George Stigler once usefully defined an activist as someone who uses his mouth a lot more than his brain. I note, from an article in the University of Chicago Maroon (the student paper), that Mother Jones magazine, an activist rag that fits Stigler's definition exactly, declared the University of Chicago seventh in the world for activism, apparently because about 60 students got upset with Taco Bell. When I was an undergraduate there, we used to call the Maroon the Moron, with good reason. It seems not to have changed. But there is one passage in the Maroon's report that speaks volumes about the state of universities.
Jonah Rubin, a student activist, has been working with SOUL for two years. Last year the organization focused on anti-sweatshop efforts, and it is currently working on hospital employee contract negotiations. Rubin, a second-year, notes his initial impression of the school.
“I was under the impression that [the University] was this fortress of conservatism, but I came in to find activism—and a lot of student support for it,” Rubin said. “Everyone involved was really pumped up."
Leave aside the question of why he came to the university in the first place. The University of Chicago is hardly a conservative place. It is simply a place where conservatives are less likely to be harrassed (note that I very explicitly do not say a place where they are not harrassed). That is all you need in the academic racket to be perceived as a conservative institution.
On a related note, William Robertson, whose family gave a bundle of money to Princeton, writes in the LA Times about the hazards of giving money to universities. Sounds right to me.
Posted by sjostrom on October 31, 2003 11:58 AM
Comments:
You called the Maroon the Moron? I called it the Maroon. But then I call morons maroons, too.
As a U of C faculty member for many years I rise to tell you that the conservatism of the place resided mostly--and is still vestigially present--in the department of economics and the Graduate School of Business. And that, of course, was fiscal conservatism more than "cultural" conservatism. By now the humanities departments and the social science departments are visibly (and audibly!!) overrun by reflexive left-wing intellectoids. And then there is the interdepartmental program on "gender studies" which reaches out its tentacles rather like the fabled eggplant that ate Chicago. Young academic careerists seeking tenure will, of course, often go with the reigning normative system, keeping their dissenting thoughts to themselves and their few trusted friends. And this will usually be the more likely mode of adaptation at a "high prestige" university than at one of the others. Thus, while Loyola has a fairly active chapter of the National Association of Scholars, there is none at the University of Chicago. Much more could be said, but the hour is late and so..the rest is silence.
"The bloody hand of Corporate Greed is a universal symbol of oppression, tyranny and corporate greed.
This is well known around the world.
Supporting this drive for awareness will send a message that more people are becoming aware of what the symbol of the bloody hand means.
Unite behind the movement that is taking the world by storm.
We can see the Bloody Hand of Corporate Greed."
Halliburton gets my vote for the Bloody hand. Vote for for Bloody hand at the link below.
