It was here that teachers, students and researchers argued successfully for the importance of building cross-disciplinary links and for establishing ties with those subject to the application of dubious academic knowledge - for example, with mental health clinicians and patients.
Richardson notes that for every study of the timing of autumn colours, there are probably ten studies about the timing of spring buds, and that dubious folk knowledge has traditionally filled the gap.
He may not be a welcome guest at the homes of Robert Downey Jr, Charlie Sheen or Hugh Hefner in the wake of this year's Golden Globes, but Ricky Gervais may take dubious comfort in the knowledge that he has picked up an unlikely new set of fans: rightwing US bloggers and commentators.
So what if, in this harsh environment, you really want to be an academic and pursue obscure knowledge of dubious practical use, rather than tick boxes in a course because it will lead to a job?
However dubious Descartes' grounding of all scientific knowledge in metaphysical knowledge of God, his system contributes significantly to the advance of natural science in the period.
On the face of it, this way of defending the cultural commons might seem dubious, because the kind of knowledge that led to the Human Genome Project and the Internet was not dreamt of in the philosophies of the founders.
Sometimes such knowledge is of dubious relevance: it can be argued that no aid to the study of the 82 string quartets and 104 symphonies of the 18th-century Austrian composer Joseph Haydn is provided by reading about the political and economic conditions of his day.
Even if you find it easy to withstand the psychological pressures of CNN and its hypnotic graphics and storm maps, as well as the mayor suggesting in so many words that you might have lost your mind, you live with the knowledge of how dubious the city's infrastructure is and that you could be embracing a dramatically bad fate.
There was nothing so sinister at Mezhyhirya, where the pristine new road linking the palace to the capital was – if funded through dubious means – at least already common knowledge.
The emails, which clearly imply the police had some knowledge of Hermant's dubious activities in Belgium, raised uncomfortable questions at the time about the role and responsibility of the state in the January attacks.
