What’s Going On at UAardvark? is a fast-paced political satire about how an increasingly corporatized, modern American university becomes the site of a rambunctious rebellion that turns the nation’s campus life upside down.
"Humorous, insightful. . . . In this farcical novel, Wittner . . . shows what can happen when school administrators begin invoking business models. . . . A well-paced university novel, certain to provide academics with many knowing chuckles." (Full review: What's Going On at UAardvark?)
—Kirkus Reviews
"What’s Going On at UAardvark? offers a satiric look at the contemporary university, full of humorous caricatures, as it tries to offer hope to discouraged progressives."
—The Satirist
"What’s Going On at UAardvark? is a must for anyone attending or teaching college."
—New Politics
"Administrative malfeasance, corporate greed, and faculty passivity spin out of control at UAardvark. . . . The bad guys are mercilessly lampooned."
—LA Progressive
"Through his skillful weaving of the seemingly absurd with the probable, Wittner concocts a telling indictment of what is happening to public higher education."
—Dissident Voice
"There might not be an antidote for the corporate takeover of everything that either moves or stands still in America. [But] What’s Going On at UAardvark? makes a stab at it."
—Solidarity Notes
"What’s Going On at UAardvark? is a raucous romp of a novel that stands authority on its head and teaches the mechanics of a modern-day uprising. It's a funny amd irreverent critique. . . . You may just laugh out loud."
—Industrial Worker
Profile of Lawrence S. Wittner
He attended Columbia College, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in History. Thereafter, he taught at Hampton Institute, at Vassar College, and—under the Fulbright program—at Japanese universities. In 1974, he began teaching at the State University of New York/Albany, where he rose to the rank of Professor of History before his retirement in 2010.
Professor Wittner is the author or editor of thirteen books and the writer of about 400 published articles and book reviews, mostly on issues of peace, war, and economic equality. He is also a former editor of Peace & Change, a journal of peace research. His scholarship was honored with prizes from the Peace History Society and from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In addition, he has received the New York State/United University Professions Excellence Award for scholarship, teaching, and service and the Peace History Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.
A sought-after speaker, Professor Wittner has given lectures in seventeen nations. This includes talks at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, at the United Nations, and on dozens of college and university campuses. In addition, he is interviewed occasionally on radio and television programs. He also has written numerous Op-Ed pieces that have appeared in newspapers and on-line publications.
For over a half century, Professor Wittner has participated in the racial equality, labor, and peace movements. He was an early civil rights and anti-apartheid activist and served for decades as an elected leader of United University Professions (the SUNY faculty-professional staff union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers). Numerous organizations have presented awards to him for his activism. Currently, he is a member of the executive committee of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), as well as a board member of the Citizens for Global Solutions Education Fund and of the Peace Action Fund of New York State.
Recent Articles on the Web by Lawrence Wittner
The nine nuclear powers are currently engaged in an accelerating nuclear arms race -- so perilous to human survival that the editors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have set their famous "Doomsday Clock" at 85 seconds to midnight, the most dangerous setting in its history. Of course, since the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there have been a great many warnings of disaster, buttressed by mass movements demanding nuclear disarmament. But, to judge from their reckless march toward nuclear catastrophe, the current rulers of the nuclear powers have failed to absorb the lesson. Unless there is an advent of new, less hawkish governments, a movement revival, or both, a nuclear war seems likely.
In March 1945, only six weeks before his death, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address to Congress in which he announced plans for the creation of "a universal organization," a "permanent structure of peace." That organization was the United Nations, whose Charter called for saving the world "from the scourge of war" and for promoting "justice," "social progress," and "better standards of life in larger freedom." In subsequent decades, the United Nations did an effective job of encouraging human rights and social progress, but -- thanks largely to the behavior of the "great powers" -- proved less effective in preventing military aggression and war. Even so, public pressure for a peaceful world has secured important victories in the past, and the books are not closed on the future.
As Americans and people of other former colonies recognize, there's a great deal to be said for national independence. But, at times, we might also wonder: is it sufficient? After all, many of today's problems -- including war and modern weaponry, environmental catastrophe, disease pandemics, and widespread poverty -- are global phenomena. To address these problems effectively, we need collective action. And to secure this action, we need a change in human consciousness and behavior -- a shift from a parochial national independence to the interdependence of nations.