Be Scared
Submitted by cfm on Wed, 2009-01-14 22:19.
"What now, Crow? Out with it!"
"Pattenaude," Crow says, "The University. FUBOO".
"The incremental cost-cutting approach that we have taken for the past few years is no longer an acceptable response to protect the viability and financial sustainability of Maine's public universities. I look forward to working with you to achieve these objectives. Thank you for your continued service to our students and our state." [Pattenaude to UMaine staff]
"Crow, no, FUBAR"
"Crow, he's not looking forward to it."
| From the thrice-bent branch of an elm in my yard, Crow shadows me a daily widdershins swoop at the door. He'd flown over hot Three Mile Island well in advance of the Presidential helicopter. That during the reign of Jimmy Carter of Earth. A smoky moult and he refeathered like a sprung umbrella. He flew north to watch my farm. Crow hears the voices from the whispering winds and the offended leaves, from other crows spreading the news, from the chatter of his human enemies on the phones, on the radio, on the Internet ether. Voices. Meaning that infuriates him. He sinks his warped claws into my left shoulder and caws his neutron rage. He caws the infuriating voices into my ear, he caws them at me. Haywire cranky Crow - and I'm slow on the uptake. |
"FOOBOO"
Pattenaude is right. The incremental cost cutting isn't going to work. It's time to shift paradigms. For a jump cut.
And it needs to be done while there are still resources to do it.
Assets - big buildings, big research programs, big budgets - those are all going to turn into difficult to maintain liabilities.
Mission - the mission is more important than ever. As society shifts from permagrowth to decline, knowledge, skills and the ability to work with each other - education - is more important than ever.
Pattenaude isn't laying out the answer. He probably doesn't understand the nature of the decline or that we're already on the downhill slide. He might or might not have any clue. He's scanning. Sometimes, even the herd senses something is wrong.
He's scanning. Put out a proposal, I tell my friend at the University.
Maine needs the university in every community. Much devolved, much decentralized. One, maybe two flagship schools.
Jumping to the right paradigm is critical. Not slight scale-backs, not belt-tightening. Not hanging on by the fingernails. Not throwing in more resources as the beast dies.
Pay it forward. This is what I wrote about in my LTOE to Phoenix.
Time to start writing those policy papers, Michele. That's why I took the non-fiction course with you in the first place.
I've been asked to write one on the topic of pensions in a period of economic decline. Yeeesh. It sucks in the whole planet.
Managing the decline as best we can is the task of our times.
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