As a Bard College and New School for Research Graduate Faculty
alumnus, and a nearly 20 year long employee of Columbia University,
my mailbox at work and at home is perpetually filled with glossy
brochures and magazines trumpeting the latest human rights, free
speech or multicultural breakthroughs of these institutions. Among
the thousands of beacons of higher learning in the U.S., these three
are near the top of the list when it comes to liberal pretensions.
You can call me a hardened cynic, but mostly I regard the printed
material from the three colleges as exercises in public relations
cant especially when you consider how often the noble gesture is
offset by some truly creepy maneuver, often occurring around the same
ballyhooed stunt.
For example, when my boss Lee Bollinger decided to invite Iran's
president to speak at the university, he defended the action as a
courageous effort in academic freedom necessary to promote global
communications. But in his introduction to Ahmadinejad's speech, he
repeated the talking points of the Bush administration in a clear
effort to grease the skids for war with Iran after the fashion of
Judith Miller in the run-up to the war in Iraq. So effective was
Bollinger that Rush Limbaugh replayed Bollinger's entire introduction
the following day on his radio show flapping his lips about how great
Bollinger was.
Just about a week ago I got an alumnus magazine from the New School,
where I earned an MA in philosophy about 40 years ago mostly in an
effort to evade the draft. I have tried in vain to get off their
mailing list after Bob Kerrey became president of the school to no
avail. My next step, I suppose, is to send them a change of address
notification that I have moved to East Jesus, Nebraska.
If Columbia's magazines are geared to liberal sensibilities, the New
School is pitched even further to the left. The magazine announced
that Bob Pollin, a New School alumnus, Marxist economist, and
frequent contributor to Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch, will be
joining the Board of Governors. This might lead to the impression
that the hammer-and-sickle will soon be flying over 66 Fifth Avenue.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/academic-cant/
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