As he periodically does, Jeremy has decided to be offended by something he has read, in this case an article in the Edmonton Journal about the new Dean of Science that makes mention of "egotistical" professors--something that is not attributed to Jonathan Schaeffer, but which one may choose to believe was discussed with the reporter.
Several commenters (including yours truly) have tried to make the point that a certain amount of egotism comes with the territory in pursuing an academic career. Jeremy is having none of it, and considers it to be "...judgemental and offensive, and quite uncalled for." While I do acknowledge that we in the university community should be vigilant about how we are being portrayed, I consider this to be almost beneath notice in a time of static budgets and clear movements towards diminishing our roles in education (e.g., e-classes) along with our compensation opportunities.
In other words, how about choosing some more significant things to be offended by?
Yeah, I have to agree. This is pretty much exactly how I felt about Jeremy's outrage at a stray comment in a news article that was no doubt written in haste (and wasn't attributed directly to Jonathan Shaeffer).
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's starting to pay attention to his page views. Ginned up controversy can be good click bait.
ReplyDelete