trenchkamen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trenchkamen) wrote2009-01-21 01:41 am
trenchkamen) wrote2009-01-21 01:41 am
40% = Death
Classes so far:
JPN 314: Here we go again.
Human Sexuality: I already love this professor. This looks like it's going to be a fascinating class.
Biochemistry II: Woodbury is a good speaker, but I already knew that.
Microbiology: FUCK this is elementary.
As if I needed another reason to be pissed at the government of Arizona:
What the fuck.
Crow's right--Arizona's higher education system will become the Third World purgatory it was a decade--or two--ago nobody wanted to be stuck in. All the smart students will start leaving the state again no matter what incentives you offer them. So will the influential researchers and professors. Graduate students won't give the university a second thought unless they have no alternatives. ASU will become nothing but a 'safety school' once again.
The biomedical research ASU and UA has been doing the past decade have driven ASU's status and funding. As a researcher in this system, these budget cuts terrify me. There are student researchers who can only do research because they get paid. If they stop getting paid, they will have to quit to get other jobs. Biodesign is an ASU institution, one I came to believe in strongly despite the douchebaggery of some of the faculty, and TGen, Barrows Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic, Piper Cancer Center, and MAC5 in Tucson all collaborate intimately with ASU's researchers. They are in the innovative backbone of this state, and they will feel the backlash. I hate the concept of hiding behind a name. But, unfortunately, names hold influence, and snubbing the holders of said names when the bring such prestige and influence to Arizona's research infrastructure is a horrible idea--especially when you are snubbing for no reason. It will also fuck over our collaborations with out-of-state Names; I see logos for prestigious Name universities all over the posters in Biodesign and SOLS.
I'm sure Crow knows this. And I'm willing to bet that the liberal arts, or any sort of 'arts', will go before any of the hard sciences. This also worries me.
40% budget cuts will be the death of the university on every level, except maybe sports. But as much as I hate to admit it, college sports bring in a huge amount of revenue, and we can't afford to cut out such a lucrative source, trivial though it may be.
The counterargument would be that I view this from the pedantic perspective of a University peon. There is rhetoric thrown around about taking away from the "working poor" so the university can do elitist, trifling things up in the ivory towers. The university and research system creates jobs, even for the uneducated. We rely on the janitors, deliverymen, and other unsung positions to keep everything running.
Also, research saves lives.
Research creates alternate, cleaner, cheaper fuels.
Research helps to make affordable, healthy food sources.
I fail to see how this would not negatively effect the entire state.
Yes, we have serious budget problems, and we have to deal with it. Crippling and maiming higher education (and yes, these are appropriate terms) are not the ways to go about it.
I've come to believe in this university and all the progress it has been making. It truly has been worthy of attracting the best and the brightest in the past few years. I am proud to say I am a researcher working within Phoenix's biomedical network. This almost feels like the second blow the state has delivered to the gut, Prop 102's passing being the first.
Thanks for solidifying my resolve to leave for graduate school. Fuck you very much.
JPN 314: Here we go again.
Human Sexuality: I already love this professor. This looks like it's going to be a fascinating class.
Biochemistry II: Woodbury is a good speaker, but I already knew that.
Microbiology: FUCK this is elementary.
As if I needed another reason to be pissed at the government of Arizona:
What the fuck.
Crow's right--Arizona's higher education system will become the Third World purgatory it was a decade--or two--ago nobody wanted to be stuck in. All the smart students will start leaving the state again no matter what incentives you offer them. So will the influential researchers and professors. Graduate students won't give the university a second thought unless they have no alternatives. ASU will become nothing but a 'safety school' once again.
The biomedical research ASU and UA has been doing the past decade have driven ASU's status and funding. As a researcher in this system, these budget cuts terrify me. There are student researchers who can only do research because they get paid. If they stop getting paid, they will have to quit to get other jobs. Biodesign is an ASU institution, one I came to believe in strongly despite the douchebaggery of some of the faculty, and TGen, Barrows Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic, Piper Cancer Center, and MAC5 in Tucson all collaborate intimately with ASU's researchers. They are in the innovative backbone of this state, and they will feel the backlash. I hate the concept of hiding behind a name. But, unfortunately, names hold influence, and snubbing the holders of said names when the bring such prestige and influence to Arizona's research infrastructure is a horrible idea--especially when you are snubbing for no reason. It will also fuck over our collaborations with out-of-state Names; I see logos for prestigious Name universities all over the posters in Biodesign and SOLS.
I'm sure Crow knows this. And I'm willing to bet that the liberal arts, or any sort of 'arts', will go before any of the hard sciences. This also worries me.
40% budget cuts will be the death of the university on every level, except maybe sports. But as much as I hate to admit it, college sports bring in a huge amount of revenue, and we can't afford to cut out such a lucrative source, trivial though it may be.
The counterargument would be that I view this from the pedantic perspective of a University peon. There is rhetoric thrown around about taking away from the "working poor" so the university can do elitist, trifling things up in the ivory towers. The university and research system creates jobs, even for the uneducated. We rely on the janitors, deliverymen, and other unsung positions to keep everything running.
Also, research saves lives.
Research creates alternate, cleaner, cheaper fuels.
Research helps to make affordable, healthy food sources.
I fail to see how this would not negatively effect the entire state.
Yes, we have serious budget problems, and we have to deal with it. Crippling and maiming higher education (and yes, these are appropriate terms) are not the ways to go about it.
I've come to believe in this university and all the progress it has been making. It truly has been worthy of attracting the best and the brightest in the past few years. I am proud to say I am a researcher working within Phoenix's biomedical network. This almost feels like the second blow the state has delivered to the gut, Prop 102's passing being the first.
Thanks for solidifying my resolve to leave for graduate school. Fuck you very much.