ETIOLATED LIBERAL ARTS. A University of Minnesota professor calls out the regents.

The video is recommended without comment at 11-D, with brief comment by Veblen, with a quip at Pharyngula, and with a column at Inside Higher Ed.

There's a weblog chronicling the efforts of an organization called [University of Minnesota] Faculty for the Renewal of Public Education to stop the gutting of Minnesota's liberal arts departments.

Some years ago, we did an external search for a department chairman. The job announcement included among the responsibilities "participate in strategic planning in an era of downsizing." Herewith the results:

Our department directory puts me in mind of the train information boards in Milwaukee and Chicago in the years leading up to Amtrak. Somehow, though, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences here continues to run a surplus for the maintenance of other departments.

Professor von Dassow's use of the word "etiolated" is felicitous. Those College Board words exist for a purpose, sometimes to remind Others who got the high scores.