From the Department of Science Doesn't Work That Way, Idiot

[ultranos]

NY Times Op-Ed: The End of University As We Know It.

I suspect that some other people will find this equally as mindboggling as I did. Especially the suggestion to abolish departments and create multi-disciplinary groups focused on ill-defined problems under so-broad-they're-useless headings, like "Water" or "Time".

I'm frothing because, hey, Science And Engineering Don't Work That Way, Idiot. (Case in point, my own major, Mechanical Engineering, used to, waaaay Back In The Day, encompass all of engineering. Eventually, people realized This Was Stupid. Now we have Electrical Engineers, and Aerospace Engineers, and Chemical Engineers, etc. This means we can do really cool things because we're specialized and aren't attempting to learn EVERYTHING.) But it's also pretty unfair to the humanities and social science majors, as it's basically saying "your specializations are Worth Nothing".

I may be interpreting that wrong.

But I'll be over here trying not to beat my head into a wall or slip into a homicidal rage.

Comments

[havocthecat]

Oh, dear. That's an, um, interesting article, and while I think I agree with some of the criticisms, I disagree with a lot of the solutions put forth.

In specific, I would like to say: Specialization is okay! So is being a generalist. I think this guy doesn't seem to get that NEITHER should be penalized.

Otherwise I'm just going to nod and flee, because, just, wow, this guy is a special brand of trying to hog media attention with unrealistic and wildly overblown claims that we need to overthrow the ENTIRE SOCIAL STRUCTURE of universities, which is going to, ultimately, detract from the more pressing problems that he does point out.

[ultranos]

The problem with tenure and how that effectively grants professors autonomy, and how grad students are sort of used as practically slave labor, etc. Yeah, those are problems.

His proposed solutions both cause more problems and display a shocking amount of ignorance about parts of academia he is not part of. And that's being generous.

[havocthecat]

YES. Those are exactly the two things I was thinking of. Tenure isn't all bad, I get that, but there are portions of the system that are really bad. Which I mostly know from all my friends in academia who are trying to get a toehold into a job with tenure, and it's HARD to do. OMG.

Also, grad students as slave labor? Well, not only does it completely undervalue the incredibly valuable work that grad students do, it keeps people like me from getting a higher education in any sort of academic setting, because, seriously, I can't tell you how many times I look and say, "Dude, I have a family to help support. I can't afford post-grad education, not to mention grad student pay is for shit, which is a large part of why I can't afford it."

(I, um, think I got some of my bitterness about certain aspects of my life all over your LJ. Sorry. I deleted most of the bitter ranting.)

[ultranos]

I mean, from what I understand about grad students in science/engineering, and this is from friends who are grad students, it's not that you really pay for grad school. You find a professor or group to sponsor you, and then you work your ass off working for them and that pays your tuition. And then they give you a stipend to actually live on. But it's not a lot of money.

(I have a friend [I generally refer to him around here and on LJ as "Thyristor"] who was in grad school for his masters, and he gave up on his thesis when his advisor kept going on sabbatical or something. Thyristor now works in industry and...not entirely considering going back.)

But that's science and engineering, and I know other fields are so very much a different story.

(Pssht. As if this place wasn't already covered with bitter ranting. :P )