Forumtag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//12008-05-09T14:29:12ZMovable Type 3.34Indiana: The Return Of The Puzzlertag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.15032008-05-08T20:57:44Z2008-05-09T14:29:12ZWill Shortz, the famous crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times, gave the commencement address last week at his alma mater, the University of Indiana. Using his trademark cleverness and brain-taxing ambiguity, Shortz has brilliantly transformed the modern crossword....John Leo
New York Times, gave the commencement address last week at his alma mater, the University of Indiana. Using his trademark cleverness and brain-taxing ambiguity, Shortz has brilliantly transformed the modern crossword. Early in the week, his Times puzzles are fairly easy (Monday, Tuesday) but each day's puzzle gets a bit harder, and by Friday and Saturday, the crosswords are maddeningly hard. Here are three of my favorite Shortz clues: "rural strip" (answer: Lil Abner, "digital monitor" (answer: manicurist) and "They include M, L and X L" ( the answer was Roman numerals). After listing some famous Indiana graduates (Jane Pauley, Kevin Kline, Dick Enberg, Tavis Smiley, Robert Gates, Wendell Willkie) Shortz quizzed the new graduates about prominent former students.
Here is his commencement quiz:
1) Hoagy Carmichael -- composer, pianist; best known for writing the melody to "Stardust," graduated from IU in 1926 with a degree in what?
a. Mathematics
b. American Literature
c. Music Education
d. Law
2) Robert James Waller Jr. -- author of the best-selling novel The Bridges of Madison County, graduated in 1968 with a degree in what?
a. Business
b. Engineering
c. Dentistry
d. Art History
]]>
ar Trek series. She has also written for Quincy, Little House on the Prairie, Magnum, P.I., and other shows. Jeri graduated from IU in 1959. What was her major?
a. Religion
b. Astronomy
c. Health, Physical Education, and Recreation
d. English
4) Michael Uslan -- film producer, originator of the Batman movies, holder of three degrees from IU, did something unusual at the universrity. What was it?
a. He joined a sorority
b. He founded the IU lacrosse team
c. He created and taught the country's first college-accredited course on comic books
d. He wrote an animated short film that was nominated for an Oscar
(Answers: 1d, 2a, 3d, 4c)
Here's a question of our own: while at the university Shortz majored in:
a. political science
b. journalism
c. astronomy
d. holistic medicine
e. enigmatology
(The answer is e, Shortz is believed to be the only college graduate in the world who majored in enigmatology, the art and science of puzzle construction.)
]]>
The Group Of 88: What They're Up Totag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14982008-05-08T16:46:13Z2008-05-08T17:03:35ZKC Johnson continues to pay indefatigable attention to the Group of 88 at Durham-in-Wonderland. We missed a post two weeks ago, but it's certainly worth a look: Waheena Lubiano, the famously prolific Duke professor, recently co-authored a piece in Social...Anthony Paletta
a post two weeks ago, but it's certainly worth a look:
Waheena Lubiano, the famously prolific Duke professor, recently co-authored a piece in Social Text (along with fellow group member Michael Hardt, and another professor) on the trials of the Group of 88. What's the issue? They were victimized by bloggers and outsiders.
According to the Lubiano Trio, "the most extreme marginalization was reserved for the faculty whose professional expertise made them most competent to engage the discourses on race and gender unleashed by the inaugurating incident - scholars of African American and women's studies. Instead, administrators, like the bloggers themselves, operated under the assumption that everyone was an expert on matters of race and gender, while actually existing academic expertise was recast as either bias or a commitment to preconceived notions about the legal case. Some faculty thus found themselves in the unenviable position of being the targets of public discourse (and disparaged for their expertise on race and gender) without being legitimate participants in it.
Horrors. What other indignities did these innocents (speaking truth to power) go through? KC reports:
Blogs, according to the Lubiano Trio, used "powerful tactics of harassment" against members of the Group. "Typically we [Group members] should... work as maids for the players' families [or] return to the slave quarters." Group members "have also been found guilty of numerous crimes, including treason, sedition, and tax evasion(!)."
Although the Lubiano Trio's article does contain footnotes, the Group members elected to supply not even one citation for any of these outlandish claims. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out why.
