Getting back to the basics

If you consider yourself an A-list partier and well-connected around campus, perhaps IU would hire you to head up a "fun bureaucracy" -- or at least Harvard would. \nZac Corker, 23, just graduated from the Ivy League university. He's not headed for law school, medical school or a six-figure starting salary. He's headed back to the dorms to serve Harvard undergraduates as their "fun czar."\nAccording to the campus newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, Corker proposed his position as part of a Harvard University Management fellowship program in a letter this summer. Since starting work in October, a dodgeball tournament and the Harvard-Yale tailgate have highlighted the party animal's efforts thus far. Corker's key role involves helping students navigate the administrative details to plan successful events. \nThis high-level position, for which the university compensates Corker with room, board and a stipend, will definitely improve the lives of thousands of Harvard students. Reuters News Service noted that Corker's job followed complaints about social life in Cambridge, or lack thereof. For all the current and future students, let the good times roll. For Harvard graduates, just think how much more valuable your diploma could be if the fun czar had been around in your day.\nA degree from IU just keeps getting more valuable, too, but for far more substantive reasons.\nHere in Bloomington, IU, thanks in large part to President Adam Herbert, is moving forward and on its way to being recognized as one of the nation's finest institutions. Outgoing Governor Joe Kernan just gave Herbert the highest gubernatorial award for distinguished service to the state, the Sagamore of the Wabash. \nThe press Harvard's president has been receiving lately -- regarding his remarks suggesting that the biological differences between men and women might explain the gender gap in math and science fields -- would barely qualify him for an award given by Larry Flynt.\nIf the pattern continues, IU and Harvard will have swapped spots in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Harvard spends money to administrate fun and its president gets stuck in centuries-old sexism. IU is building a vast new science facility and Kelley School of Business students are beating Harvard's MBA candidates at national competitions.\nWe have plenty of fun here in Bloomington. With hundreds of student organizations, dozens of greek chapters, downtown Bloomington and house parties to boot, there just isn't enough room in the weekends for a fun czar. \n"It's depressing that I know I'll never find a better job, but at least I had it once," Corker told the Crimson.\nIt's disappointing that we'll never find a job like that, either.\nIt's depressing that a degree from an IU with Harvard standards seldom impresses like a degree from a Harvard with "Animal House" trappings.