Scene: The administration at my medium sized private university is working on their strategic plan for the next 5 years. They summon a group of "stakeholders" to provide "feedback". Every department is asked to send a representative. Due to a poorly timed visit to the faculty break room that overlapped with the chair, I draw the short straw.
I arrive at the meeting with a couple minutes to spare. It's being held in a normal medium sized classroom (capacity ~50 people), but there has been some effort to corporatize the appearance. A bunch of university signage has been hung up, all the administrators are wearing suits, and there is a decent spread of coffee and pastries on one side of the room.
I pour myself a coffee, grab a danish and have a seat next to a guy from the math department who I suspect is similarly uninterested in being here. A woman I vaguely recognize as being some sort of humanities professor sits down next to us and immediately starts complaining about how annoyed her department was that only one person from each department could go to be at this crucial meeting. She asks me how I was selected for this great honor. I answer truthfully, if somewhat sardonically, that I ran into chair in the break room and I couldn't think of a good excuse on the spot. The math professor smiles at my joke. The humanities professor looks confused.
A commotion arises over by the coffee and pastries. From what I gather, the usual catering company for the university is in the midst of a labor dispute. The administration has ordered from a different company, and some very loud faculty members are accusing them of crossing picket lines. A couple administrators quickly cover the food and coffee with profuse apologies for their oversight. I nervously look down at my coffee and danish, wondering if I have committed a faux-pas. Luckily, I notice that a couple of the loudest rabble rousers are also drinking coffee. Apparently they just wanted to make a scene. I hear one of them joke "if we paid them for the coffee anyway, we might as well drink it." A logical point, but I can't help but wonder why that logic doesn't extend to the people behind him in line. But I suppose those people are saved from being complicit in the evil capitalist imperialism that was imposed on the rest of us. And I am sure they can grab a coffee at Starbucks after the meeting.
After we settle down, the proceedings begin with a presentation of the plan. To my naive ears, it all sounds pretty mundane. My summary would be something like "In the past, we have tried to be a good university. In the future, we will continue to try to be a good university while applying some new state-of-the-art buzzwords to our efforts." But clearly I am wrong about this, as many of the faculty around me have strong feelings. Some apparent mundanities are met with strong approval, and a few fits of snapping break out. Others are clearly outrageous and are met with grumbling and an occasional shout of derision.
The presentation wraps up after 20 minutes and it is time for questions. My hopes of being able to leave early are quashed by a sea of hands shooting up around me. An administrator at the front recognizes the first questioner, and one of the more vociferous snappers and grumblers rises to his feet.
As he begins his question, someone else makes a big commotion and shuts him down. A concern is raised that questions should be asked using the microphone at the front in the name of accessibility. This doesn't seem necessary to me since it is a small room and no one in the room seems to have any serious hearing problems. But the hopeful questioner shrugs and starts making his way to the microphone at the front of the room. Before he can even reach the aisle, a commotion arises from another part of the room. A different accessibility question! How are people with mobility issues supposed to walk up to the microphone. Again, a sensible person ...See full post