What does the inclusion of these unsourced ramblings say about the editorial policies of the Duke University Press journal Social Text?
Oh ccome now, we all know the Social Text editorial policies are ironclad!
It's an astonishingly risible piece. Read more.
]]>
Black Success, Black Failuretag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14912008-05-08T04:58:54Z2008-05-07T19:00:04ZConfirming what college administrators have known for years, Education Sector has released a report based on U.S. Department of Education figures detailing huge gaps between the college graduation rates of white students and those of blacks. The gap (measured by...Charlotte Allen
report based on U.S. Department of Education figures detailing huge gaps between the college graduation rates of white students and those of blacks. The gap (measured by failure to graduate within six years from a four-year institution) averages about 20 percent, although it can soar in excess of 40 percent in a few cases.
These are dispiriting figures, but they need to be approached in context. First of all, as the report notes, only slightly over half - 57 percent - of students of any race who enroll in four-year colleges manage to make it to graduation within six years. This figure suggest that a traditional-style uninterrupted college education isn't for everyone - and in fact many dropouts (although their numbers aren't tracked in the Education Sector report) finish their degrees part-time or after several years in the work-force, as the burgeoning number of institutions devoted to part-time education indicates). White students do fare better in traditional education, according to a study published last year in the journal Blacks in Higher Education: 63 percent of whites graduate in six years, compared to only 43 percent of blacks (although the percentage of graduating black students has been ticking upwards over the past few years, the study noted).
Blacks who attend elite private universities - Harvard et al., - have extremely high graduation rates that approach those of whites, but that is probably to be expected, because those schools have highly selective admissions standards for all their students and typically graduate more than 90 percent of them. And it is safe to say that the blacks at the top private schools are strongly motivated academically and have few distracting financial worries thanks to scholarships or their upper-middle-class families.]]>
this blog suggests) attribute their successes to a strong student culture that takes pride in achievement.
The worst place a black student can attend in terms of graduation prospects seems to be a historically black college. The Blacks in Higher Education study of 2007 noted that the majority of those schools had graduation rates below (sometimes well below) the national average, with the bottom-ranked University of the District of Columbia graduating only 7 percent of its students in four years. The journal was fairly blunt about why this is the case: Although historically black universities tend to be poorly funded, "probably the most important explanation for the high dropout rate at the black colleges is the fact that large numbers of African-American HBCU students do not come to college with strong academic preparation and study habits" - which translates into a student culture of failure. Black young people thinking about college would seem to be far better off at Florida State, Georgia Tech, or George Mason - unless, of course, they can get into Harvard.
]]>
Delaware Indoctrinators: They Just Won't Stoptag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14842008-05-08T00:59:33Z2008-05-07T11:02:37ZSubstantial opposition to the proposed new version of the University of Delaware indoctrination program turned up at Monday's meeting of the faculty senate. That's the good news. The bad news is that the senate will take up the issue again...John Leo
open letter to the university faculty, saying "I strongly believe that ResLife is attempting to use the faculty to restore its highly politicized and unabashedly coercive 'sustainability' curriculum. It is intended to be indoctrination into an ideology. The proposal offers on meager, halting respect for the private conscience of UD students." Kissel, a graduate of the University of Delaware, wrote that the ResLife officials took every opportunity - one-on-one sessions, bulletin boards, parties, etc. - to pressure students.
Kissel reports ResLife, which removed some potentially embarrassing material from its site last fall, has now removed yet another document. In the missing document, a diversity official under the plan is held responsible for "resource development" covering oppression, prejudice reduction, heterosexism, ageism, racism, HIV/AIDS awareness and "multicultural jeopardy," whatever that is.
]]>
Take A Looktag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14892008-05-07T18:31:35Z2008-05-08T19:44:32Z- Richard Vedder marvels at the obdurate defense of embattled University Presidents - something much like a defacto system of Giving Presidents Tenure - Jay Greene offers an analysis of gifts to U.S. Universities originating in Middle Eastern states. They're...Anthony Paletta
Giving Presidents Tenure
- Jay Greene offers an analysis of gifts to U.S. Universities originating in Middle Eastern states. They're massive, as you might imagine. As Greene comments:
To put the magnitude of those gifts in perspective, the Arabian Gulf states from which the money came have economies that represent less than 2% of global GDP (excluding the US). So, their share of foreign gifts to US universities is eight times as large as their foreign share of global wealth production.
