local college where this afternoon's meeting took place. I mean, I know they've had some really loony administrators for a while now, including a president who ran their finances right into the ground and some who are still there (he left) who seem to think an educational institution has to be more concerned about the paint and carpets than the quality of education it is delivering. They have cheated and bluffed their way around repeated accreditation violations and wonder why their student enrollment is dwindling and their income shrinking. They went for years without a library director, leaving the library in charge of an academic dean who just didn't get it at all. Last summer they finally hired a new director, and he has turned out to be as weird as the rest of them. Apparently he hates books. He's throwing them away, just tossing them in the trash, by the thousands. He's converting the library into what appears to be mostly a collection of computer workstations. He also hates wood, and is getting rid of classic wooden furniture in favor of metal stuff with automobile paint on it. He hates art, and is removing paintings and awards from all the walls. He hates plants, and has ordered all the plants to be removed from the building. He is throwing away materials that other libraries would gladly take, such as a full run of the New York Times on microfilm, all the way back to 1851. There seems to be no respect for traditions, or alumni, or, as far as I can see, for education itself. He's making enemies on the faculty by getting rid of tools and materials that they use for their students. I predict this guy won't be around for long, one way or another, even in that bizarre place. Sadly, this college is more than a century old and was once highly respected.
A law school, a business school, or a medical school may get away with depending almost entirely on electronic resources. A liberal arts college simply can't do that. Too much of classical scholarship in languages, math, literature, philosophy, theology, and history is available only in print formats. Maybe someday it will all be online, but it isn't there now. My advice to students at that institution, or anyone considering enrolling there, has to be to look elsewhere. Nothing good will come of their current direction, and they have persisted in this mode for several years now, so there's no reason to expect they will see their mistake and correct it.
I'm left utterly puzzled by the local college where this afternoon's meeting took place. I mean, I know they've had some really loony administrators for a while now, including a president who ran their finances right into the ground and some who are still there (he left) who seem to think an educational institution has to be more concerned about the paint and carpets than the quality of education it is delivering. They have cheated and bluffed their way around repeated accreditation violations and wonder why their student enrollment is dwindling and their income shrinking. They went for years without a library director, leaving the library in charge of an academic dean who just didn't get it at all. Last summer they finally hired a new director, and he has turned out to be as weird as the rest of them. Apparently he hates books. He's throwing them away, just tossing them in the trash, by the thousands. He's converting the library into what appears to be mostly a collection of computer workstations. He also hates wood, and is getting rid of classic wooden furniture in favor of metal stuff with automobile paint on it. He hates art, and is removing paintings and awards from all the walls. He hates plants, and has ordered all the plants to be removed from the building. He is throwing away materials that other libraries would gladly take, such as a full run of the New York Times on microfilm, all the way back to 1851. There seems to be no respect for traditions, or alumni, or, as far as I can see, for education itself. He's making enemies on the faculty by getting rid of tools and materials that they use for their students. I predict this guy won't be around for long, one way or another, even in that bizarre place. Sadly, this college is more than a century old and was once highly respected.
A law school, a business school, or a medical school may get away with depending almost entirely on electronic resources. A liberal arts college simply can't do that. Too much of classical scholarship in languages, math, literature, philosophy, theology, and history is available only in print formats. Maybe someday it will all be online, but it isn't there now. My advice to students at that institution, or anyone considering enrolling there, has to be to look elsewhere. Nothing good will come of their current direction, and they have persisted in this mode for several years now, so there's no reason to expect they will see their mistake and correct it.
