Dear Committee Members

by Julie Schumacher

I sometimes wonder, Ms. Gross, about the source of such widespread unhappiness. I imagine a manufactory of anxiety and sorrow belching out clouds of discontent on the north side of campus.

And yes, sociology has gone the way of poli-sci and econ, now firmly in the clutches of rabid number crunchers who have abandoned or forgotten the link between their abstruse theoretical musings and the presence of human beings on the planet’s surface;

In an unguarded moment, Boti expressed surprise at what he termed our faculty’s “docile disengagement.” I informed him that we are like oxen accustomed to the yoke: our hides thick from insult and whippings, we have forgotten how to do anything other than trudge dully along.

The worst fate some undergrads can imagine for themselves: full employment, a home, a spouse and kids, a car.