Board of Studies

They can’t alter the Board of Studies without our consent. The Board of Studies is inviolable. A sanctum. An ark. The holy of holies.

They can’t touch it! They can’t change it from above! They don’t have the authority. Even the university president himself …

We would have to make changes – if there were any to be made. We would have to alter it.

And that’s what they understand. Which is why their tactic is demoralisation. General waring down. They’re trying to fuck us psychologically. That’s how they’re going to breach the sanctum. Invade the inner citadel. The Board of Studies holy of holies. They’ve been working on us all along.

The idea is that our curriculum would no longer be our curriculum. That if they fuck with our heads enough, we’d spontaneously alter what we teach. Introduce business elements. Make it business relevant. We’d turn it into some best practice philosophy of business department.


We’ll think that there’s nothing else we can do. That we come crawling to the Bos, utterly resigned. Accepting Organisational Management victory as a given. Thinking that we have to make the changes. That it’s fate. The way of things. That it’s predestination.

They’ll have to make us believe in our own impotence. That we’re good for nothing. That we can’t do anything. This is how they work on us. Their whole shock and awe op. Their behavioural psychological warfare. Their general nudging. The whole demoralisation programme. The whole disgraceful roll out. It’s a psychological implantation, first of all. It happens in the head.


One of the rare occasions where Livia seemed to address us with absolute urgency.

We must protect the Board of Studies, she said. At all costs! It’s the soul of philosophy at Mercia. They can’t touch us, if they don’t make us change the Board of Studies. We had the power of the Board of Studies on our side – always.

Livia, serious for once. Speaking with absolute urgency. With no ironic distance. No smiling distance.

The Board of Studies is the central meeting. The core meeting. Where the programme regulations are decided. Where the essential operations of Philosophy at Mercia are confirmed.

The Board of Studies wasn’t part of the comedy. It’s what she worked to protect. The Board of Studies shield.