Q:  What was the general burden of the feedback that you received from this article on faculties' focus on "being smart"? 

A:  Well, the typical kind of comment would be from a Department Chair, who'd say, "I'm going to send this to all of my faculty." That was the standard kind, i.e., "They really need to read this." That was the most common response.

Q:  Professor, why do you think that you received that kind of common response?

A:  Well, it's from people who are maybe a little more conscious than the average person about academia, particularly among the faculty. They see that belief system in action, and I think that just by pointing it out as I did, such people realize it more clearly: "That's a good way to put it." "That's exactly what bothers me about the department, about our faculty."

Q:  What do you think is the result of the belief system in action? What is it that you and others observe?

A:  Well, I think a lot of the craziness we've seen in academia can be traced at least in part to that belief and to the fact that it goes unrecognized or unacknowledged, much less discussed. We have other strongly held beliefs, of course, which we are more conscious of and which we talk about, like academic freedom and pursuit of truth and knowledge. And those other beliefs are also deeply felt and held, but they're much more on the surface and we're much more aware or conscious of them, whereas for many faculty, our belief in the importance of being smart is very deeply buried in the psyches. It's usually not recognized, because it touches pretty close to the bone of the ego, you know. We all probably accept it in some ways-it's a national belief-but it happens to be particularly strong in academia. Being smart is the currency of the realm in academia. 
What's different about people in academia is that most of them are very smart-smarter than the average citizen-and that's why they're in academia, which is a place where the mind is an extremely important human quality and is highly valued. I think that explains why it carries such weight. But I think that the fact that it does carry such weight helps to keep that belief submerged, because it is too threatening to a lot of us to even acknowledge it, much less discuss it. The people who wrote or e-mailed me about that article were probably people who have seen the problems that stem from that kind of belief, and it has been a source of concern to them, and to have somebody lay it out like I did is, I think, helpful to some people.