The rhetoric and economics of veterinary health care (PART 2)

Our dog the day after his surgery

When our dog broke his leg and we paid for costly surgery, the veterinary emergency communication described in my previous blog entry was only ONE dimension of our experience.  What about our communication among family members and friends, and our own reasoning about the cost and the ethics of our decision?

We have had many conversations, emails, and debates about whether it was right or wrong for us to spend this much money on our puppy.

I am sure many among them are thinking of one fact — we have no children.

So the reasoning goes, we must have an “unhealthy” love for our pet. That’s a common sentiment out there…

 

The rhetoric and economics of veterinary health care

Our dog's fractured radius and ulna, March 28, 2009

Our crisis

Last weekend our 11-month-old puppy broke his leg while running down our stairs too fast.

Yes he is okay now, recovering from his surgery.

The extremely different experiences we had at 2 veterinary hospitals prompted me to think more than I ever have before about the communication we engage in at veterinary hospitals.

It’s complex:  in a crisis, one needs to communicate about the medical options, the expense of veterinary health care, the emotional trauma of the owners,  and the intrinsic value of their animal companions.

This is a perfect occasion for applying rhetorical concepts to real life.

 

The rhetoric of email hoaxes

Image from Nokia Conversations, "Beware hoax emails and texts"

Sigh. I just received another email hoax, this time from a former student of mine who is a very intelligent woman.

It makes me wonder how we can best educate our citizens today about debunking email spam.

It seems like common sense is not enough to guard us.

People need to know some of the strategies that email hoaxes use to play on people.

We need to propagate through email the simple steps of how to research  them and debunk them.

And we need rhetorical strategies for replying to forwarders of hoax email in ways that do not insult them, but recognize their good will and educate them.

Let’s slow down hoax email’s viral infection of society.

 

The rhetoric of atheist bus ads

From Atheistbus.org . Go to their campaign website - I am sure they will appreciate the internet traffic.

I just received an email from a concerned citizen about the advertisements that are appearing on our local City transit buses in some Canadian cities.

To find out more:  All of the bus ads from the UK campaign are here on their Atheist Bus website.   The Canadian Atheist Bus campaign website is here  – they also have a discussion board .

My correspondent was concerned that these were “hate ads,” and expressed her thoughts thus –

While the University may have the goal to invite communication (positive and negative) on this subject, I do not believe supporting this type of controversial “communication” is constructive or positive in a world that is already in distress.

So, is it hate speech, is it too distressing to talk about, and is it effective in achieving the goals of its authors?

 

Canada’s 2009 budget and business-focused higher education

Image borrowed from Canada's Economic Action Plan: Budget 2009

This article contains selected excerpts from the 2009 Canada federal budget that tend to focus on the economic functions of university education, increase attention on business degrees and on research that aims primarily at economic benefits.

Will we arise from this phase of university life with a broader view of the aims of postsecondary education? What will be the effect of this “phase” (hopefully it will end) of economic crisis on our collective sense of the value of liberal arts education?

For example, in one place the budget document declared that

“[PhD and Master's] scholarships granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will be focused on business-related degrees.”

 

Canadian university cost-cutting strategies

University of Alberta Convocation Hall (Wikimedia commons)

Having just investigated some of the university cost-cutting measures south of our border in my blog article US Universities in recession: Furloughs and program closures,  I decided to collect some information about the cost cutting measures Canadian universities have been proposing or announcing in the past 2 months.

 

US Universities in recession: furloughs and program closures

Arizona State University campus (Wikimedia commons)

Canadian universities have often pointed south and claimed that American universities are much better funded by their state governments, but this situation seems to be changing due to the sudden US recession.

For example, the State of Nevada is reducing its higher education budget by 36% (WorldNow and KRNV, Nevada, January 23, 2009), which resulted in a campus rally of 2,000 University of Nevada (Las Vegas) students in January.

Arizona’s major cuts to higher education have also resulted in a student protest of 2,000 students strong (Arizona Capitol Times, January 28, 2009).  Several other states are taking similar extreme measures.

This article focuses on two ways in which some universities in the US are handling budget cuts– Furloughs and Program closures.  In contrast, Canadian Universities facing budget cuts at this time rarely make mention of these strategies (see my Jan. 31 blog article on Canadian university’ cost cutting measures)

 

Inkshedding: an activity for events

Inkshedding participants. All photos from Inkshed 23 conference website.

“Inkshedding” is a way of discussing ideas through a writing activity done as a group.  It has been done at academic conferences, in classrooms, and at Town Hall forums.

I was recently asked to explain inkshedding to an organization affiliated with my university that was planning an event on a pressing social issue.

Here is a brief explanation of how to plan and execute an inkshedding activity as part of a public forum on a topic of broad social interest.

 

Blog Usage Statistics

Number of views

I am quite surprised to see that my Isocrates and Education post has achieved 269 views to date (note added Jan. 31:  now it’s up to 350 views) , more than twice the amount of my Rhetorical Studies in Canada post.  It looks like 1/4 of those viewers may have taken a look at my other Isocrates post.

Unsurprisingly, the U of C Educational Cultures post is very active since I posted it on December 07.  I provided a link on our faculty’s email listserv, and posted a link on the Fine Arts discussion board.  Our university is presently discussing the restructuring of our “Arts” faculties and will continue to do so in the coming months.

 

Learning Advanced Writing/Rhetoric

Rhetor image #1: Marjorie Merriweather Post, Founder of General Foods. Wikimedia public domain.

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, November 7, 2008, there is a valuable reminder of the academic rigor and complexity of teaching and learning university-level written communication.

Mark Richardson articulates some important myth-breaking findings since 1960 from the field of rhetoric and composition**

** what is “Rhetoric and Composition?”
Scholars, see The Case for Rhetoric and Composition
as an Emerging Field [2004])

• Students who do one kind of writing well will not automatically do other kinds of writing well.
• The conventions of thought and expression in disciplines differ, enough so that what one learns in order to write in one discipline might have to be unlearned to write in another.
• Writing is not the expression of thought; it is thought itself. Papers are not containers for ideas, containers that need only to be well formed for those ideas to emerge clearly. Papers are the working out of ideas. The thought and the container take shape simultaneously (and develop slowly, with revision).