Yesterday, we had a meeting in support of the Physics program. The department Chair started off well by saying that a university without physics is a glorified community college.
Unfortunately, then he immediately proceeded to spoil the mood of solidarity and support by saying that there are many other departments that are less profitable than his and that should be eliminated first. The audience that consisted of Chairs of other departments experienced an immediate cooling of supportive feelings for physics.
“I have a list of the departments that I think should be eliminated right here,” the physicist ranted. “I can read it out if you want!”
Everybody sat there, feeling embarrassed and very lacking in solidarity.
On the positive side, the student newspaper came out with an excellent article covering the preceding meeting (yes, too many meetings, for sure) regarding the evisceration of physics. The last sentence of the article is now repeated by everybody on campus. We now greet each other with it.
The administration asked us not to talk about this to anybody outside the university, which is why I’m doing the exact opposite.
P.S. Since the publication of this post, the linked article was censored and the last sentence which was “Fuck the Chancellor” was removed.
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