MU Podcast 060 - Manuscript of Secrets and Shadowed Halls

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Shimmin Beg
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Re: MU Podcast 060 - Manuscript of Secrets and Shadowed Hall

Post by Shimmin Beg » Tue Jul 22, 2014 1:58 pm

trinite wrote: One thought I've had is how to use Miskatonic University in a modern setting.

Rather than making it still an Ivy League-quality school, I like to think that it fell on hard times after a series of disasters and misadventures in the 1920's. ...

Still, the library is very well maintained ... The result is a collection that gets older, stranger, and less relevant to a modern curriculum every year. The Armitage Special Collections are still quite well curated, and protected by unusually high tech security systems (according to rumor, some sort of ongoing government grant funds their continual improvement).

In short, modern Miskatonic University is a relic, perhaps of interest to students seeking a particular old-timey aesthetic type of college experience, or to the scions of old Arkham families whose legacy status can garner them cheap tuition. But for the most part, the contemporary academy pays it little attention, except perhaps as a cautionary story about what can happen to a "former Ivy" through mismanagement of resources and excessive ambition.
Interesting idea! I had a couple of thoughts...

First, at some point I'd expect someone to try and turn what they have to good account. If you have an unusually good collection of mythological and local history resources in the library, then start offering Local Studies courses that are a pre-degree certificate, or even a whole degree. Teach Comparative Mythology, or theology with a very different bent from the usual Abrahamic-centric stuff. Anthropology might be a good area of strength, but not the kind that would attract leading scholars; more of a hobbyist approach with lots of comparative and historical material.

Second, you know what money-starved universities do? MBAs and international students. A university that seems historic and people might have heard of (due to old fame) is ideal for both, especially if you have unscrupulous marketing staff; there's bound to be at least one, and they'll get promoted for this so they'll stick around. You won't get many brilliant scholars; you'll get students who like the idea of studying in the states - and it's such a nice area! - but either learned enough to know it's an easy ride, or didn't really know what they were getting into, or aren't actually all that academic (or bright) so the offer seemed worth jumping at. Or, of course, people who like the idea of taking some weird classes along with their maths courses.

So I think the likely result is, you'd have a core of students who couldn't do any better; a cluster of people keen to get an MBA from somewhere; a cluster of slightly disappointed international students (some of them pretty aggrieved); some retired local historians and folklorists; and a load of ill-assorted people who are genuinely into all the esoteric stuff, or wanted an alternative experience, or whatever. You'll almost certainly end up with a lot of weird student societies, and a thriving drugs scene.

I also wouldn't be surprised if certain agents get sent there for training or to consult some of those collections. Just in a very low-key way.

trinite
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Re: MU Podcast 060 - Manuscript of Secrets and Shadowed Hall

Post by trinite » Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:17 pm

Great ideas, Shimmin Beg! And, of course, the international students might have brought along some pretty unusual influences from their home countries...


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technuthulhu
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Re: MU Podcast 060 - Manuscript of Secrets and Shadowed Hall

Post by technuthulhu » Mon Sep 29, 2014 6:18 pm

Hi Guys,

Just listened to most of this episode this morning and I was wondering if anyone could add and references to Keeper Murph's Bacon Grimoire? Sounds like an interesting book.

thanks!

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