Clarissa's Blog

All of a sudden, signs saying “273” appeared all over campus. That’s all they say, “273”.

The first time I saw “273” was by the parking lot. Immediately, I panicked. 273! What does it mean? Should I not park here? We have been having major parking lot renovations, so it’s confusing.

But then I saw the “273” sign everywhere. Nobody had any idea what it meant. And especially why money was spent on letting us know that it’s 273 o’clock in the midst of a severe budget crisis.

A week later, the top administrator explained. 273 is the number of students we need to recruit or retain or whatever for him to have good numbers for his yearly report. And he ordered these signs to keep the number at the forefront of everybody’s minds because that’s somehow magically supposed to make the number come true.

It’s clearly something he learned at the business seminars that come up with these new fads. They teach you to plaster every wall with your desired profit, and that’s supposed to condition people to attain it.

It’s all stupid, corporate voodoo that has exactly zero place at a higher learning institution where we should be in favor of rationality and reason.