Zapiski Okhotnika

[Ralph Cleminson]

Nem birom mar!

Like Mr Bruce McClelland, after reading so much about this,
I can't resist contributing my 3.88 forints' worth either.

And like him, I feel I want to defend Hunter.  No doubt, like the
rest of us, they are allowed one person rather than the three they
really need.  So they advertise for a single person combining the
qualities of all three.  They will get, of course, only one of them,
but, given that this is the last appointment they will be able to
make for the next goodness knows how many years, they want the best,
and quite rightly they spread their net wide, in the hope that,
getting only one out of X, Y and Z, it will at least be a better X
than any of the Ys and Zs that applied.  (And what is more, if
there's a really good X out there, (s)he won't be deprived of a
well-deserved position in a department that needs one just because
they decided they could only advertise for a Z.)  And if by some
chance an inverted xylophonist should turn up, that's an added bonus.
 What is more, the candidates understand this, and are not put off
from applying by the fact that they are not Superman.  Not an ideal
system, perhaps, but a workable response to a difficult situation,
and not helped by all the accusations that it has attracted.  (Though
I am admittedly not part of the system, therefore perhaps speaking
out of ignorance, but I do have the impression from reading SEELANGS
and talking to other people that American universities are less
democratic than those in other parts of the world.)

Apart from that, I commend McClelland's comments on the rewards of
Academia (though I am a little surprised that someone who works for
IREX in Moscow, and thus presumably spends much of his time arranging
for Americans to spend their summers in Russian archives, should
imagine that academics get their summers off!!)

Szia!
RMC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R.M.Cleminson, M.A., D.Phil.
Dept of Mediaeval Studies, Central European University
Post: H-1245 Budapest 5, P.O.B.1082
Phone: +361 327 3024   Fax: +361 327 3055
http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/ralph.htm