> When asked by the distressed grad students how a top-notch English
> department could fail to place any students, the profs pulled on their silk
> ties, cleared their throats, and said that the problem was that the
> candidates had not been "sexy enough." (They meant theory sexy, not sexually
> sexy.)
Astounding. My old stomping grounds, the Comp Lit program in Eugene, OR, gets no publicity or buzz, has the most minimal funding -- but nearly every PhD has gotten a job somewhere.
Speaking of UC Berkeley, I've got to get this rant off my chest: their main library denied me entry earlier this year because I didn't have a student/faculty ID -- they had all the entrances screened off, full-scale security and everything. I was *so* pissed. This is how far the process of Mordorization has gotten in this nightmare of an oiligarchy -- even its *libraries* act like the dungeons of Mordor. (Fortunately, I found the text I needed in the Ethnic Studies library, the last surviving outpost of hobbitry).
On the other hand, San Jose State's new library is smack in the middle of downtown, but it's open to the public and you can even get a library card for free, so I guess not all is lost.
-- DRR