The Briny Business of Academia

Thomas Frank’s essay on the downfall of the university system is a fun (“fun”) read and ties together a lot of the changes happening at universities in a fun (“fun”) way: “Just about everyone in academia believes that they were the smartest kid in their class, the one with the good grades and the awesome test scores. They believe, by definition, that they are where they are because they deserve it. They’re the best. So tenured faculty find it easy to dismiss the de-professionalization of their field as the whining of second-raters who can’t make the grade. Too many of the adjuncts themselves, meanwhile, find it difficult to blame the system as they apply fruitlessly for another tenure-track position or race across town to their second or third teaching job — maybe they just don’t have what it takes after all. Then again, they will all be together, assuredly, as they sink finally into the briny deep.”

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