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Monday, March 23, 2009

Words

Can we all agree that some words are so overused they have lost their meaning? Here's Dr. Tinkle's preliminary list:
Branding
Paradigm shift
Reallocation
learning institution
business model (most businesses fail)
new entity
learning alliance
benchmarking (sounds like something a dog does)
sage on the stage
scribe on the side (both are simple answers to complex issues)
modality (as in teaching modalities)
furlough (as in I take a day off without pay)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might include "CHANGE" and its variants--which seems to be another of their recent preoccupations. Apparently faculty are supposed to be afraid of change--which seems to mean to administration that when they suggest something idiotic we are supposed to endorse it without reservation.

Anonymous said...

Learning paradigm! Whatever that means.

Anonymous said...

Add to this:
Public-Private Partnership

yo, duh! said...

Furlough = I take a day off
because they can't afford to pay me
because someone else (= they) messed up.

horns n' fins said...

transform
transforming
transformation
transformative

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Say, what ever happened to "synergy?" How come we don't hear that one anymore?

Anonymous said...

vision, or worse, "visioning."

Anonymous said...

As an old superannuate, I ask that you remember the great buzz words of yesteryear

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

STAKE HOLDERS

and the greatest of all

COLLEGIAL


All candidates for administrative appointment should henceforth be required to submit essays and submit t oral examination on the ways those great ideas have
transformed (ops ) our academic lives

Anonymous said...

Add:
Strategic Directions

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget Frank Horton's favorite: TOTAL QUALITY CONTROL ( or was TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT----how soon we forget )