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[GroovyOldDude]

to Claudia wrote:

> The original poster expressed contempt for the
> organization that pays his salary: that is silly and
> pointless--and stupid also.  

That was not my intent, as I have previously stated.  We profs DO know more about how to run our institutions that the typical legislator.  To state the obvious is not necessarily an expression of contempt.

More an expression of my incredulity towards the legislator's statement.

ANd I am not a resident of nor an employee of the Wisconsin system.

[GroovyOldDude]

Retain the Null wrote:

> ungroovy dude wrote:
>
> > The legislature pays your salary--if you find that an
> > unsatisfactory situation, why don't you find another job?  If
> > you accept a paycheck from an organization that you
> > despise--well what does that say about you?
>
> Please stop feeding the trolls! It's Thanksgiving for goodness
> sake!

I am no troll, as you will see if you search the archives here.  I have been around these boards for some time now, though sporadically at times.

[k16]

While academics know best how to run most aspects of a university, just as teachers know best how to run most aspects of a school, cops a police dept., etc., there is more than a little to be said about outside oversight.  Everyone else has it, and academics need some external review, too.  Too many outrageous things have happened in academia, such as 'speech codes' (pioneered at U Wisconsin, by the way), for the academic community to be allowed to answer only to itself.

[GroovyOldDude]

I do not disagree.  The danger I see, and have seen for many years, is when opportunistic politicians try to use the ideas of "oversight and accountability" as sledgehammers to push their own (typically narrow) agendas on academe.

And just becasue everyone else has it does, it does not necessarily follow that outside oversight is a desirable thing, at least IMHO.