Nathan Newman wrote:
> But given the fact that so many tenured profs, even lefty ones like my old
> Sociology Dept at Berkeley, don't lift a hand for such causes,
> pragmatically, raising the teaching load seems like the only way to force
> change in the system presently developing.
Who does this "raising the teaching load"? And what are the values that that "someone" will embody in the actual bureaucratic procedures by which teaching loads are raised? If the deadwood at the top Michael describes remains in place, the "new" will resemble the old in all its undesirable features while adding new and even more undesirable features.
Proposed reforms that suggest a change without changing the sources of power are my definition of really naive utopianism. (The same principle applies to supporting Australian troops in East Timor.) Could pragmatism be utopianism with a veneer of tough talk?
Carrol