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"Salty." (Scott McLemee)
"Unvarnished." (Phi Beta Cons)
"Splendidly splenetic." (Culture Industry)
"Except for University Diaries, most academic blogs are tedious."
(Rate Your Students)
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except that Maureen Dowd is kind of a wrecking ball of a writer,
and Soltan isn't. For the life of me, I can't figure out her
politics, but she's pretty fabulous, so who gives a damn?"
(Tenured Radical)

Friday, January 14, 2005

PATHETIC II

[for Pathetic I, see Addendum
to UD post below, dated 1/12/05]




"It's sad that it's big news. 'Hey kids, we hired a party master for you,'" said Alexandra Moss, 22, a senior from New York City..."



Yes, the new paid position of Fun Czar at Harvard University is becoming big news.



"A spokeswoman at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said such a position does not exist at Yale because 'students here already know how to have fun.'"

Her next comment makes you wonder: "We have hundreds of social clubs and organizations, so there really doesn't seem to be any particular need to have it."

No doubt Yale's Chaunticleer Ensemble is having a terrific time, but this isn't quite the point...




At least at Harvard people sense there's something lacking... And lack, as you know (see UD post below, "The Content of Their Character"), is not a Harvard value: "Yesterday, Harvard students weighed in on the 'Fun Czar,' saying the school's pockets are so deep they don't mind if administrators want to throw some cash at a commander-in-fun." [Along these same cash-throwing lines, recall UD post dated 7/23/04 about mandatory student iPods at Duke.]





One theme running through a number of UD's posts lately is this business of having hired people live your life for you -- generate your SAT score, produce your party, write your essays, praise you. The grade-inflated, hyper-managed, surprise-free, pleasure-rigged environment of the well-heeled American private college extends the sort of life the country's better-off children have lived since birth. It's enviable. Over the long haul, as Alexandra Moss senses, it's sad.