August 21, 2011:  Satire with a Side Helping of Cranberries, Please

That zany crew over at The Cronk have decided to name November as National Satire Month.  What could they be thinking?  November presents nothing for folly.  Who would ever find anything funny about a month that has election days, Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, All Saints' Day, The Day of The Dead, National Pomegranate Month, International Drum Month, the start of College Basketball and the announcement of college football bowl match-ups?

Uh, never mind.  

I would certainly offer up satire from Higher Education for the month of November, but nothing happens in that month, unless you count the inevitable online survey sent to faculty during Thanksgiving week that asks their opinion on any number of topics:

• Meeting schedules;
• Strategic plans;
• Candidates for high level administrative positions;
• Building Projects;
• Program Eliminations.

Students are dutifully tucked away in corners in libraries, internet cafes, dorm rooms, and computer labs working away on term papers that will reveal their highest level of critical and creative thinking, with titles like the following:

• Conflict Resolution Modeling in Jersey Shore;
• Nuclear Power:  Pros and Cons;
• Copyright and Harry Potter;
• Sarah Palin:  Maverick and Mother;
• To Download or Not Download:  That Is the Question.

Finally, because most institutions have a December due date for all curriculum and program changes (tied to catalog production), faculty and administrators know not to push anything significant through the Curriculum and Instruction meeting during such a tight month as November.  Luckily, the C & I committee is likely to only see proposals similar to the following:

• English Composition changed from 3 credits to 5 credits, including a lab;
• Physics classes being added to computer science degrees;
• Health Information for Hispanics programs proposed;
• Foreign Language requirements for Engineering associate degrees proposed;
• Entire Psychology course sequence re-numbered.

Still, I wish The Cronk staff the best with this initiative.  If only they had gone a little farther and proposed February as National Safire Month, May as National Flat Tire Month, July as National Satyr Month, and October as National Talia Shire month.