2008 Woodie Awards
UA should properly fund productive colleges
A confederacy of dunces
Noel Runyan
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Opinion
There has been much disturbing news of late about the financial position of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Of course, I would be deeply troubled by news of any other kind, for fear that I had at last fallen into some dreaded parallel universe where all the citizenry know the difference between "you're" and "your" or "well" and "good."
A single glance at the paper assures me that all is well, though. So well, in fact, that the Dean of Fulbright College, Donald Bobbitt, who, in addition to acting as stalwart captain to the Good Ship Fulbright also teaches in the department of chemistry, has finally decided to abandon ship after 23 years at the helm.
If ever I believed that academics lacked any sense of reality, I now stand corrected. I fear the loss of Dean Bobbitt portends evil days for the UA, so much so, that I see very little point to continue this expensive sham known colloquially as the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
This very publication offered up a front-page piece last week detailing the financial state of Fulbright College, stating that the college - surprise! - had the smallest budget increase over the past decade of all the seven undergraduate colleges. Moreover, Fulbright College actually made money for the university over the past decade, netting a 125 percent return on it's budget - that's the same thing as "profit" for any business majors who might be reading this. And it's reward? The lowest budget increase of all the colleges!
Welcome to the corporate world, Fulbright College, where you get passed over in favor of the more popular employees even though you made more money for the company than they did. Such is life in the modern era.
I think it's high time Fulbright College acquired some self-respect. This whole business of masquerading as a college is really sad, and it is unbecoming of an educational institution in the great state of Arkansas. The sooner someone puts Fulbright in its place, the better.
A single glance at the paper assures me that all is well, though. So well, in fact, that the Dean of Fulbright College, Donald Bobbitt, who, in addition to acting as stalwart captain to the Good Ship Fulbright also teaches in the department of chemistry, has finally decided to abandon ship after 23 years at the helm.
If ever I believed that academics lacked any sense of reality, I now stand corrected. I fear the loss of Dean Bobbitt portends evil days for the UA, so much so, that I see very little point to continue this expensive sham known colloquially as the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
This very publication offered up a front-page piece last week detailing the financial state of Fulbright College, stating that the college - surprise! - had the smallest budget increase over the past decade of all the seven undergraduate colleges. Moreover, Fulbright College actually made money for the university over the past decade, netting a 125 percent return on it's budget - that's the same thing as "profit" for any business majors who might be reading this. And it's reward? The lowest budget increase of all the colleges!
Welcome to the corporate world, Fulbright College, where you get passed over in favor of the more popular employees even though you made more money for the company than they did. Such is life in the modern era.
I think it's high time Fulbright College acquired some self-respect. This whole business of masquerading as a college is really sad, and it is unbecoming of an educational institution in the great state of Arkansas. The sooner someone puts Fulbright in its place, the better.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Matt McNelley
posted 4/08/08 @ 10:11 PM CST
Interesting article, but you don't seem to consider that a decent portion of people in the Fulbright college are in pre-professional programs. Does it make sense for future doctors, lawyers, dentists, and research scientists to be in the most underfunded college on campus? These are the real questions the people in charge of funding should be considering. (Continued…)
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