POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

The Trump administration has been designating a theme for each week—most recently, Infrastructure Week, Workforce Development Week, and, this week’s rendition, Technology Week.

(I recognize that Workforce Development Week involved a much-publicized visit to a community college, but I doubt that Trump, DeVos, or anyone else in his administration would see any redundancy in designating a Higher Ed Week.) 

In discussing the emptiness of this approach to proposing and implementing policy changes, Conservative commentator David Frum has pointed out the obvious–that having meetings on a topic does not mean that one has actually done anything at all to address the issues related to that topic.

By emphasizing that Frum has pointed out the obvious, I am not pointedly criticizing Frum. Rather, he seems to recognize as much as anyone has that one of Trump’s core strategies is to prevent us from focusing on what is–or should be–obvious.

Academics who have suffered through administrations led by people who busy themselves with–and announce as accomplishments–endless cycles of meetings that produce no discernible results should have a special insight into what is now occurring in the Trump administration.