An Interesting Conversation
H. Harrison
Nov. 2011
Hi,
I tend to sleep poorly nowadays, usually waking in too early hours,
then thrashing around with my mind obsessed with this and that. To
break that pattern I got up a few minutes ago to write this note to
you. It may ramble a bit. If so, sorry.
Today .. yesterday, actually .. was clear and cold. Feeling that I’ve
been too lazy recently I determined to ride my bike a bit going to the
University to hear a lecture on “Snowball Earth”. So I thru it into
the car, drove to Gas Works Park, biked the mild mile to the U, then
went to the lecture room and sat down next to Dale Durran, the Chair
of Atmospheric Sciences and my former boss. Perhaps still.
Making small talk in the few minutes before the speaker started I
mentioned a front-page news article of a few days ago that asserted
fully 20% of the entering class this year has come from Asia, mostly
China, and that “the remaining 80% should be grateful for being
subsidized by the higher tuition paid by the 20%”. [Or words close to
this.] I expected Dale to pick up on that last sentence with something
like “.. a pity that the 80 is being pushed out by the 20”.
[Well, there’s a question of fact here: does the Admissions Department
give extra points to those who can pay the out-of-state premium?
I suspect so, but cannot definitely support the charge.]
To my surprise, though, Dale came back with something like “.. you
know, about 20% of our students paid higher tuition in high school
than they do here.”
I wonder if that’s true. And if so, whether and by how much it may be
because a tuition barrier inhibits the 80% from even applying. And I
wonder if, and to what extent, Dale may be echoing some idle conver-
sation among The Managers, here at the U? Alas, Dale and I no longer
belong to the same tribe.
Alas, also: I got bombed by that lecture on “Snowball Earth” .. a
catchy phrase that describes the now likely conjecture that glaciers
and frozen oceans extended to the equator, at least twice, about 650
and 750 million years ago. The distinguished speaker showed too many
poorly explained slides about isotope enrichment factors of this and
that. But I and others politely remained during question time, which
lasted until winter dark at 5:30 or so.
Back to my office to get my bike and gloves and ear-warmer band, and
to turn on my new bright blinky lights, then elevator down to ground
level to bike back to the car, that mile away along the Burke Gilman
trail. Out the door, and “Oh my! What are those three noisy
helicopters doing, hovering above the campus? What do those signs
say, held by students at the stop light? What are those dozen cops
doing, huddling idly under the north ramp of the University Bridge?”
Ah Ha! “Occupy the University!” I asked one of those cops what was
up, and he lied to me, saying ‘I don’t know’.
Back at the car I decided not to drive home by my normal route home
over that University Bridge, but to wander south down 2nd avenue,
eventually connecting to the freeway, which I did in very heavy
traffic for the next hour, approximately. The radio announced that
the U-bridge was closed [by those cops?] in both directions, anyway,
on account of ‘Occupy’. I suppose I’ll read about the riot in an hour
or so, when the newspaper comes.
Cheers,
Halstead
PS. An email distributed by the AAUP listserv yesterday stated that
‘Occupy’ has .. or is about to .. circulate a resolution pledging
the signers to renege on school debts when a million others sign
too. Interesting.
> o__
> _,>/’_ o__,
> (*) \(*) /\/\
******************************