Friday, July 23, 2010

Why Academics Can't Be Administrators

Rob Jenkins is kind enough to say he builds on an idea I had. But in fact his conception is quite a bit better, and more clear, than mine.

There is a piece of comedic gold in the comments. I'll let the commenters tell the story:

1. honore - July 22, 2010 at 09:21 pm
Another precious chart to reduce ourselves to.
Where's the quadrant labeled "High Dysfunction, Low Accountability"?

2. luder - July 23, 2010 at 07:24 am
Okay, I didn't read the column (maybe later), but isn't "four quadrants" slightly pleonastic? Could you really have, say, five quadrants? Three? Seventeen?

3. erskine_seminary - July 23, 2010 at 09:00 am
Um, no. By definition you can only have four quadrants.


"Honore" is (I'm guessing) a 50 year old female associate professor in a third rate English department. She is incapable of thinking or writing clearly, and in literature today that counts as a talent.

"Luder" didn't read the column, admits it, but feels moved to criticize the fact that "four quadrants" is redundant.

"Erskine" doesn't KNOW what pleonastic means.

3 comments:

Chris said...

And then cshe6339 sets every one straight with:

7. cshe6339 - July 23, 2010 at 09:59 am
Geez -- there are a lot of grumpy academics out there this morning. This taxonmy is simply a tool -- a useful one at that. I think Prof. Jenkins makes it pretty clear which administrators are the most effective... Chill out folks, it's summer...

US said...

I have no idea if this is just a coincidence, but 'luder' is the Danish word for whore.

Tom said...

I didn't know the word pleonastic, either. But now, thanks to wiktinoary, I know -- it's ...

1 Of, or relating to pleonasm.

Now, I can go back to listening to NPR -- see, in Iraq there has been a loud explosion.