Newsgroups: sci.research
Subject: Concordia affair etc.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:50:01 -0500

A piece appeared in the Wall St. Journal just last week (Wednesday, 19 Aug, I
think) on the corrupt state of academia at present.  It was headlined "Socialism
in Academia" but I am inclined to think that that was not really topical for the
content.  The book reviewed went into considerable detail about the lack of
professorial accountability in universities, the use of graduate students to
take one's "boring" teaching load, and the general decline in the quality of
research.  The comment about socialism was made in the context of saying that
authority without accountability is socialism.  I don't see that connection, but
most of the other comments were spot on. What passes for research and teaching,
even at the best institutions, has become questionable.  I had hoped that the
problem was found primarily in the humanities and other "soft" areas, but the
Fabrikant affair, if even 1/3 of his allegations are true, indicates that it has
spread to "hard" areas, such as engineering.
 
Nothing justifies cold-blooded murder, of course, but it seems that the system
did not operate as it was supposed to in the Fabrikant case.  How could someone
survive the appalling conditions of the Soviet Union and yet not be able to deal
with the petty tyrants of everyday life in the West?  It's an interesting
question.
 
We've all heard about the disgruntled postal workers with guns of late and
simply dismiss them as undiagnosed psychotics.  I begin to wonder if the real
psychopaths aren't, at least some of the time, those in charge.  I have worked
for bosses with absolutely no moral sense whatsoever, who make promises and
break them without compunction, and who are endlessly self-justifying.  I think
of one who claimed I wasn't productive enough while devoting enormous amounts of
company time to the golf and bowling league event planning himself.  The
rational thing to do is to peddle your wares someplace else (which is what I'm
sure Greg Nelson meant by his "deal with it" comment).  
 
You can mistreat your loyal dog only so many times before it will bite you. 
There are few personalities so well-integrated that they cannot be driven around
the bend somehow; totalitarian regimes have relied on this to destroy the
non-conformists.  In a free society, driving someone around the bend may break
him to the point of institutionalization or suicide, but we have seen that there
are other possibilities.  
 
It is my belief that there are plenty of sick organizations in our society
(along with a lot more healthy ones).  Sick organizations allow petty tyrants to
gain power.  The forces of the free market will eventually drive these
enterprises from the scene (that's what a lot of the corporate takeovers were
about), but not before they can do a lot of damage to individuals.  As the WSJ
reviewer wrote, boards of regents/trustees/fellows/overseers need to take a more
active role in supervising their universities, just as corporate boards have
been criticized for not doing in the private sector.  A faculty should not be
accountable only to itself, for example, nor should management run the board of
directors.  Even a sole proprietor must justify his salary to the IRS or have it
taxed twice as a dividend instead.  I hope the press will report fully on the
Fabrikant affair so that we can learn whether he was simply mad from the start
or was driven there by abuse beyond his ability to bear.
 
Roger.Firestone@f349.n109.z1.fidonet.org