A contribution from Ryan Lanham:

Recently the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article suggesting that universities are fairly conservative when it comes to the capacity to change in the face of financial crisis. Not much of a surprise. In other breaking news, Wales still wet, and head lice found in kindergartens. Indeed the Chronicle is a self parody when it runs these sorts of stories. One wonders who (else) reads them.

P2P savvy critics like Stephen Downes and George Siemens have long itched the mainstream of higher education for not being more progressive in embracing new modes of learning and new forms of access. They’re mostly ignored. And then there is the long-standing joke (I’ve heard it attributed to Henry Kissinger more than anyone) that the politics at universities are so fierce because the stakes are so low. One doesn’t have to dig very far to find a reliable caricature of fuss and feathers with sound and fury signifying nothing surrounding all things higher ed…along with a forward motion that is slightly less viscous than plate glass.