The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: spork on Today at 01:54:54 AMNice to see MIT formally abandoning this meaningless fad. Its institutional practices -- e.g., no legacy admits, no sports scholarships -- already did far more for diversity than anything done by Ivy League universities.

Right--requirements for diversity statements are really about saying the right things, making the right gestures, nodding one's head at the right time--the sort of thing that goes under the term "virtue signaling."  Like so much of what has come to be identified with DEI, it creates strife and confusion and makes people feel threatened, without appearing to do much practical good in the process.  The institutional practices that actually show results are where the emphasis needs to be.

To put it another way--a candidate who doesn't much care about diversity, or about treating others right in general, but has a mastery of the stereotyped jargon expected in a diversity statement, can cynically say the expected things and check that box.  A candidate who actually has the strong sense of ethics and fairness that DEI is supposed to be all about in principle, but who isn't familiar with or comfortable with the jargon, can end up being written off as somebody who can't be trusted in diversity matters.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has a good article on a Palestinian man who is trying to use non-violent resistance (~ Ghandi or MLK).  Suffice to say with limited success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/magazine/issa-amro-palestinian-nonviolent-activist.html

By the time I was an undergrad, I was no longer vacationing with my parents.  Seems like a lot of kids are not willing to fledge and leave the nest.

DEI in today's comics.

Good morning!

QB. Didn't get back to the bee yesterday.

Happy solving!

Nice to see MIT formally abandoning this meaningless fad. Its institutional practices -- e.g., no legacy admits, no sports scholarships -- already did far more for diversity than anything done by Ivy League universities.

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 06, 2024, 05:23:19 PMAbsolutely loved Unfrosted.  Cannot understand why the critics, or anybody for that matter, don't like it.

Agreed.  I thought it was an absolute hoot.  Seeing Hugh Grant as Tony the Tiger but shirtless and wearing face paint and viking horns and leading a protest.....  The allusion wasn't very subtle but I thought it was hilarious. 

But then again, I thought the 3 Stooges and the Marx Brothers were high art. 

And for those of you north of the 49th parallel and old enough to remember, I absolutely loved Wayne & Shuster back in the day. Some sample W&S humor:

"That's not Ojibway writing saying Ma Day in Oh Sha Wa.  It says Made in Oshawa." 

Also -

A Roman centurion walks into a bar.  "I'll have a martinus."

"Don't you mean martini?" asks the barkeep.

Says the Centurion "When I want 2, I'll ask for 2.  What's the matter don't you speak plain Latin???"

Still cracks me up

Absolutely loved Unfrosted.  Cannot understand why the critics, or anybody for that matter, don't like it.

Haven't even started grading the seminar papers and I'm already banging my head.

One student has a 25% similarity match on her term paper per Turnitin, showing she copied/vary lightly paraphrased from several of her sources and some other websites. They can view their own report when they submit, and are instructed that if it indicates they may have "inadvertently paraphrased too closely" they can correct it up to the deadline. Deadline has passed, but being nice (probably nicer than I should) I email her that she can correct it and take the late penalty. She responds that she will, but "didn't realize 25% would be a problem since that has been fine in other courses." Um, what? I think we may have an unreliable narrator here, but even if not, not relevant to THIS course. Everyone else is at 5% or lower, per usual.

Meanwhile, two students have still not submitted their papers (after I gave the whole class a 3 day extension) and are racking up late penalties.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 06, 2024, 08:20:22 AMJust work on T1 when time permits.

Made it through to the end of the chapter. I'm almost halfway done now, and catching fewer errors, which is nice.