Arrivederci!

Eoin Macollamh

A mod has understandably locked my thread, which unfortunately devolved into a flame war.

I was sorry to see the flame war develop but not sorry to see the thread get locked. I was not far from calling the whole thing off myself.

I've got no interest in restarting it and I apologise toward those who, at the end of the thread, tried to ask some substantive questions that I never got around to. They were important ones and if they want to ask me again in a PM, I'll be happy to try to answer. Anyone else is also welcome to PM me but please don't if it's just to continue the flame war. I've had enough.

This was an experiment and, I'm sorry to say, an unsuccessful one. I didn't really learn as much about what and how students think as I would've liked. I'm sure you feel the same: that the thread generated more heat than light.

I really did come here with the best intentions: I thought that there are precious few occasions for candid lecturer/student interactions. What I didn't take into account was that: 1) not everyone posting and reading the UCD forum is a student (I figured there might be some other lecturers too, but not too many); 2) people are much more sensitive than I realised about some things (perceived assessments of their intelligence for one) and, as a result, were not charitably inclined toward me after I gave what I felt were honest answers (which is to say: my opinions) about the current administration (not the entire medical faculty) and the romantic desirability of students (not my cup of tea: never mind the reasons). I didn't realise that those answers would be so inflammatory. If I had, I would have rephrased them since they ended up sidetracking the entire discussion.

One last word to those of you who are UCD students. I, along with many of my colleagues, feel very strongly that what is in process at the moment is nothing less than a corporate takeover of the University. It is happening not just here but all over the world. But the first big steps are now being taken in Ireland and Brady is, as he likes to say, 'on the cutting edge' of these changes (wonder who gets 'cut' by 'the cutting edge'). If education and knowledge--separate from their practical applications and taken for their own sake--mean something to you, I would hope you would ask yourselves, for all of the proposed changes, what the underlying assumptions about knowledge are. And then I would hope that you would resist those change that are not going to make UCD a better place in which to learn, teach and study. You will know better than I will what are the best ways of doing that but the SU might be a place to start.

Don't get me wrong: modularisation is a good thing. But we can have modularisation without selling out knowledge to pure market forces.

If you are interested in the subject of the university (and the ongoing corporate takeover thereof), here are some books you might want to consult:

Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1996).

Benjamin Johnson, Patrick Kavanagh and Kevin Mattson (eds.), Steal This University: The Rise of the Corporate University and the Academic Labor Movement (New York: Routledge, 2003).

Robert Birnbaum, Management Fads in Higher Education: Where They Come From, What They Do, Why They Fail (Unknown: Jossey-Bass, 2000).

Derek Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 2003).

David L. Kirp, Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2003).

I hope you'll read them and have a better understanding of what's happening to your University.

Thanks very much for reading me and writing to me.

All the best.

P.S. I will understand entirely if the mods want to lock this thread as well. I would hope, though, that they would not delete it as I did want to explain why I'm not going to continue the discussion.

Mr.Nice Guy

All the best,Eoin.I know some other people on this thread had issues with you but personally,I thank you for the advice you gave to me.

Cheers.

ecksor

Thanks for the references.

Red Alert

Yes thank you, and i agree with your views about a corporate takover taking place.

blondie83

Thanks for coming on, it was interesting to hear a lecturers point of view. It's a pity the other thread descended into a flame match, but sure that happens here a fair bit so I wouldn't take it too personally :cool:

Jonny Arson

Eoin, your thread was extremely fascinating and interesting and I learned alot from your relevent advice.

It was defintiely great having this type of communication with a lecturer and I would think it would be a great idea if there was something else like this which did not involve any flaming. I agree with everything about this University selling out to the corparate monsters and I am personally worried about what road this college will go down in future.