University Priorities

... or, The Propagation of Idiocy

Another email list I'm on is ALGTOP-L, devoted to algebraic topology news. I never contribute, I just read the posts to try to get a sense of what's going on in my former research field. There's also news about the people involved, some of whom I remember, and conference announcements.

Today there was a conference cancellation announced at a major Midwest university, with part of the explanation being, "With the tightly packed topology calendar this Fall and the hotel constraints imposed by the sports season, it proved impossible to reschedule."

In other words, one of the principle purposes of a university, the dissemination of knowledge, literally was canceled in this case to make room for sports fans.

Idiocy begets Ignorance, which propagates Idiocy.