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chat thread 2021: RIP Paul Mooney

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unless your college is funding 4 tenured professors with like 10 majors/year

then you can definitely defund the department.
Depending on the school (obviously), but the overhead for a department like this is probably just about zero. They cost the school nothing.

The humanities are hella cheap. In some cases pay for themselves. In some cases subsidize other departments.

Science departments are expensive as fuck to run and many of them are largely funded by outside grants. If people decided they valued the humanities and wanted to fund them with outside grants at even a fraction of what we give to science programs I think the world would look a lot different.

For every "worthless" theater major making cappuccinos there's two biology majors who didn't go to medical school and are working at Dunder Mifflin
 
Universities should not be run like businesses for a profit with a primary purpose of making rich alumni who can further enrich their alma maters

They should sustain or operate at loss, with massive higher ed public support, at low to no consumer cost, with a mission to produce thinking citizens of the world who may contribute to its progress

CRAZY TALK.

How the hell are we supposed to feel superior to others if we didn't go to THE BEST SCHOOL, or at least a BETTER SCHOOL than the rubes?!
 
Depending on the school (obviously), but the overhead for a department like this is probably just about zero. They cost the school nothing.

The humanities are hella cheap. In some cases pay for themselves. In some cases subsidize other departments.

Science departments are expensive as fuck to run and many of them are largely funded by outside grants. If people decided they valued the humanities and wanted to fund them with outside grants at even a fraction of what we give to science programs I think the world would look a lot different.

For every "worthless" theater major making cappuccinos there's two biology majors who didn't go to medical school and are working at Dunder Mifflin

except for their salaries/benefits and literal space in buildings fielding workloads that are half or less than some young, tenured professors.
 
It's probably gonna be an unpopular opinion here, but as a high school teacher I think we send entirely too many goddamn kids to 4 year colleges in this country.
 
except for their salaries/benefits and literal space in buildings fielding workloads that are half or less than some young, tenured professors.
Salaries, sometimes: that's what endowments are for.

Benefits, yes, but that's not that expensive, come on. You're already paying them for everyone else.

Literal space in buildings: ok, in your example, four offices and one classroom. No labs, no fancy equipment.

I have no idea what you mean by "workloads". Can you clarify?
 
what is a young, tenured professor

tell me about the old ways
 
It's probably gonna be an unpopular opinion here, but as a high school teacher I think we send entirely too many goddamn kids to 4 year colleges in this country.
I think that's the right opinion. Not sure if it's prevailing though.

Also, who wants to be the guy to tell a kid with dreams that they'd probably earn more money and be happier with an associate's degree and a blue collar job. We have the American Dream to uphold
 
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I think it depends on what the outcome you want from your education is. Changing the way you think and process things that then helps you in an impactful way is a positive. A better and more rich society through art is another positive outcome but only if society affords the luxury of having that exist. So in a flourishing time I think that’s reasonable, a flee the planet to escape and restart somewhere scenario probably need another engineer and don’t need someone that uses the correct pronouns and corrects everyones grammar along the way.
 
Salaries, sometimes: that's what endowments are for.

Benefits, yes, but that's not that expensive, come on. You're already paying them for everyone else.

Literal space in buildings: ok, in your example, four offices and one classroom. No labs, no fancy equipment.

I have no idea what you mean by "workloads". Can you clarify?

yeah, if you're advising 4 students a year vs 10-12, for one. let alone class sizes for prep/grading.

it's not about pumping out kids who will get wealthy, it's about dumping resources each year into departments that are underutilized by student-choice. short of making kids sign up for these majors, the tail on funding re-allocation is extremely long
 
I think it depends on what the outcome you want from your education is. Changing the way you think and process things that then helps you in an impactful way is a positive. A better and more rich society through art is another positive outcome but only if society affords the luxury of having that exist. So in a flourishing time I think that’s reasonable, a flee the planet to escape and restart somewhere scenario probably need another engineer and don’t need someone that uses the correct pronouns and corrects everyones grammar along the way.

whynotboth.jpeg
 
the sad thing there are people out there that say we don't solve problems on these here rjkarl-free boards
 
I think it depends on what the outcome you want from your education is. Changing the way you think and process things that then helps you in an impactful way is a positive. A better and more rich society through art is another positive outcome but only if society affords the luxury of having that exist. So in a flourishing time I think that’s reasonable, a flee the planet to escape and restart somewhere scenario probably need another engineer and don’t need someone that uses the correct pronouns and corrects everyones grammar along the way.

but that's only like, 85% of what being an english major is

we also like reading books and talking about them
 
I think it depends on what the outcome you want from your education is. Changing the way you think and process things that then helps you in an impactful way is a positive. A better and more rich society through art is another positive outcome but only if society affords the luxury of having that exist. So in a flourishing time I think that’s reasonable, a flee the planet to escape and restart somewhere scenario probably need another engineer and don’t need someone that uses the correct pronouns and corrects everyones grammar along the way.

Yes, I agree with all this. But we *are* a rich society yet we choose to put the money in the wrong places (in my opinion).

And I'm not saying we shouldn't have engineers. People should pursue careers that are best suited to their abilities and skills and that will make them happy and let them live a comfortable life.

But let's be real, using correct pronouns and correcting grammar are not actually something anybody is teaching in a college classroom. But things like this take up an oversized place in society's assumptions about is happening on college campuses. How much indoctrinating are you doing in the lab every day?

There are plenty of smart, well-educated, successful people on this board who simply have no idea what actually goes on on a college campus. I don't blame them for that, obviously, but perhaps they should temper their really strong opinions.
 
I'm still really interested in hearing what you meant by "workloads" and "young, tenured professors". Are you criticizing the fact that lazy old dudes who got degrees in the 50s are still taking up space while young people do all the work?

yeah, if you're advising 4 students a year vs 10-12, for one. let alone class sizes for prep/grading.

it's not about pumping out kids who will get wealthy, it's about dumping resources each year into departments that are underutilized by student-choice. short of making kids sign up for these majors, the tail on funding re-allocation is extremely long

I don't know what you mean by the first paragraph. Can you be clearer?

So I don't disagree with the second part, but I do think you're significantly overestimating how many resources are actually allocated to departments like this. Where that is actually the case we've seen universities respond by combining programs (e.g. "Romance Languages").

I don't know enough about money stuff to understand what "the tail" on funding reallocation means in context here
 
Oh I completely agree in a country like ours we shouldn’t have to work 40+ hours a week doing some of the things we do. Also having a job for the sake of having a job when there’s plenty for people to just pursue what they are passionate about. I think even the hard sciences you are driven to pursue what will be funded and a whole different conversation what you know will work therefore stifling true innovation and progress. I said the pronoun quip as a joke, its weird to believe colleges lead to indoctrination when they essentially develop your ability to process information and think critically. It’s just those skills result in your ability to break from childhood indoctrination by religion, parental beliefs, society, and so forth.
 
I wonder how the percentages of humanities majors vs. non-humanities majors posting on a CT at 2 p.m. on a workday break down.
 
I wonder how the percentages of humanities majors vs. non-humanities majors posting on a CT at 2 p.m. on a workday break down.
"Workday" is relative mako.

(In my case it is my lunch break but also my next deadline isn't for weeks or years or never)
 
we should run these boards like a business and require posters to pay .02 cents a post
 
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