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
For millennia, people have armed and prepared their nations for battle. The results have been disastrous, with an almost constant flow of wars that have left vast numbers of people dead, crippled, blinded, or traumatized, with their nations often in ruins. In this context, during the twentieth century nations did manage to establish international institutions that, it was hoped, could safeguard national security through the development and enforcement of international law. Unfortunately, however, after so many years devoted to conflict and war, it has been difficult to get nations to relate to one another in this new way. Even so, given the existence of these international institutions for only a tiny portion of human history, it would be premature to abandon efforts to create an effective international security system. And there are practical measures that can be taken along these lines.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which became operational in 2002, represented a major breakthrough for the human rights groups that had campaigned for it. The new organization had the mandate to prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and, after 2018, the crime of aggression. But the governments of major nations -- especially the United States, Russia, and Israel -- deeply resent the ICC's actions against their officials. And, consequently, they have launched a concerted campaign to destroy it.
There has been a persistent struggle between rich and poor within societies and nations over the course of human history. But, this September, the issue reached the international level. At a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, four nations -- South Africa, Brazil, Norway, and Spain -- announced the beginning of a campaign to tackle the problem of worldwide economic inequality. With background work done by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and other specialists, endorsement by more than 1,500 economists and academics, and expressions of interest from numerous nations, the campaign to establish an International Panel on Inequality was launched. The panel's proponents argued that it should research inequality within and between countries and, then, develop policies to close the widening gap between the rich and the poor.