So USC administrators who spend roughly 900 billion percent of their time fretting about faculty images and the university’s self-mythologizing got us in the LA Times today for calling students’ parents….because the students were protesting noisily. ERMERGERD. Students. Protesting. On behalf of textile workers in Bangladesh.

WE CAN’T HAVE THAT SORT OF THING GOING ON.

Never mind that my 245 class has been subject to constant screeching noise, bone-jangling vibrations, and retch-inducing stench for three months. OH NOES. That is in pursuit of a Greater Cause. (A giant building for its new elite centers.) No, nothing worth worrying about here, just the student learning environment. Nothing earth-shattering like administrators who would rather not deal with students who have a social conscience and want to make a difference.

And don’t give me any crap about how it’s not ok for students to protest. They’re young. If you don’t stand for things when you are young, even if it isn’t appropriate or palatable or feasible, then heaven help you. They tried to have voice. I don’t care if you don’t like how they choose to exercise that voice or not. We are a university, not a corporate headquarters. Or…?

I’m mad at you people. Get it together. Everybody everywhere in the US does a horse laugh every time we wind up in the paper for this kind of neocon nonsense. You want to be a top-ranked university? Stop losing your crap FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE every time some students think for themselves and something gets a little messy.

God. Why I even gotta say this???