Samantha -- This is a good primary source. But I thought of the ideal source for you: Dave Tomar's "The Shadow Scholar." It is not available at the Rutgers libraries, because most of it is a very caustic memoir of his time at Rutgers, but you should be able to get it through interlibrary loan. But it will be such a useful source for you, and it is available remaindered at such low prices, that I think you should just order it online. Chapter 3 of this book is actually titled "The RU Screw" and offers absolutely pitch-perfect evidence for the argument that the RU Screw is in the midst of morphing from a critique of faceless nameless bureaucracy to a critique of privatization -- or of the two combined.
I found one more interesting source on the RU Screw: http://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/25945/ Aubrie Swan's analysis of the merging of the different schools at Rutgers (we used to have separate colleges called Livingston, Douglass, Cook, and Rutgers College), which reduced the bureaucratic nightmares faced by students -- often called the RU Screw. This change may have reduced the bureaucratic problems for students -- but it also more firmly established the privacy of privatization: the main reason for the transformation was to create a more unified Rutgers "brand."
Besides looking at sources that discuss the "RU Screw" directly, you need to work on some frame for analyzing it. So think about what you might call the "RU Screw" as a phenomenon. Is it an "urban myth"? Is it a "proverb"? a "local phrase"? a "joke"? It would be good to know what a folklorist or social anthropologist might call it. If you could identify the "form" of the "RU Screw," then you could research what has been written about the form and how it works, which would give you some good ideas.
One last thing: you should also give some thought to the value of studying the RU Screw, such as helping Rutgers do a better job of basic customer service and to help Rutgers build up positive relations with its future alumni, who will not give money to the school if they feel they got "screwed."
Samantha -- This is a good primary source. But I thought of the ideal source for you: Dave Tomar's "The Shadow Scholar." It is not available at the Rutgers libraries, because most of it is a very caustic memoir of his time at Rutgers, but you should be able to get it through interlibrary loan. But it will be such a useful source for you, and it is available remaindered at such low prices, that I think you should just order it online. Chapter 3 of this book is actually titled "The RU Screw" and offers absolutely pitch-perfect evidence for the argument that the RU Screw is in the midst of morphing from a critique of faceless nameless bureaucracy to a critique of privatization -- or of the two combined.
ReplyDeleteI found one more interesting source on the RU Screw:
ReplyDeletehttp://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/25945/
Aubrie Swan's analysis of the merging of the different schools at Rutgers (we used to have separate colleges called Livingston, Douglass, Cook, and Rutgers College), which reduced the bureaucratic nightmares faced by students -- often called the RU Screw. This change may have reduced the bureaucratic problems for students -- but it also more firmly established the privacy of privatization: the main reason for the transformation was to create a more unified Rutgers "brand."
Besides looking at sources that discuss the "RU Screw" directly, you need to work on some frame for analyzing it. So think about what you might call the "RU Screw" as a phenomenon. Is it an "urban myth"? Is it a "proverb"? a "local phrase"? a "joke"? It would be good to know what a folklorist or social anthropologist might call it. If you could identify the "form" of the "RU Screw," then you could research what has been written about the form and how it works, which would give you some good ideas.
One last thing: you should also give some thought to the value of studying the RU Screw, such as helping Rutgers do a better job of basic customer service and to help Rutgers build up positive relations with its future alumni, who will not give money to the school if they feel they got "screwed."
ReplyDeletethanks!
ReplyDelete