Re: The conflict at Notre Dame

[fiona.maclachlan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

My dear Barkley, mea culpa!

I know sarcasm does not transmit well over the Internet but I couldn't resist.
All I can present in my defense is the emoticon appended at the end of my post.

For the record, I do not condone the creation of new departments solely for the
purpose of rounding up and neutralizing faculty who dissent from mainstream
opinion.  Furthermore, I think it's appalling that a university would sacrifice
intellectual diversity and academic freedom for the sake of a better ranking,
whose informational value at the low ends of the scale is dubious, at best.

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to clarify.

--fcm

Quoting "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>:

> Fiona,
>      But why not do this with the already existing mainstream
> economics department that is in the business school at
> Notre Dame?  There are already people in that department
> who have published in the AER?  Why is it necessary to
> destroy a unique department whose leading researchers
> have been notable for publishing highly influential books
> rather than articles in "top 3" journals?
> Barkley Rosser
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <fiona.maclachlan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Clifford Poirot" <cpoirot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 1:24 PM
> Subject: Re: The conflict at Notre Dame
>
>
> > Quoting Clifford Poirot <cpoirot@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> > >  My goal is pluralism, openness and academic freedom.
> >
> > These are all very nice goals but they are not susceptible to strict
> > quantitative analysis and, therefore, are beneath a department of
> economics that
> > knows how to do real science.  The beauty of Notre Dame's final solution
> is that
> > it will work with ruthless efficiency to achieve a quantifiably measurable
> > goal--moving up the rankings.  With enough money thrown their way, those
> chosen
> > for the new department will be able to hire faculty who are publishing in
> the
> > best (best determined by objective quantifiable criteria, of course)
> journals.
> > Who knows how far they will be able to climb?  They might be able to get
> into
> > the top 50 from their current ranking of 81.  Now, that would be an
> improvement
> > that could be proven with a high degree of mathematical certainty.  : )
> <-- N.B.
> >
> > Fiona Maclachlan
> > www.manhattan.edu/~fmaclach/
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------
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> http://www.manhattan.edu/
> >
>




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