Am I alone in being concerned about the fomulaic insistence that the university be "moving forward" or "moving ahead"?  Check back through official pronouncements and see how often it pops up.  (Thomas Cooley, are you hearing this phrase often as we are? )

Moving forward--to what?

The phrase keeps popping up.  "Moving ahead" was invoked by Ms. Mader when Dr. Thames attempted to fire Glamser and Stringer, and we're hearing the phrase again about the PUC, etc.  The phrase taps into our knee-jerk response to ideas of scientific progress.  Progress is always good, right?

Uh, no.  Not all moves ahead are beneficial, especially if one is heading swiftly toward a precipice or a brick wall.  Moving ahead is not always beneficial in biology--some progressions in the lab are known as "rot"--well okay, as "putrefaction."  

"I do not think that all who choose the wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road.  A wrong sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.  Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good.  Time does not heal it."  C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

We're all a bit tired from finals right now, but I'm sure the finely honed satirical skills of those posting on this list are up to neutralizing this problematic phrase, if not the putrefaction it conceals.