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Fee hike again

But this time it's more interesting, with protests and dialogues with the admin. Somehow having lived here for the past 21 years has taught me something. There's no use in making noise when you're up against higher authority. When decisions are promulgated, they're always top-down, not bottom-up. If they reverse their decision, it would mean being seen as soft, pushable, and setting a precedent for caving in to pressure when future decisions are made. It would mean acknowledging a mistake, an incompetency. But we wouldn't have to think of the "if" even.

Mebbe i wouldn't mind if the increase wasn't so much. A whooping $500. All of us can deduct $500 from watever bonus the govt is gonna give out from the Budget. All the talk about forging a more consultative atmosphere, garnering feedback, "everyone matters" is crap. Frankly i don't care about better facilities and attracting top talent to the university. Names are names; they might be top researchers, internationally renowned, courted here to head our departments, but what has that got to do with us? Does it equate to better teaching or more teaching time? We're paying more and more to fatten their paychecks, but there's no commensurate increase in the standards of teaching. Don't think we're getting better lecturers compared to our seniors 2 years ago when we're paying more now. The university wants to attract big names to propel it up the rankings. And we're paying for this daft quest.

posted by Alvin @ 1:27 AM |