Paul Okami wrote:
They ignore the material reality of what colleges have become (simple businesses like any other), the fact that they became this a long time ago, and that their primary purpose is to generate income. [and later....] The university as a place where bushy-tailed, curious, determined learners congregate is long dead because people cannot earn even a basic living without a college degree.
Paul,
I don't disagree with much of what you say here, but I have a question. If colleges and universities are no longer the places in which grouups of people interested in knowledge get together to do the work needed to acquire it, then (1) is there some other place that now serves that function or (2) do we (society as whole, not just we relatively insiginificant academics) no longer feel much of a need to establish and support such an institution?
Pre-emptive disclaimer: I am not talking about the kind of knowledge that has immediate and obvious commericial implications, such as devloping pharmaceuticals -- that can always find a place to be developed -- but the "basic" science and humanistic thought that we originally founded universities to advance?
Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ============================ .
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