Humanist Offensive

Today I had no time to blog or read or write. Today was spent listening to the dean for my faculty outline the plan to bring the budget back into balance. It involves a 30% reduction in costs...not a fun subject. The whole faculty was supposed to be there (300 approx) but maybe 2/3 turned up. We saw the plan as it is at the moment. The admin is going to be cut, teaching is going to share the admin and research is going to be encouraged. From my perspective as a PhD it will be relatively painless (but somewhat chaotic as it will be implemented in one term: next term) but the chances of employment once I finish my thesis look very patchy.
So...it was nice to meet new people as we did group feedback and I was put into a group with people I had seen around a lot but had not spoken to so much. I can't help but think of the (marginal??) place the humanities take in contemporary society, how important critical thinking, langauge, history, literature and the economy of ideas are and how little they receive. Our suggestions were passed on to the higher orders. Not sure if they will ever see the light of day again. Rationalization makes me sad......
As a consolation: I told some of my group about the Best Online Documentaries, dozens (so far) of films online for free. My pick so far in the doco on Arundhati Roy.