University, Inc.

Easter Sunday and die Sonne scheint.

Ms. Washburn in a recent book University Inc.,

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=00412886996296316645&ISBN=0465090516&bfdate=03-27-2005+09:49:06&popup=0

has published an expose of the corporatization of higher education. Because state funding of higher education has been reduced 20 percent, universities have farmed out their research to the highest bidding companies. The companies retain intellectual property rights and the divided loyalty of their chosen professors. This problem is akin to the university as a brothel of whores.

While this problem affects particularly those "instrumental" uses of science. Biotechnology, pharmacology, engineering, computers, etc....all all of them being farmed out to the highest bidder! The research is no longer in the public interest but in the private.

In an interview this morning on C Span, she spoke briefly to the question of the humanities. To my delight she mentioned the way in which humanities is treated as a commodity and the students are consumers. Feng has long faced these difficult waters.