Comments on: Excuse Me?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:14:20 +0000

The Church was just hierarchal as the rest of society during medieval times and generally featured the same families.

By: whig

whig — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:59:22 +0000

Aren’t universities more like monasteries than feudal? Same era, but a different kind of tenure.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:23:15 +0000

If this sort of thing isn’t nipped in the bud, you’ll have teachers who think that the school system should listen to them about education.

If you want to learn about real down in the mud politics attend a few faculty senate meetings around budget time and don’t forget your armor.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:43:21 +0000

It all started with all that talk of “academic freedom”. The peasants start thinking maybe they should have some sort of “academic freedom” too, if the nobility gets that “academic freedom”.

Silly peasants. That’s not how it works. The “freedom” in “academic freedom” has nothing to do with “free speech”. It has to do with, well, academic stuff, that’s all the peasantry needs to know.

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:38:20 +0000

In feudal terms, the staff constitutes the yeoman class who were required to provide military service but ignored most of the time. The craft class who lived apart and provided all of the comforts of life for the nobility. The yeoman lacked a true appreciation for the wonderfulness of the nobles who were their clients, just because they could make and do things.

By: Jim Bales

Jim Bales — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:17:43 +0000

Bryan,

Generally well said, but I will pick one nit. The students are not the peasants — that is reserved for the non-faculty staff of the university. Or, as a friend of mine put it, “This school has 3 types of people. Faculty, students, and furniture.” (He considered himself a chaise lounge. I’m more of an ottoman.)

In general, at universities, students are variously encouraged, coddled, put-up-with, listened-to, ignored, tolerated, or fleeced. (The last is under the purview of the Bursar.)