Comments on: Lament for a great university

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:29:17 +0000

Now, if only the people at Berkeley read the Shanghai International university rankings, the brothers M might be approaching a point. But I suspect they have other things on their reading list these days, such as the niceties of a state budget in which the Terminator wants to attach a “luxury” tax of 10% to all veterinary services including spaying and neutering. You can only imagine how PETA, the ASPCA, and such feel about that! AND “working-class comes with deflated egos”–one doesn’t even know where to begin with that piece of reasoning.

By: Bob Mackenzie

Bob Mackenzie — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:26:24 +0000

Miss Marilyn is living in the past. Since push came to shove in California, Berkeley-types, unlike Harvard types, have had to learn humility, as their university is now ranked right with the University of British Columbia (#39 and 40) in the Shanghai international university rankings. Harvard, despite losing as much as 40% of its funding due to hedge investments, is proving impossible to shake out of the #1 spot even as UK universities take over 4 of the first 6 places. Arrogance goes with inflated reputations, working-class comes with deflated egos.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:47:49 +0000

While I couldn’t be more sympathetic to the Mackenzie brothers’ lamentations concerning both the higher education budget cuts in California and the notion that all institutions are created equal (Berkeley = Chico State), I’m afraid I find the designation of Berkeley as “working class” rather laughable. Clearly the Mackenzies haven’t been on campus for 30 or 40 years! I meet these folks at conferences every year and let me tell you–nowadays both the students and the faculty are every bit as arrogant and self-important as the crew at Harvard if not more so.