wow, so you worked out that if u flip a 'u' it becomes an 'n'?

genius! so, the good people at uow have discovered this fact and are exploiting it to great effect. 'uow' can become 'now'....gosh aren't we progressive. now that's fine, i don't really have a problem with it but do we really need tv screens all over campus to prove to the wider academic world that we are 'hip and with it'? i believe that is what the kids are saying these days.

i also love that a few of them don't work and microsoft are getting a great free plug. i just don't think they are at all necessary. i actually find them really distracting and as if my studies needed that. i'm like dory most of the time, 'ooh look a shiny thing! exam? what exam?'.

it really is just another way for the uni to suck some more cash out of our pockets. i imagine the screens and their content were paid for by students. and this is my biggest problem. we actually don't know who has paid for them. there is no information about their place in our uni lives, not on their website. i have even resorted to googling them. nothing. next step is emailing university officials. when we eventually do find out who has forked over the cash for these white elephants what does that mean? outside companies getting a foothold in university campus', it all seems just a bit to sneaky and underhanded to me.

i am very concerned with this because uow does have a habit of lowering standards and upping enrolments for a bit of extra cash. and if the uni did pay for this great new initiative itself, why the hell not spend the money it has in a productive and useful manner. actual financial support for students or upgrading computers in the library (that have been known to just turn off mid-way through typing a 5000 word essay) might have served us better. but hey, now i know what is on at the uni bar this week. yea they have our priorities straight.

and the content, don't get me started on the one dimensional ideology that equates to, 'we love all students from all countries, hooray us!'. i keep feeling like an ad for mcdonalds latest burger deal to pop up, with some kind of student discount. as though the youth of the world aren't targeted as consumers enough. all this is giving me an eary feeling for the future. i keep getting flashes of targeted advertising in 'minority report' (or 'tron' for our older readers). where does it stop? even our schools aren't safe.

and rant over. sorry uow is a cranky topic for me at the moment, and this new development hasn't exactly helped.