School's Out

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all

--School's Out, Alice Cooper

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The Chronicle of Higher Education reports the higher education situation in Iraq is dire ("Iraq's Universities Near Collapse.")

The article opens as follows:

"Saad Jawad does not like to take chances. The University of Baghdad political-science professor goes to the campus only once or twice a week, varying the days to throw off any would-be assassins. His courses are less than one-third full, and he often has to wait hours until students show up.

"When a class does finally convene, he assigns enough work to keep students busy for as long as possible because he does not know when they may meet next.

"'I used to attend the college five days a week, stay there, and mix with my students,' Mr. Jawad says, by telephone. 'Not anymore.' He does most of his work and research at home over the Internet, and most of his private meetings with students are by phone."

Aside from his brief trips to campus, Mr. Jawad says he spends almost 24 hours a day self-imprisoned at his home. He has seen several of his fellow academics murdered. The article reports anywhere from 250-1,000 academics murdered since the 2003 invasion.

The Ministry of Higher Education has advised university researchers to come to campus only twice a week in an effort to reduce such attacks. Some universities are operating at 10-20% of capacity, many with only intermittent electricity, so professors are writing papers in longhand, versus using computers.

The result is a near paralysis of Iraqi universities. Almost all academic research in Iraq has halted because fieldwork and data collection are nearly impossible. Even the most mundane activities have become a challenge.

The number of women attending university has especially dwindled. So much for one of our initial vaunted excuses for the invasion--the liberation of women. Meanwhile, the honor-killings of women in our allied state of Pakistan continues, unabated. . .

--by Lisa