- The APSA is entertaining concerns about the location of their professional conference, namely that "states with Constitutional restrictions on rights afforded recognized same-sex unions and partnerships may create an unwelcoming environment for our members in cities where we might meet." Read more, from Joe Knippenberg.
- Students at Ashland University are protesting, with an unusual aim - the right to take ancient Greek to fulfill language requirements. Imagine that.
]]>
New Criterion on Higher Educationtag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14822008-05-06T19:41:45Z2008-05-06T19:52:34ZLook to the latest New Criterion, focused on liberal education, for some incisive writing on the modern academy and its afflictions: Our own Jim Piereson, reviewing Education's End, in "Liberalism vs. humanism" Alan Charles Kors' fascinating and depressing account of...Anthony Paletta
New Criterion, focused on liberal education, for some incisive writing on the modern academy and its afflictions:
more also from Victor Davis Hanson, Robert Paquette, and Roger Kimball. Take a look. ]]>
Columbia's Mistake of the Weektag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14692008-05-06T03:01:31Z2008-05-05T03:03:09ZColumbia University enhanced its Israel-hating reputation by naming John Coatsworth as the new dean of its School of International and Public Affairs. The university has so many full-time detractors of Israel on its payroll that one would think an opportunity...John Leo
Columbia University enhanced its Israel-hating reputation by naming John Coatsworth as the new dean of its School of International and Public Affairs. The university has so many full-time detractors of Israel on its payroll that one would think an opportunity to name at least a moderate to the deanship would be overwhelming.
Coatsworth signed a petition in 2002 calling on Harvard and MIT to divest from Israel and from American companies selling arms to Israel. Columbia's disappointing president, Lee Bollinger, called the divestment movement "grotesque," but apparently he does not regard it as grotesque enough to appoint a better dean than Coatsworth. It was Coatsworth who played the major role in inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia, a move that Bollinger supported and then finessed by delivering a coarse attack on the Iranian before he had a chance to speak. This allowed Bollinger to place himself where he very much likes to be - on both sides of a controversial issue. Coatsworth, on the other hand, bulls straight ahead whenever he can. Defending the invitation to Ahmadinejad, he foolishly went on television to announce that he would have invited Hitler to speak at Columbia too.
Like most America-hating Americans, Coatsworth has been a strong fan of Fidel Castro, insisting that Cuba has been a mostly benign nation under his leadership, although it "prosecutes and harasses some dissenters." That would include journalists, librarians and more than 100,000 others. Columbia gets worse and worse under its weak president.
Students Ungrateful? Sue Them.tag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14762008-05-06T02:47:02Z2008-05-05T16:58:17Z Priya Venkatesan will go down in history as the Dartmouth professor who decided to sue her students because they gave her lousy course evaluations. A few days later Venkatesan, who was hired by Dartmouth in 2005 to teach four...Charlotte AllenNew York Post reported, she couldn't find a lawyer to take her case, in which she intended to charge students in her fall and winter classes this year (and also Dartmouth itself) with violations of federal civil rights laws banning discrimination on the basis of gender and ethnicity. Vetnkatesan also sent e-mails to some of her students, accusing the 18- and 19-year-old Dartmouth freshmen of "harassment" and advising them that their responses would be "used against" them in "a court of law."
Venkatesan was quickly dropped from the Dartmouth writing program's teaching roster, and she has recently taken a teaching position at Northwestern, which evidently hired her before the news broke about her student-suing propensities. But the question is: why did Dartmouth (or Northwestern, for that matter) hire her to teach writing in the first place. From all evidence Venkatesan hasn't a clue as to construct a clear English sentence. She does, however, have a Ph.D. in "literature," which means that she plowed through and regurgitated the piles of French postmodernist theory expressed in incomprehensible jargon that are the standard course fare nowadays in literary studies. Here, for example is the Amazon description of Vanketsan's undoubtedly dissertation-based book, Molecular Biology in Narrative Form (the 39-year-old Venkatesan also has a master's degree in genetics):
Molecular Biology in Narrative Form is a groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study that shows a connection between molecular biology and French narrative theory, and, from a unique perspective, bridges the gap between two disciplines that seem mutually exclusive. With many new insights on the link between science (in the form of DNA, a set of codes) and literature (in the form of language, another set of codes), this book looks at modern experimental science within the framework of semiotics. Priya Venkatesan reveals the extraordinary parallel between the work of scientists and the work of narratologists who develop narrative paradigms and analyze literary texts.
