Editing 2968: University Age

{{comic
| number    = 2968
| date      = August 5, 2024
| title     = University Age
| image     = university_age_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x388px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = This only makes it more urgent that we adopt my roadmap for the next 10 years, which should put us solidly in the lead.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the HR HEAD OF THE OLDEST UNIVERSITY DESTRUCTION DEPARTMENT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] has been the leader of a university for the last five years. In a speech, he declares that his goal during those five years has been to make his university overtake the age of the oldest university in his state, which is obviously impossible.{{Citation needed}} The other university was then two years older than his own (215 years vs 213 years old). He states he has funded an intensive program to make the university five years older, or three years older than the rival university. That would have happened anyway, whatever he had done, or if he'd done nothing at all.

The final line of Cueball's speech, "Unfortunately, I have terrible news", presumably precedes the announcement that the rival university has also aged 5 years and is therefore just as far ahead as they were before.

Universities often plan ambitious initiatives to boost prestige. However, true success often depends on factors outside administrative control, such as student quality, alumni achievements, faculty research, historical reputation, and external economic and social factors. While administrative efforts are important for operations and gradual improvements, a university's overall prestige cannot be engineered quickly through planning alone.

In the title text, Cueball's proposed "roadmap for the next 10 years" implies either more of the same ineffective efforts, or perhaps merging his university with one that was founded before the rival university, or, possibly undermining the rival university such that it ceases operations, or an even more ambitious and incredibly unlikely plan to place the rival university in a spacecraft on a near-light speed journey, slowing the apparent age of the rival university with relativistic time dilation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern on a stage. He has raised a finger in the air while addressing an unseen audience.]
:Cueball: When I took the helm five years ago, our university was 213 years old – the second oldest in the state, just behind our 215 year old rival.
:Cueball: Under my leadership, we've funded an intensive program to increase our age to 218, overtaking our rival by 3.
:Cueball: Unfortunately, I have terrible news.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Time]]