Graham Joyner: Higher Learning

Higher Learning

The Chancellor at XYU

Does not have a lot to do

So when he’s asked to put his mind

To matters of a learned kind

He nobly rises to the call

By not doing very much at all

That science and philosophy

Are oft at odds is plain to see

Less obvious is how to act

Or (as it’s all beside the fact)

How not to. Here’s the simple key:

Masterful inactivity

Unorthodoxy can be banned

Along with innovative thinking and

(The most subversive of the three)

Multidisciplinarity

Best work within a narrow frame

Where everybody thinks the same

Received opinion’s always strong

And any change is seen as wrong

So there’s really no occasion for

The Spanish Inquisition or

What every academic fears

The disapproval of their peers

Nor’s XYU alone. “Sic in”

Did Cicero sternly once begin

“Hoc ordine res geruntur”

And if this sounds a bit obscure

A rough translation to be had

Is that UC is just as bad

In fact SU is even worse

But “poetry is magic”. Verse

Can show things in a different light

The scholar and the scientist might

Find other ways to do this task

Meanwhile all XYU can do is ask

How to combine successfully

Robust incuriosity

And academic excellence?

The only answer to make sense

As far as XYU can tell

Is to do nothing—but to do it well

Graham Joyner