[ExI] Speaking of "The Great Stagnation"...

[MB]

>  The few exceptional physicists I have met on
> line in the newer generation have gone from physics to finance
> or physics research teaching at small one-man-show colleges
> where they could control their work.  There are real issues
> going on.

You might want to read
"The Fall of the Faculty" by Benjamin Ginsberg.

I'm waiting for it to show up at my library (in my dreams). The Scientist had an
article about the book (by the author).

"A recent study showed that between 1997 and 2007, the number of administrative and
support personnel per hundred students increased dramaticaly at most schools - 103%
at Williams College; 111% at Johns Hopkins; 325% at Wake Forest University; and 351%
at Yeshiva University, to cite some noteworthy examples." (snip)

"To faculty members, scholarship and teaching are the lifeblood of academic life,
and the university is an instrument necessary to achieve those ends. But to
administrators, the faculty's research and teaching activities are, first and
foremost, means of generating revenues, not ends in themselves" (snip)

"They belive that a college curriculum should be heavily influenced, if not
completely governed, by the interests and preferences of potential customers - the
students, parents, and others who pay the bills." (snip)

"What admistrators do with a good many tuition and research dollars is reward
themselves and expand their own ranks. At most schools, even mid-level
administrators are now paid more than all but the most senior professors in the
professional schools, and considerably more than professors in the arts and
sciences." (snip)

Things that make you go "hmmmm".

Regards,
MB