dulce et non-utile/staying too long at the fair

Reading about the uproar surrounding UC Santa Cruz's decision not to stage their annual "job fair" for fear of students protesting military recruitment, I am struck by the ways in which the university, the public one in particular, has become -- not a market place, in the sense of an agora where free speech is practiced and heard -- but a shopping mall where students try out majors and submit their applications to the mall itself, hoping for some kind of career.

What would happen if the university renounced altogether any hope of "utility" on the undergraduate level? What kinds of outrage would emerge, if any? Would people miss the job fair? Because if there is no job fair, then the military can't recruit on campus, and neither can Walmart. Is it so crucial, that students have the "freedom" to interview at a table on campus, rather than at a table in an office? Couldn't students sign up for get-to-know sessions with a company at their site, at career services and have done with it?

Besides -- since when, is looking for a job like going to a carnival? Isn't job FAIR something of a misnommer? Where's the cotton candy?

or is it meant to say something about the ethos of the company's hiring practices??

naah.