Can Someone Explain This...

...and not invoke the increasing contribution of administrative overhead at universities?

(Not sure the slope would be quite so steep in Canada, but certainly a similar story I would guess.)

Is That All We Are?

A little bit off-topic:  last night I went to see William Shatner at the Shaw Centre.  In general, it was a very good show, highlighting his fascinating life-story and his irrepressible can-do approach to everything.  In short, he is never afraid to try something and very publicly fall on his face.  He is also a very funny man.

What concerns me a little bit is the way he chose to end the show.  He had just concluded a discussion of his spoken word "musical" career, and wound things up with a spoken word rendition of Stompin' Tom Connors' "The Hockey Song," encouraging the audience to sing/speak along.  I guess I saw this as a fairly dismissive sort of pandering:  "Hockey is what these people care the most about, so finish up on a high note."

This show was part of a Canadian tour that will end up eventually in Montréal, and I am assuming he is going to end each show this way (though perhaps not always with an Oilers sweater with "Shatner" written on it).  And maybe it works--a lot of people there did seem to enjoy it.  However, I find myself cringing every time someone feeds the "Canadians are crazy for hockey" stereotype.  To me, it seems facile and vaguely dismissive, even when it originates from well-meaning Canadians.  Another Shatner tie-in:  I found the closing ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics painfully embarrassing.

Maybe I'm just over-sensitive, and this is a harmless notion, but to me it seems to infantilize trivialize Canada.

Book of Possible Interest

Just recently came across The Fall of the Faculty:  The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters by Benjamim Ginsberg.  This book would appear to address the trend that we have all been observing towards a permanent administrative class and the resulting corporatization of universities.  Certainly, it is highly relevant to current doings at the U of A.  I plan to order and read it, but I'm wondering if anyone (Hello!  Anyone there?) is already familiar with it.

Wow

So, today I received an e-mail inviting me to a lecture by retired oilman Gwyn Morgan.  Here is the text of the invitation:

"Dear Colleagues:

The Office of Corporate & Foundation Relations would like to invite you to the next University of Alberta Innovative Leaders Lecture Series to be held at 4:00pm - 5.30pm on October 31, 2011 in Room L2 190 CCIS. “If universities were in business, they'd be out of business. “

Dr Gwyn Morgan C.M., F.C.A.E (Bsc. Mech Eng ’67), a nationally recognized business leader and ardent community champion, will share his views on the urgent need to improve teaching quality and align resource allocations with the needs and opportunities in the job market. Dr Morgan has been recognized as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year and also as Canada’s Most Respected CEO. He has a strong belief that a corporation should be a positive social, community and environmental force. A regular contributor to the Globe and Mail, Dr Morgan is working to improve public policy in wellness and education.
This event is open to all students, faculty , staff and alumni.

Visit www.innovativeleaders.ualberta.ca for event and RSVP/registration information.

Light refreshments will be provided following the lecture.
Please share this invitation with your colleagues."

I'm sure I'm not alone in finding the content of this invitation to be patronizing in the extreme.  This right-wing corporatist affiliated with the Fraser Institute thinks he can tell the University (a) that it's business model is a failure (possibly true), (b) that there is an urgent need to improve teaching quality (based upon what?), and (c) that the job market should be the main determinant of resource allocations in advanced education.

I'll be there, but I may find it hard not to bring along some of the rotting tomatoes I was slow to harvest from my garden.  (Too busy with bad teaching, I guess.)

Update:  Does anyone know who funds the "Innovative Leaders Lecture Series?"  I would be rather upset to learn that we are using University funds to pay for this guy to come tell us about our deficiencies.

CCIS Photos

Can anyone point me to an online source of photos of the finished CCIS structure from various angles?  I am not having much luck with teh google.

OWS Continuted

To follow up on my earlier post about the pathetic handling of comments at Macleans OnCampus, here is a link that I would have liked to have included in a follow-up comment, but I have to assume that it would never make it out of moderation.  In it, the writer points out the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of elites who criticize the Occupy Wall Street protesters for not have detailed solutions ready right now.

Redford

So, what do we think about the results of this leadership race?  Good news for the province?  What about postsecondary?

Macleans OnCampus

OK, I am not very impressed with the commenting function at Macleans OnCampus.  I wanted to comment on a particularly dim post by Robyn Urback concerning the Occupy Wall Street protests.  First, my comment sat in moderation for a good 18 hours.  Then, when it appeared, the end was cut off, including a link to a much better discussion on the same topic at another site.  Next, I tried to "reply" to my original comment, with the missing information, and this seemed to evaporate entirely.

Overall, one gets the distinct whiff of a bush-league, amateurish operation.  I believe that I shall have to deprive them of my trenchant analysis henceforward.

Tsintskaro Revisited

In thinking about the Kate Bush post below, I was reminded of the first time that I encountered the Georgian folk song Tsintskaro, which she incorporated into Hello Earth:  Werner Herzog's unsettling Nosferatu the Vampyre.  In the memorable "Danse Macabre" scene towards the end of the film, Lucy wanders the town square as people "celebrate" their presumed impending death by plague.  This disturbing visual unfolds without dialogue, and with Tsintskaro playing in the background.  Truly a piece of bravura filmmaking.  Here is a short clip:

Lethbridge Makes a Correction

I see that University of Lethbridge has retracted their congratulations to conspiracy theorist Joshua Blakeny.  Good for them.