Patraeus

Corey Robin, who happens to be a teacher at CUNY, on the course that David Patraeus will be teaching there this fall:

David Petraeus’s course description is up. The course is called “Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade.” That sounds like a question to me, but there’s no question mark.

Here’s the description:

In this interdisciplinary seminar, students will examine in depth and then synthesize the history and trends in diverse public policy topics with a view towards recommendations for America’s leadership role in the emerging global economy.

This is what we’re paying $150,000 for?

 To which Paul Krugman responds:

[T]here are, I think, things I might want to hear David Petraeus talk about. But “recommendations for America’s leadership role in the emerging global economy” definitely don't fit.

Just to give you a flavor of how obscene this is, check this out, from the website of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress:

On the same day that news broke of CUNY’s plans to pay Petraeus $150,000 via the CUNY Research Foundation, employees represented by the PSC were on a one-day strike outside the Foundation’s central office. They have been without a contract for six months, and the Foundation management is offering below inflation salary increases, demanding excessive concessions for new hires and increasing heath care costs for employees.

Over a hundred research Foundation workers and their supporters took part in the walk out, including Anthony Dixon, chair of the Professional Staff Congress chapter at the Research Foundation's central office.

“That $150,000 for Petraeus is almost enough to cover a 3% salary increase for our entire bargaining unit,” said Dixon.

This is a joke, right?  This is a public university for godsake!  I mean I expect this kind of BS from private universities like NYU, but CUNY?

Seriously, our college education system is royally screwed up.