Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Stupid Kennesaw State and a blast from the past
Posted by Emma Harger on Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Kennesaw State University recently selected a new provost, Timothy Chandler, a British-born American citizen who comes to KSU by way of Kent State in Ohio. He will start his new job in July. Like most, if not all, members of academia, Chandler has written many different papers in his time. One of them, from 1998, has raised red flags (pardon the pun) because of what some see as content espousing Marxist, anti-capitalist views. Da, komrade!
The paper in question is quoted in both a Marietta Daily Journal article written by three columnists and by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jim Galloway, who explained that he could not get the entirety of the 22-page paper because the publisher wanted $500 for the rights to the entire manuscript.
Some of the paper does read as critical of the capitalist system. (The MDJ article has more direct quotes from it than the AJC one, if you're interested in a sampling of the contents.) It discusses hegemony, militarism, wealth, ownership, propaganda and the role of the university in advancing scientific and technological development. The paper quotes Karl Marx himself only five times over the span of 25,000 words, twice to refute his arguments or philosophies. Still, that and the overall tone is enough for the MDJ trio to declare that Chandler has an "obvious fondness for Marx and vehement dislike of capitalism." Where's Joe McCarthy when you need him?
Galloway freely admits that the 13-year-old paper is, in his view, "truly, truly terrible. Badly written. Boring and self-reverential." Ouch! He quotes some excerpts that look clumsily structured and could've used a little editing love before concluding that "the purpose of the paper appears to be an attempt to theorize on the organization of universities, and the economics that surround their operation. But it is hard to say" and adding that "indifferent writers often move into management (a very un-Marxist thing to do)." A provost position certainly qualifies as management. Everyone is good at something, right?
Though Chandler is perhaps not the most gifted writer of our time, in his paper he does point out something that rings true for higher education as a whole:
The goal of universities is learning in its various forms and purposes, but it is very much limited as well as enabled by the economic context in which the university is embedded. Because monetary resources are required to operate a university, securing these resources is a necessary goal. When resources are scarce, they become more important than scholarship. Today, universities are run like businesses, driven by “the bottom line,” and knowledge is a commodity for both the university and for the individual scholar.
"What capitalist can argue with that?" Galloway asks.
Chandler's boss-to-be, KSU president Dan Papp, used to specialize in matters of the Soviet Union back when it was still a real place. "For years, if you were a journalist headed for the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, Papp was the fellow you had a chat with before you left. He knows his Marx, Lenin and dialectic materialism," Galloway explains for context. Papp has refuted the idea of Chandler being an anti-American Marxist type:
“Speaking as a national security expert — the guy is not a Marxist and not anti-American... The tone of the discussion so far has taken unfortunate quotes out of context from a 13-year-old co-authored article and leaped to some extreme conclusions that I believe are unwarranted.”
He adds that “Dr. Chandler said that he is ‘not inclined to withdraw from the provost position under the cloud of a Red scare.’”
A Red scare. Did we all accidentally travel back in time to the 1950s over the weekend instead of springing forward an hour?
Comments (3)
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I saw last Sunday's "Georgia Gang" discuss this quickly. It does seem an odd choice but could be beneficial to have a perspective that denounces Socialism, Marxism, and Communism. However, if he leans in favor of these over Capitalism, and America, I would be against his teachings.
I think we have enough Socialists, Marxists and Communists buried in the Democratic tent to deal with in America as it is, more are not needed. A perspective against these forms of Governments would be welcomed.
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