[Peace-discuss] [Peace] demonstation for a public university not a corporate military-related cog producer
Stuart Levy
stuartnlevy at gmail.com
Tue Apr 2 19:59:50 UTC 2013
But of course, we need to point out that it doesn't need to be this way,
right?
(One footnote on one sign: Study the flights of bees, not drones!)
On 4/2/13 2:26 PM, Niloofar Shambayati wrote:
> Karen,
>
> I'm surprised by your rhetorical question, "The future of science and
> economics are tied up with the military?" Hasn't warfare always been
> the engine of "progress" and served well "the public good?" No human
> endeavor has been as successful as advancements in surgery to put a
> mutilated fighter back together. Where would U. of I be without huge
> grants from merchants of death? We've been collecting the crumbs in
> the service of critical thinking.
>
> Niloofar
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 12:05 AM, Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com
> <mailto:kmedina67 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Several posters were made this evening. One, for example, says:
> "Do we love our military industrial complex more than our critical
> thinkers?"
>
> Come join the demonstration to protest this speaker, Norman
> Augustine. Tuesday, April 2, 2013
> Meet at 3:30pm at the south door to Beckman. The talk begins at 4pm
>
> Turns out he is part of the revolving door between places like
> Loockheed-Martin, the Department of the Defense, Homeland
> Security, and the Boy Scouts.
>
> Why is the University of Illinois, a research one institution,
> interested in what he has to say? The future of science and
> economics are tied up with the military?
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 31, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Karen Medina
> <kmedina67 at gmail.com <mailto:kmedina67 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Former CEO of Lockheed-Martin will tell us how to envision the
> future of universities. (see the description of the event
> April 2nd)
>
> Want to demonstrate against this? Then meet with a group of
> people to make plans: Monday, April 1, 2013 / 7:30pm / Urbana
> Free Library basement in the *Satterthwaite conference room*
>
> -----------
>
> UIUC Chancellor's final lecture of the year April 2, 4pm, at
> Beckman for "The Research University in the World of the
> Future" series will feature Norman Augustine, the retired CEO
> of military weapons maker Lockheed-Martin.
>
> He will "discuss the idea that universities have to
> reconfigure themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st
> century."
>
> Augustine believes "universities have to become more
> introspective and aware that their ultimate mission is to
> serve the public good." I have a feeling many of us have a
> very different definition ?of "public good" than he does.
>
> ----
>
> /Engineer and education advocate Norman Augustine is next in
> the Chancellor's speaker series, "The //Research University in
> the World of the Future/
> <http://www.oc.illinois.edu/visioning/series.html>/," and will
> speak at 4 p.m. April 2 in the Beckman Institute auditorium. A
> reception will follow in the atrium./
>
> Norman Augustine, an acclaimed engineer and the retired
> chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, was just beginning work
> on his graduate degree at Princeton University in 1957 when
> the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial Earth
> satellite.
>
> The unexpected launch rattled Americans' post-war confidence
> and caused concern that the new technology would soon be used
> by other nations to spy on them or initiate attacks from high
> above Earth's atmosphere.
>
> Augustine,Norman__a.jpg
> <http://news.illinois.edu/ii/13/0321/Augustine,Norman__b.jpg>
>
> Norman Augustine
>
> The corresponding national response heralded a technological
> research and development boom at research universities across
> the nation -- funded by the federal government and
> corporations -- that would lead to the moon landing, the
> computer revolution and, eventually, the Internet.
>
> It also confirmed for Augustine, who had been considering a
> career as a forest ranger, his pursuit of a career in the
> burgeoning field of aerospace research.
>
> Fast-forward nearly 60 years and Augustine says the threat of
> being overshadowed by the rest of the world is greater than
> ever -- and if something isn't done quickly, America's
> technological pre-eminence will become a historical footnote.
>
> "I've had not inconsiderable involvement in issues of higher
> education and have become very concerned about America's
> competitiveness in the new global economy," he said. "We have
> to take some dramatic steps because what is at stake is
> nothing less than the American Dream."
>
> But in contrast to the space-race era, the country's toolbox
> for making those fixes today is in danger of being severely
> under-stocked.
>
> "Companies used to support research, but today they are
> expected to produce results next quarter, not next decade," he
> said.
>
> Meanwhile, the other traditional research funding partners,
> federal and state governments, have disinvested from secondary
> and higher education at an alarming rate because of the
> economic downturn, a corresponding drop in tax receipts and
> public debate over the role of government and the benefits of
> education.
>
> "Education investment goes hand in hand with having a strong
> economy and universities are the key to making the nation more
> competitive," he said. "We have got to enable the development
> of an educated citizenry."
>
> Augustine said universities also have to reconfigure
> themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century. He said
> universities have to become more introspective and aware that
> their ultimate mission is to serve the public good.
>
> "The problem is, universities in this country and elsewhere
> have changed very little in the last 100 years," he said.
> "What they teach has changed, but it's still being delivered
> in basically the same way. We also need to decide what it is
> we want our universities to have as their priorities."
>
> Change is no longer an option but a requirement, he said, and
> competition is coming from every direction -- from the
> online-course revolution to rapidly improving university
> systems overseas. He said the competition stems from students
> seeking a better education value and from a growing list of
> alternatives to the traditional university.
>
> "Great universities of the past have been generally defined by
> a superb faculty and a fine library," he said. "Today you can
> carry the library in your back pocket and access faculty from
> around the world from your home. The great universities will
> survive, but in a different form, and the lesser universities
> may not be recognizable a few years hence. Online education
> isn't equivalent yet, but it's becoming more and more
> equivalent; face-to-face teaching and learning have value, but
> how great is that value?"
>
> He said higher education's challenge reaches far beyond campus
> boundaries. For example, secondary education needs to focus
> more on science, technology, engineering and math if the
> country is to remain competitive.
>
> "Part of the cost of higher education is that many high school
> students aren't prepared when they get to our universities,"
> he said.
>
> Eight years ago Augustine chaired a commission studying U.S.
> competitiveness that issued a report, "Rising Above the
> Gathering Storm." It recommended significant improvements in
> K-12 math and science education, more investment in long-term
> basic research, strategies to attract high-tech students and
> scientists from around the world, and the creation of programs
> to create and sustain incentives for innovation and research
> investment.
>
> In a 2011 article in Forbes magazine, Augustine offered some
> disturbing statistics about the importance America places on
> academic excellence:
>
> U.S. consumers spend significantly more on potato chips than
> the U.S. government devotes to energy research and development.
>
> In 2009, for the first time, more than half of U.S. patents
> were awarded to non-U.S. companies.
>
> China has replaced the United States as the world's number
> one high-tech exporter.
>
> Between 1996 and 1999, 157 new drugs were approved in the
> U.S. Ten years later, despite growing funding, that number had
> dropped to 74.
>
> The World Economic Forum ranks the U.S. 48th in quality of
> math and science education.
>
> "Innovation is the key to survival in an increasingly global
> economy," he concluded in the article. "Today we're living off
> the investments we made over the past 25 years. We've been
> eating our seed corn. And we're seeing an accelerating erosion
> of our ability to compete. Charles Darwin is said to have
> observed that it is not the strongest of the species that
> survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most
> adaptable to change."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> -- karen medina
> "The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
> - Mark Twain
>
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>
>
> --
> Niloofar
>
>
>
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