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
Since the return of Donald Trump to the White House, he and his Republican allies have been working overtime to destroy the U.S. government's overseas humanitarian aid programs. Although the U.S. government has a lengthy record of assisting people of other nations stricken by hunger, war, and illness, such assistance is being rapidly dismantled, putting the lives of the world's poorest people in jeopardy. The result, according to the United Nations, is "a triage of human survival," with "114 million people facing life-threatening needs across the world."
Although Donald Trump has frequently billed himself as a "peacemaker" -- doing so at least 53 times during 2023 and 2024 -- his promises of peace have not been fulfilled. The primary reason for this failure is that, as his record indicates, he is much less interested in fostering peace than in expanding U.S. territory, military might, and power. Fortunately, however, institutions do exist that are genuinely committed to building a peaceful world.
Over the course of human history, military might has had dire consequences, including frequent wars, an enormous toll of death, injuries, and population displacement, immense financial cost, imperialist arrogance, military coups, and the diversion of resources from other areas of human life. Furthermore, military power has often been ineffective in safeguarding the national security that it is supposedly protecting. Rather than continuing to pour the wealth of nations into the failing system of national military might, how about adopting a less costly, more effective approach?