And here is an excerpt from a 2006 article by Venkatesan:]]>
In graduate school, I was inculcated in the tenets of a field known as science studies, which teaches that scientific knowledge has suspect access to truth and that science is motivated by politics and human interest. This is known as social constructivism and is the reigning mantra in science studies, which considers historical and sociological understandings of science. From the vantage point of social constructivism, scientific facts are not discovered but rather created within a social framework. In other words, scientific facts do not correspond to a natural reality but conform to a social construct.
It all sounds like shades of the Sokal Hoax, the famous parody article that New York University physics professor Alan Sokal managed to get published in the postmodernist journal Social Text claiming that scientific theories were invented out of thin air to serve white male power structures. Except that Venkatesan actually seems to believe all that po-mo gobbledygook And according to her students' evaluations, she fed it to her Dartmouth freshman writing sections and expected her enrollees to feed it back to her.
Here's what one of them wrote in an evaluation of her course:
Aside from the fact that I learnt nothing of value in this class besides the repeated use of the word 'postmodernism' in all contexts (whether appropriate or not) and the fact that Professor Venkatesan is the most confusing/nonsensical lecturer ever, the main problem with this class is the personal attacks launched in class. Almost every member of the class was personally attacked in some form in the class by either intimidation or ignoring your questions/comments/concerns. If you decide to take this class, prepare to NOT be allowed to express your own opinions in class because you have 'yet to obtain your Ph.D/masters/bachelors degree'....
What all this bespeaks is Dartmouth's obvious lack of interest in the quality freshman writing program, despite many claims to the contrary on the university's web pages. As at nearly all universities, freshman writing instructors at Dartmouth aren't on the tenure track (and have almost no hope of getting on); they are for the most part graduate students or underemployed M.A.'s and Ph.D.s working part time for a few thousand dollars per section. The work - reading and commenting on some 7,000 words per semester (the Dartmouth minimum) of each freshman's writing - is backbreaking, and if an instructor has four sections of 18 students apiece (standard at Dartmouth and elsewhere) as Venkatesan did, that means a staggering 504,000 words to evaluate. Few sane people want to teach freshman composition unless they need to (in order to keep their grad-school fellowships, for example), so the hunt for teachers to staff the classes is essentially a hunt for breathing bodies. Vanketesan was a 1990 Dartmouth graduate, she had that degree in literature, and she wanted the job. So Dartmouth hired someone who writes like this (taken from Vankatesan's written response to an interview with Dartblog):
Essentially, I am pursuing litigation to see if I have a legal claim, that is, if the inappropriate and unprofessional behavior I was subjected to as a Research Associate and Lecturer at Dartmouth constitutes discrimination and harrassment on the basis of ethnicity, race and gender. This includes not just students, but a few faculty members that I worked with.
Count at least one grammatical and one spelling error on the part of this writing instructor, not to mention the stylistic infelicities that would make Strunk and White blanch. Not surprisingly, the students in Vankatesan's writing sections mutinied, showing more concern about where their $40,000 a year in tuition was going than Dartmouth did.
]]>
Alien Creature Not Yet Deadtag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14622008-05-02T05:51:27Z2008-05-02T16:04:59ZThe creators of the notorious indoctrination program at the University of Delaware are back with a new version of their astonishingly coercive plan. Call it Indoctrination II. This time around, they pose as respectful and hovering parental substitutes, promising to...John Leo
new version of their astonishingly coercive plan. Call it Indoctrination II. This time around, they pose as respectful and hovering parental substitutes, promising to do something about student homesickness, offering helpful advice on how to study for final exams, sponsoring video game tournaments and even planning a show-and-tell day (Residents will be asked to bring one of their favorite material possessions to floor meeting and will have the opportunity to discuss what it means to them...). The idea that students might prefer to be left alone in their dorms, not regimented into a pseudo-educational program run by residential assistants and assorted bureaucrats (with no input from faculty) does not seem to occur to the busy indoctrinators.
