The title of this post comes from a quote attributed to legendary basketball coach John Wooden and it is appropriate for this post.
Here at Oregon State University, our president and provost seem intent upon reorganizing the school to prepare us for the future. I have no problem with that.
But one of the the most controversial (I would say 'stupid') moves they have made is to create a Division of Earth System Science (DESS). So what's wrong with that? Nothing, but when our leaders omit the Department of Geosciences (my department) from that unit, they display a great deal of ignorance. A DESS with no discipline that is fundamental to the study of Earth?
So far, our leaders have not responded to some trenchant agruments against their scheme.
So I ask, "For what future are they preparing us?"
An earlier post comes to mind.
I recently came across the following quote and thought that, like John Wooden's quote above, it is entirely relevant to today's post.
"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up in teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."– attributed to both Roman satirist Gaius Petronius Arbiter (210 BC); and Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1911-1998), in Harper's Magazine, "Merrill's Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure" (Jan 1957)
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