The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Now USC has cancelled its main graduation ceremony entirely:

QuoteIn the wake of a controversy surrounding the valedictory address and pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus, the University of Southern California on Thursday announced its main graduation ceremony will not be held.

"With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially," the school wrote in an announcement. "As a result, we will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m."

School officials said they plan to post details of their updated commencement plans on the graduation website by April 30.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/usc-cancels-main-graduation-ceremony/


Were I a graduating senior (or parent of one), I'd be very unhappy with the activists who brought this about.

Sorry for the double. More on Texas: https://www.thefire.org/news/texas-tramples-first-amendment-rights-police-crackdown-pro-palestinian-protests

Quote from: Ruralguy on Today at 11:50:53 AMOf course its a horrible idea. But some people will call for horrible solutions knowing that its the way to get attention.

It is in my opinion a serious mistake to think that this was just a way to get attention. The GOP has a non trivial number of supporters and elected officials that want to do this and similar things as policy. I believe he and others (see my earlier post about Governor Abbott in Texas) want to and have done exactly this.

Quote from: marshwiggle on Today at 05:18:19 AMThis needs a term, like "recursive slacktivism"; where "activism" means doing nothing other than yelling for someone else to do something which in turn will have no discernible effect.

That neologism is both accurate and easily interpreted! Thanks, I shall endeavour to put it to good use.

Quote from: sonoamused on April 25, 2024, 08:48:02 AM

Quote from: EdnaMode on April 23, 2024, 12:46:56 PM<snipped hilarity>
And thankfully, the meeting did appear on all of our calendars. Finally.

Its like working with students.

Dear Edna,
I hope this schedule finds you well...

Of course its a horrible idea. But some people will call for horrible solutions knowing that its the way to get attention.

Have we learned nothing? Troops on campus is a horrible idea: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/25/republicans-campus-protesters-democrats-00154508

ab_grp: how are you seeing Homicide? I didn't think it was streaming anywhere. It was a favorite of mine.

I allowed makeups for quizzes, but while the quizzes were multiple-choice the makeups were all short-answer and were all given on the last day of class.  It allowed the few students who genuinely took the makeup seriously to do well, while most everyone else (probably 80-90%) would do poorly but couldn't complain because I did let them take a makeup and they knew the format in advance.  And since all the makeups were at the same time, I just needed to create one makeup test per quiz.  It took a couple of hours of my time and made me look good to my boss, which was well worth it.

I would decide on whether to allow the student to do a make up purely on what works best for me, not for the student. I would feel no obligation to the student.