In the original residential life program, attendance was mandatory, with penalties for missing a training session made clear, though the bureaucrats later claimed that the program had been voluntary all along. Now, with niceness as its watchword, the office of residential life says "Students will not face penalties, perceived or real, for failing to engage in residential activities and programs." The proposed new program, which will be accepted or rejected by the faculty senate on May 5th, seems very much like the old one, with cosmetic changes to make it more palatable. The old one frankly pressured students into accepting the values that the university wanted them to have. (Sample: "students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression.") The new version is a bit more subtle and vague enough to deflect some criticism ("Exploring concepts of citizenship is a meaningless activity in the residence halls in the absence of solid strategies for the development of residential communities.") The topic "Gay Marriage & Civil Unions" was changed to "How do you define love?"
Heavy emphasis is still placed on "sustainability," the deliberately vague term that masks a liberal-to-radical cultural and social program that the residential life officials clearly believe should be accepted in toto by students. Adam Kissel, who analyzes the Delaware program for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) does not believe the new program will be open or optional. He writes: "Simply calling the indoctrination 'optional' does not absolve ResLife (and ultimately UD and its faculty) of responsibility for the coercive pressure on students to conform to a highly specific set of view on a wide variety of social and political issues. ResLife can no longer be trusted on such matters." The Delaware Association of Scholars has weighed in too, arguing that the program usurps the faculty's historic prerogative to oversee education at the university. A statement by the association called the new version "little more than a re-tread" of the old one. "The proposed program still tries to change students' 'thoughts, values, beliefs and actions,' while focusing on 'student learning outcomes.' (It) simply hides the original program's intent in different language. Old program, new words."]]>
Bernard Lewis on the Crisis in Middle Eastern Studiestag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14612008-05-02T05:47:44Z2008-05-02T16:05:31Z"...Middle Eastern studies programs have been distorted by "a degree of thought control and limitations of freedom of expression without parallel in the Western world since the 18th century, and in some areas longer than that... It seems to me...John Leo"...Middle Eastern studies programs have been distorted by "a degree of thought control and limitations of freedom of expression without parallel in the Western world since the 18th century, and in some areas longer than that... It seems to me it's a very dangerous situation, because it makes any kind of scholarly discussion of Islam, to say the least, dangerous. Islam and Islamic values now have a level of immunity from comment and criticism in the Western world that Christianity has lost and Judaism has never had."
- Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, delivering the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa. As reported in Congressional Quarterly, April 27, 2008.
]]>
Political Donations More Evidence Of Balancetag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14592008-05-01T19:32:13Z2008-05-01T19:44:50ZJay Greene has compiled a list of political donations from the employees of the top ten U.S. News and World report universities. What did he find? The most "balanced" university in terms of donations was Duke, where 84% of donations...Anthony Paletta
a list of political donations from the employees of the top ten U.S. News and World report universities. What did he find?
The most "balanced" university in terms of donations was Duke, where 84% of donations and 81% of the overall dollar value went to Democratic candidates. How about the fabled "conservative" University of Chicago? 96% of overall donations and 96% of the total dollar value to Democratic candidates. The rest vary between this range. This is the moderating professoriate?
Read Greene's post for additional analysis. ]]>
Some Dartmouth Alumni Happy With Less Influencetag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14542008-04-30T17:08:18Z2008-05-06T16:11:12ZAnother vital chance to opine on the Dartmouth trustee-packing scheme has arisen. The Dartmouth Association of Alumni is now holding elections for their Executive Committee. The contest revolves centrally around the Alumni Association's ongoing suit against Dartmouth's alteration of the...Anthony Paletta
Dartmouth Undying, which vows to end to suit against Dartmouth, and another, Dartmouth Parity, that vows to continue it. You're likely familiar with the issue; if not, a simple comparison of how each side presents the issue might be informative.
Here's Dartmouth Parity on the question:
Since 1891 alumni have elected half the members of the Board of Trustees, and, in doing so, they have kept Dartmouth on an even keel - and ensured that the College has remained a college, rather than becoming a university. Now, after losses in four consecutive trustee elections and the constitution referendum, the Board of Trustees has announced a plan to marginalize alumni, doubling the number of unelected trustees. Under this radical plan, trustees elected by the alumni would be outnumbered on the Board by a margin of two to one.
