#quotebin

Walker has launched an attack on the University of Wisconsin that can be described only as vandalism. He initially tried to change the mission statement of the university to make it, in effect, a job training arm of Wisconsin business. He had to back off in the face of universal outrage. He then pushed through legislation to eliminate statutory tenure in the University of Wisconsin System. What remains is so-called "fake tenure," which is subject to the will of the Board of Regents. [...] Unlike Walker's very deep cuts to funding for the University of Wisconsin, which also hurt the university, there was absolutely no financial benefit to undermining tenure and changing the mission statement. The average person doesn't fully understand how tampering with tenure has and will continue to injure the university. [...] In the future, if Walker stays in power, you will find regents further revising fake tenure to cleanse perceived intellectual deviates. Our state, which is of average size, population and wealth, will no longer have one of the greatest universities in the world.

We each made life-changing decisions to leave jobs and homes in other parts of the country and the world to work with inspiring faculty and, most of all, have the time and space to grow as artists. We trusted the institution to follow through on its promises. Instead, we became devalued pawns in the university’s administrative games. We feel betrayed, exhausted, disrespected, and cheated by USC of our time, focus, and investment. Whatever artistic work we created this spring semester was achieved in spite of, not because of, the institution. Because the university refused to honor its promises to us, we are returning to the workforce degree-less and debt-full.

I always feel like I’m going to die soon and time is running out, so I only do what I want to do. I once lacked for inspiration until one day, I realized I cannot stop filming Lee Kang-sheng’s face. I thought, This is so cool. And I happily accepted this as my destiny.

a corporation will never truly be a citizen until you can execute one in Texas.

It strikes me as a grim perversion of the power of teaching. A key lesson in higher education is that few things matter more than good questions—and, if we don’t speak up, students will never know what to ask.

I've seen a boringly predictable, on-trend parade of general excellence, like eating a dozen cronuts for dinner. It's interesting in the abstract, but the palate needs cleansing after a while. Hearing the liberal-upper-middle-class consensus view of the world (but with a twist, like backpacking through Southeast Asia!) certainly does not hurt an applicant. On the other hand, if I wanted that I would just sit on the toilet and listen to NPR.