To market, to market...

Abstract

In earlier pieces (O'Neill, 2002, 2010, 2012), I chewed on and tried to digest newspaper advertisements made by universities. Byproducts did not come out smelling like roses: universities are scarcely able to present themselves without boasting, crass displays of salesmanship and brazen invocations of virtue. Now I hark to their recruiting calls by taking a sample (the bias is all mine) from recent announcements. Maybe universities went about seeking employees differently in the good old days - I don't go into that - but these days they are, as I hope to show, besotted with marketing brands as they seek acolytes to join them in the vision splendid.