Links for 2010-11-17

  • “Tenured Radical’s thoughtful post on elite presidential salaries got me thinking about the “run the college like a business” canard.

    Most of the people who use that phrase, whether approvingly or damningly, haven’t personally worked in a college that was actually a business. I have — you’ve heard of it — and I can report confidently that it’s the wrong metaphor for the community colleges I know.

    Having been in all three settings, I’m convinced that community college administration is much closer to town or municipal government than it is to for-profit business. If the place were run like a business, you’d know it. “

  • “A friend today suggested that the solution would be to have one line for people who want to fly with people who have been screened, the other for people willing to fly with those who haven’t. The theory being that this is about herd immunity, that we’re all safer when we all get perved up by TSA.
    But I’d pick the second line. Because starting with United 93 (and who knows what happened on the other flights on 9/11), every terrorist attack that got as far as the airport itself has been stopped not by TSA or other screeners, but by the passengers. So I’d rather have an airline system that encourages us to all work together, rather than a system that sets us at odds.”
  • Good to see our elite liberal arts college students continue to be engaged in the tireless pursuit of the important things…