“Government during this period was based mostly on precedent, and the court had become little more than a centre for highly ritualized ceremonies,” we are told, and the internal governance of one modern American university (and probably many others) turns out to share just this form.
Professor Julius Nyang’oro, the Big Thinker behind the highly ritualized system of fake classes at UNC, was never, for twenty years, reviewed or cycled out as department chair because, we are told, the leadership of the university “thought that would be awkward.” Above all, UNC honors precedent (I’m sure the fake class ritual in one form or other long preceded the Nyang’oro dynasty), ritual (there were no actual classes, to be sure; but there were intricate and abundant ceremonial classes), and the absolute power of a closed aristocratic court.
For everyone else, the UNC dynasty provided that other court, a sweaty arena where the commoners played.
November 8th, 2014 at 10:19AM
The intersection of intercollegiate athletics and African-American Studies is bound to be an awkward zone for university administrations. Both have legitimate places in the life of the university, but tend to be subject to additional imperatives opposed to, or at cross-purposes with, certain prevailing academic principles.