Aside from a few potentially disputable adjectives ("radical"), it's an objectively accurate depiction of what has happened - and why a lawsuit has been filed.
Here's Dartmouth Undying's encapsulation of their candidates' sentiments about the suit:
They are of one mind about ending the divisive, expensive lawsuit that their opponents support. Not only is this lawsuit diverting money and resources from undergraduate education, it is creating instability and disunity, which will hamper Dartmouth's ability to attract the best candidates in the upcoming search for its next President. It is also disturbing to students who deserve better from their alumni.
]]>
platform additionally states that "our college is being attacked", its "reputation.. sullied" and its "support base undermined." It pledges opposition to "egregious slanders and continuing misinformation", "the destructive lawsuit", and to "destructive forces" which are also "substantially supported by outside interests." So basically, the lawsuit supporters are hell-bent on destroying Dartmouth for the fun of it.
Dartmouth Undying doesn't confront the lawsuit's argument (a frank argument for board-packing would be refreshing to see, especially as the college never made one) but prefers to deplore its supporters with vague aspersions. Then again, I suppose it would be difficult for an alumni slate to be frank about their plan to consent ungrudgingly to their own marginalization. They might not get any votes that way.
More excellent commentary from trustee Todd Zywicki on the issues of internal alumni board power here and here.
]]>
Where Are The Men For Women's Studies?tag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14482008-04-29T21:05:40Z2008-04-29T21:24:54ZOne of the curiosities that bored college editors survey every few years is the topic of men pursuing women's studies. Three such pieces appeared in the last month, in the Chicago Maroon today, in the Duke Chronicle yesterday, and in...Anthony PalettaChicago Maroon today, in the Duke Chronicle yesterday, and in the Yale Daily News on April 2; all stressed the accessibility and relevance of women's studies to all potential takers, yet, like all previous reports, will undoubtedly convince most men to stay far away from the field.
Just how many men are pursuing women's studies? There are three male majors, respectively, at Yale and the University of Chicago, and three males earning minors at Duke. All persons interviewed on the topic for each paper - mainly students, but some administrators, praised the programs, and encouraged more male participation. Yale Dean Peter Salovey commented that given that "the name of the major features women's studies so prominently" men may "think superficially that the major is not relevant to issues of interest to them." What does he think? "Of course it is." Jonathan Feinberg, a Duke Student, was lured by a class titled "Sex, Money, and Power", "three great things" as he described to the Duke Chronicle. The cosmetic discussion of the subject's potential wide appeal to men (who wouldn't be interested in a Yale class nicknamed "Porn in the Morn", noted for its "famously explicit subject matter"?) reveals, typically, far different, and narrower emphases than romping gender and sexuality.
A large number of the students interviewed are frank about pursuing the study because of their sexual orientation, or avowed activist interests, or, as in the case of Daniel Klein, a student at the University of Chicago, both: ]]>
"It also sort of marks me as a queer person. I'm pursuing a 'gay major.' A man getting a gender studies major is most likely to be gay. But I'm cool with that. I'm into LGBTQ activism on campus," he said.
Yale students in the major, in seeking to stress the open nature of their program, reinforced Klein's point - as the Daily News reports:
But WGSS students emphasized that its curriculum does not equate women's studies with feminism. In fact, the major offers two separate tracks: one dedicated to women's and gender studies and the other to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer studies, which attracts many - though not all - of the male majors.
Yes, women's studies isn't merely equated with feminism - it's equated with feminism and queer studies; the latter topic overwhelmingly attracts gays, just as the former does women - none of this demonstrates a less parochial program.
The political interests that tend to define the major, and attract like-minded students, can't be any aid in attracting objective male participation either. The Yale Daily News reported that students found even an entry-level course "more political than they had bargained for." Another student at Duke found that he "occasionally felt responsible when learning about women's oppression" and that "..being a white male, there's always this sense of guilt that always comes with learning about subjugation." It's no wonder that the field attracts students like Anthony Dowe, at Yale, who views the major as an "extension of [his] activist activities" regarding the field as a tool "to dismantle the reactionary practices of mainstream academics."
