Unpaid positions

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread": Having said that, I
would offer some observations from my different perspective. That
perspective is based on my having the doctorate in higher education,
where the focus is on the academy itself.

Some commentators have sought to draw parallels with other graduate
professional fields, such as accountancy, law and medicine. Apart
from the obvious difference that in those, there is usually real
money involved, the comparisons are valid. Everyone of them, as
indeed, every higher education-delivered program, is driven by the
Prime Directive, the Iron Law, of the necessity of keeping up
enrollments and production. This is what determines such basics as
funding formulas. Those who do not, risk down-sizing or even
termination. Deans, program directors, and other academic
apparatchiks--"educators"--must school themselves to disregard labor
market realities. Indeed it is unrealistic to suggest that they
apply some sort of self-limiting ordinance. The world in which they
live is best described as a combination of the Parable of the
Tragedy of the Commons, and cold competition. That is where their
self-interest lies

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:51
                Distributed: Tuesday, December 15, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-51-010
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