< "They'll get this energy thing figured out." />

It's amazing how the human eyelid can function just like a window shade to block out sunlight and lock in darkness.

At a scheduling meeting last week, the increasing number of online college courses came up. A senior faculty member, a really nice guy who began teaching when a gallon of the gold stuff was still going for 29 cents, said with disdain, "Pretty soon, this college will only be virtual."

I agreed that the time was coming, citing articles from both the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times that had reported soaring demand for online courses as gasoline prices start to determine how often students can attend classes at physical campuses. (At some two-year colleges, enrollment in online courses is up over a hundred percent from the good old days when gas was only $2.99 a gallon.)

"If that's the case," the senior professor said, "then I want nothing to do with it."

Trying to help him see the rationale behind the changes, I cited predictions of $7 to $15 per-gallon prices for gas within a few years, but that's when the eyelids went active. First, there was a little smile: Oh, you're such a naïve and gullible little boy. Then the Pronouncement: "They'll get this energy thing figured out." Finally came the eyelids as window shades, signaling that the discussion was over and no more information was needed... or appreciated.

And then we made the course schedule like it was 1962.