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Tim's avatar

It wasn't immediately clear to me whether the resource vampires are

i) things that you don't want that are siphoning off resources

ii) things that you do want, but didn't realize the cumulative cost of

Type i) makes more sense of the metaphor (vampires, after all), but apparently the suggestion here is (I can say with some authority) type ii).

Type ii) "vampires" seem much less interesting. Just cancel Hulu, problem solved. (Well, sure, you have to recognize that a ten small leaks make one big leak, but still.)

What's more interesting are things like type i), where an institution (let's say) finds itself paying for things that it doesn't want. At first glance, that seems just as simple to solve as the type ii) vampires: just get rid of the minor league sports team.... Except, obviously, the minor league sports team has developed a life and constituency of its own; before one knows it, the coach is the most highly paid person on campus and has an army of alumni behind him (at least as long as he is winning. but that army will back someone else if it devours him). The University sacrifices other programs, compromises its requirements for "students," finds itself host to an expensive operation which isn't in any sensible way part of the University's mission of education and research.

It's not just sports, other "initiatives" can take root in the University and redirect its resources to their separate aims.

But vampire is probably not the best metaphor for something like this that infects the University (or organization or organism) to change the host's behavior for its own benefit. It's more like a ... hmm ... something ... the term seems just out of reach of my brain ... I feel like if I were to climb up and latch on to the bottom of this leaf, it would burst out of my head.

BRB, maybe.

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