Martha Lincoln

Excited to have this piece — a deep dive into the California Faculty Association’s fight against ChatGPT at Cal State — in the @AAUP’s publication @AcademeBlog. See the whole series out today, “Organizing Against the Machines.”

@Hodlingsince21 That is a reductive account of higher ed and is a digression from my argument. I’m suggesting that students should develop something like a life of the mind at university—neither “job prep” nor a “status signal.” I disagree that that enterprise is useless.

@heavyredaction Veblen harped on the classics education being shameless conspicuous consumption - exhibit your status by studying something with no/few real world applications. When millions do that, it neither works as job prep nor as a valid status signal. Becomes useless across the board

University leaders should push back on the assumption that it is their responsibility to prepare students for the workforce — instead of preparing them to have a rich ethical and intellectual life. Employers should be responsible for job training

@f_hanson1 1) I did not say college was for entertainment; quite the contrary; 2) I disagree that the main purpose of college should be for students to obtain jobs; 3) Students develop ethically and intellectually by engaging with the subject matter of a disciplinarily balanced curriculum.

@heavyredaction Well, that was dumb. College isn't for entertainment. It is to provide an education necessary to be productive and prepare the student for obtaining that job. Educational institutions have no business in ethics. Their track record in that field is abysmal.

@Hodlingsince21 Why would people with a rich ethical and intellectual life not be “employable”?

@heavyredaction This argument works when we're talking about a gilded age leisure class, less than 1% of the population. When we're talking about 30-40% of the population, they better fucking be employable.

@BenSimmonsStack “Comfy sinecure... finishing school for the rich...” Have you heard of a place called the California State University system? I’m guessing not!

@heavyredaction You're a quack in a comfy sinecure selling nonsense to kids who don't know better. Are you guilty of a crime? No. But the extent of the disaster you profited from is becoming apparent, and now it's conveniently time to return to your origins as a finishing school for the rich.

They’re not even giving kids a chance to develop their brains or their social world. Hooking them as customers as early as possible.

@JPutanero I agree that universities are, in the main, doing a poor job of training people for an ethical and intellectual life—but not at all for the reasons that you seem to be suggesting!

@heavyredaction Universities are doing a shitty job of training people for an ethical and intellectual life - critical thinking and intellectual courage are long gone as the universities teach and compel group think and acquiescence to the howling mob.

@caleb_kinmon Not what I said. I am saying that universities do not work for industry. They do not, and their priorities should be distinct. It’s a somewhat unrelated but still good point about affordability you raise. However, a university degree does not have to cost as much as you suggest.

@heavyredaction Yes go $200K+ in debt for a rich ethical and intellectual life. Don’t concern yourself with that pesky thing called a job

@KiawanC You are right and I agree re: universities banging on about “job readiness”! But I do not agree that college is actually (or should be?) for very rich or exceptionally talented people. College has become increasingly democratized and this is to the good.

@heavyredaction But that has not been their sales pitch for the last 20 years. Universities have been banging on about 'job ready' under grads since this college for all started. College is for very rich or exceptionally talented people. No one else.

@BenSimmonsStack I don’t think I’m the one ruining 10s of millions of lives with debt, Ben, but I grant some of your points here

@heavyredaction Must be nice to be able to spend 3 to 4 years developing your rich ethical and intellectual life with no consideration for you career. University is sold as a ticket to a better job. That is why people go. Convenient viewpoint after ruining 10s of millions of lives with debt.

@lotusthe2nd Excellent point (alas)!

@heavyredaction It's much more complicated than a post but I'll push back on universities as bastions of ethics at the very least.

Thousands of whales strand every year, and even more die out of sight, mostly from the consequences of human activities. They are lacerated by propellers, go hungry in oceans that are rampantly overfished, become disoriented because of noise pollution, and choke on trash and tangles of net. The stranding, and unlikely rescue, of one young humpback whale garnered international attention but did not move the needle for whale conservation. “The rescue of a single animal does not ameliorate any of these risks—and, if anything, convoluted efforts to save one whale might distract from the work of protecting a species and its habitat,” Jessica Camille Aguirre writes. Read more about the rescue of Timmy the whale: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/wYLyvn

@thechrislarsen Not “a privileged few” per se. Some 60%+ of HS grads go on to college, almost 20 million students in total nationally in the US. But indeed, everyone in the world deserves a rich ethical and intellectual life!

@heavyredaction Or maybe it's time for the privileged few who go to university to recognize that everyone in the world deserves "a rich ethical and intellectual life."

So I got this shot of a lilac-breasted roller the other day and honestly, one of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen. Never seen one before in my life. It just came to me.

@HeptishHotik I absolutely agree that university education should be affordable

@heavyredaction They can try to push all they want, but as long as they charge so much for a degree, people will expect something materially in return. You need to come from some pretty well off background to consider paying that type of money for something that will only improve your inner life

@OwenTheowens1 Being “an expert in business” or “just living,” especially in the hyper-commercial and frankly undemocratic, anti-intellectual United States, will not provide a person with robust abilities in critical thinking.

@OwenTheowens1 You are mixing up your claim here. “Universities” and “being an expert in physics” are not the same thing. A university provides students w/ exposure to the scientific, humanistic, arts, foreign-language, and social-scientific perspectives that they need to understand the world.

@historianspeaks @Nicole_Lee_Sch It’s a very good point!

@heavyredaction @Nicole_Lee_Sch Universities also missed the opportunity to highlight AFrican American studies, women’s and ethnic studies as keys to building a multiracial democracy. Instead, they questioned their value and marginalized them and now here we are. #Humanities

@Xenometic Agreed!

@heavyredaction Building “a rich ethical and intellectual life” shouldn’t cost 100k and come with a life of debt. “University leadership” is a major source of the problem. I’ve never met a college administrator that gave a fuck about intelligence let along ethics, apart from vacuous branding.

@DRomback Yes I do? But even if students did not pay tuition for whatever reason, I’d provide them with social-science education designed to improve their critical thinking, encourage their curiosity, and promote their ability to participate in society humanistically. Thanks for asking

@heavyredaction Wow you do realize the student is paying damn good money to the university which pays your salary

@Sendthanx So well said!! 🙏💐

@heavyredaction Indeed the name university is derived from the idea Universe of Knowledge - they should not be factories that produce indebted workers but rather critical and creative thinkers across all disciplines of knowledge