"Board appointments to universities are a naked piece of political patronage, and can be a remarkably profitable one for the truly unscrupulous. But the end result is simple: “public” university boards are totally dominated by high-powered corporate types, developers like Dragas and especially by investment bankers, the only people with enough money and power to buy their way into the position. Don’t take my word for this – just look at the composition of the U.Va Board of Directors (or at any public university’s board of trustees or regents). What you’ll find is invariably the same: a cross-section of the corporate class that has donated heavily to the governor of that state and been rewarded for it."Okay, so maybe America isnt in decline. I've seen plenty of people argue that it's not, and with good evidence. But it seems to me that there is too much rot in the foundation, and too much assumption of privilege at the top, trending ever upwards, for things to get better any time soon. And in the real world Risk game that is global dominance politics, it may not matter if things get better later on, because then it will be too late.
Aaron Bady, What Terry Sullivan's Reinstatement at U. Va Really Tells Us about the Future of Higher Ed
At least for us little folk.
As always, the folks at the top will be just fine. I just wish my fellow working folks didnt feel that they had to help them be that way.
article via Gerry Canavan
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