When seeking to explain why more male students don't pursue the field, each article leans towards accounts stressing male disinterest, a lack of associated career prospects, and in one case "homophobia." The participants seem unlikely to have considered the more fundamental reason for women's studies lack of appeal: a narrowly defined and ideological subject matter, which obviously holds precious little appeal to those that are not women, not gay, or fail to share the field's reigning presumptions. Elite universities steadfastly refuse to address this point - which ensures we won't likely see many males in women's studies, and that these concerned articles will remain a serial feature in college papers for years to come.
]]>
Fallout of Columbia, 1968tag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14372008-04-25T17:43:55Z2008-04-25T17:46:53ZThe New York Times is not known for delivering sharp blows to people engaged in countercultural preening, but it delivered a nice one this morning. As the nostalgic veterans of the 1968 Columbia University protests (or uprising, or riots) gathered...John Leo
The New York Times is not known for delivering sharp blows to people engaged in countercultural preening, but it delivered a nice one this morning. As the nostalgic veterans of the 1968 Columbia University protests (or uprising, or riots) gathered on their old campus to celebrate the wonder of their 40-year-old disturbance, Susan Dominus of the Times produced a report on a police officer injured during the student occupation of campus buildings. One proud student veteran of the old unpleasantness wrote yesterday that "the bloody riot" was a police riot: most students occupying building engaged in Gandhian passive resistance." But of course, Gandhi never jumped from a second-story window onto the back of a police officer, as one maddened Columbia student did to Frank Gucciardi in 1968.
The day after the buildings were cleared, the students were still acting up, and Gucciardi, then 34, was one of ten officers sent to cope with the continuing disorder. As soon as they went through the Columbia gates, students attacked with tree limbs. Various objects, including books, waste baskets and glue, were thrown from windows. A student knocked Gucciardi's hat off, and as he stooped to retrieve it, another student jumped from a second-story window onto his back, crushing part of his spine. The damage was permanent. After three grueling operations, he cannot walk more than a hundred feet without stopping to rest. He never sued Columbia and is not bitter about the students who attacked his group. He told the Times: "I don't think they were out to hurt anybody seriously, but it's unfortunate it happened."
Incidentally, the reunion, described as a conference, does have panel discussions, but so far as we know, none of those panels includes anyone who dissents from the veterans' view that their protests (or acting out, or group temper tantrum) was a memorable achievement.
]]>
Closing The Graduation Race Gap The Right Waytag:www.mindingthecampus.com,2008:/forum//1.14332008-04-24T20:25:37Z2008-04-24T20:30:18ZThere is a substantial academic performance gap between black and white high school graduates. Most who study education readily acknowledge this fact. Institutions of higher education are presumed to be places where students come to the campus reasonably prepared to...Ward Connerly
Graduation Rate Watch: Making Minority Student Success a Priority," which comes to the startling conclusion that if institutions of higher education expend enough resources on remedial education and "outreach" for those students who come to the university less prepared than necessary, the academic achievement gap can be significantly closed by the time a sufficient number of "minority" students reach the point of graduation. Duh!!!
The abovementioned report also seeks to make a backdoor case for race preferences: "Ward Connerly and other prominent critics of affirmative action have frequently cited low graduation rates of minority students as evidence that some are being admitted to institutions where they may not succeed - and they have argued that these students would benefit from attending institutions where their academic preparation is aligned with student expectations." The author of the report "strongly disputes" the anti-preference argument.
Far from effectively refuting the argument that race preferences often contribute to low graduation rates for the beneficiaries of such preferences, because such students are mismatched at institutions for which they are inadequately prepared, the report simply identifies a path for closing the gap.
I am an enormous advocate of university-sponsored academic outreach programs to assist in preparing and retaining students once they are enrolled. I strongly supported the expansion of such programs while I served as a Regent of the University of California. However, university-sponsored outreach is not an effective substitute for radically improving preparation at the K-12 level. In addition, extreme care must be exercised to avoid the appearance that academic preparation is the responsibility and the priority of higher education. Shifting this responsibility from K-12 to the university helps a small number of minority students, but contributes little to the overwhelming need for massive reform of the K-12 system itself.
]]>