The Kraken attacks

David Nemeth

Something BIG is happening on campus this week. Before I comment on it, please take this survey:

Where do you get your hardcopy news on campus?

a) UTNews = Free lemonade, sugar galore.

b) The Blade = everything and the kitchen sink you never wanted to know about dogs locally.

c) USA Today = Where is Waldo Lindsay Lohan today?

d) The Wall Street Journal = Greed is good! Really!

e) The Independent Collegian = A trusty anchor in a Storm of Spin.

f) The Free Press = Toothless critiques amidst endless adverts.

g) Other print media.

h) Rest room graffiti.

i) The same place on campus where I buy my cold beer on draft (nowhere.)

Now to the BIG happening! Tomorrow President Lloyd Jacobs will open the Door to the Future for the College of Arts & Sciences -- with significant impacts for its students, faculty, staff and alumni. Will it be the lady? Or the tiger? (Drum roll begins.) Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, senior members of the tenured faculty, in spite their rapidly declining numbers, remain the strongest and most vocal advocates for improving academic quality on the Main Campus of the University of Toledo. They feel they have a professional obligation to break the slimy grip of the Kraken of capitalist expansion that four years ago suddenly rose out of the depths in an attempt to engulf and drag down our proud ship of public higher education.

The precious cargo now at unprecedented risk is student and public trust invested as tuition and taxes in the value of a University of Toledo education that manifests as its earned diplomas. That trust is now in danger of being betrayed.

The Kraken seems intent in its mindless determination to destroy Arts & Sciences College. On board, the fierce fight being waged to save the ship and its cargo rages on. Tomorrow perhaps, the battle ends.

—David Nemeth is an IC columnist and can be reached at David.Nemeth@utoledo.edu.