The Fora: A Higher Education Community

I was under the impression that "separate but equal" went away a looooonnnngggg time ago.

Quote from: waterboy on December 20, 2023, 04:30:18 AMI was under the impression that "separate but equal" went away a looooonnnngggg time ago.

Well there's the source of your confusion. "Equal" is such a 20th century concept. We're way past that now.

Now it's separate but equal if you can check any of the boxes in the DEI category. I recall that the University of Arizona or ASU had a multicultural room that was off limits to white students--a DEI activist felt threatened because she saw a couple of non-DEI students sitting there, studying for a test.

Now for the news from our neck of the woods:

QuoteNew York to Consider Reparations for Descendents of Enslaved People
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill that will create the nation's third statewide task force to examine possible reparations for the lasting impact of slavery.

Where's the money coming from? We've had major budget cuts including cuts to CUNY, according to the Daily News

QuoteCUNY orders deeper spending cuts, putting course options and student services at risk

Libraries have also had to curtail services and hours, and are no longer open on Sundays.

The comments in the NYT article are quite entertaining, with several of them pointing out that this is a gift to the Republicans. I can post the link to the gift version of the article if there's any interest.

IHE: British Scholar Accused of Transphobia Wins Harassment Case

NYT: Barnard College's Restrictions on Political Speech Prompt Outcry

Lower Deck:

QuoteProfessors and free speech advocates are protesting a decision by the college to monitor and remove pro-Palestinian statements and other speech the college deems too political.

QuoteThree weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College in New York posted a statement on its departmental website in support of the Palestinian people.

Below the statement, the professors posted links to academic work supporting their view that the struggle of Palestinians against "settler colonial war, occupation and apartheid" was also a feminist issue. Two days later, they found that section of the webpage had been removed, without warning, by Barnard administrators.

What happened next has sparked a crisis over academic freedom and free expression at Barnard at a time when the Israel-Hamas conflict has led to tense protests on American college campuses and heated discussions about what constitutes acceptable speech.

Asked to explain why the page was removed, college administrators told the department that the statement and links were "impermissible political speech," a statement from the department said.

And Florida has removed Sociology from its core curriculum because it's Marxist, among other evils.

Quote from: nebo113 on January 26, 2024, 07:22:29 AMAnd Florida has removed Sociology from its core curriculum because it's Marxist, among other evils.

They kept the Anthro course though. What about the evils of relativism?

They replaced the Sociology with History. Is that really going to guarantee moral purity? Those historians have ways of drawing attention to class issues too.

Quote from: downer on January 26, 2024, 01:40:53 PM

Quote from: nebo113 on January 26, 2024, 07:22:29 AMAnd Florida has removed Sociology from its core curriculum because it's Marxist, among other evils.

They kept the Anthro course though. What about the evils of relativism?

They replaced the Sociology with History. Is that really going to guarantee moral purity? Those historians have ways of drawing attention to class issues too.

Well, it won't get worse. In the average of 51 of the 60 US News top rated colleges, among PhD holding professors there are 56 registered Democrats to 0 registered Republicans, in Sociology it's 43.8 to 1, and in History it's a mere 17.4 to 1.

My own beef with the policy is that the legislature is in no position to know anything specific. My non-beef with the policy is that it is against uniformity. So, abolish the whole required Core on anti-trust grounds!

[By the way, in Econ the ratio is 5.5 to 1. Some of my best fiends are Democrats.]

Quote from: dismalist on January 27, 2024, 05:32:42 PMSome of my best fiends are Democrats.]

Aren't you amusing.....

Not really sure if this was censorship, or just really handled badly:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a46612912/science-fiction-hugo-awards-2024/

Quote from: jimbogumbo on February 02, 2024, 01:09:22 PMNot really sure if this was censorship, or just really handled badly:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a46612912/science-fiction-hugo-awards-2024/

It has the classic Chinese passive-aggressive-social-shunning written all over it.

Quote from: jimbogumbo on February 02, 2024, 01:09:22 PMNot really sure if this was censorship, or just really handled badly:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a46612912/science-fiction-hugo-awards-2024/

Or potentially, both. If the location of the event is going to potentially affect what is eligible, that should be something everyone knows about in the future.

Quote from: ciao_yall on February 03, 2024, 09:55:21 AM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on February 02, 2024, 01:09:22 PMNot really sure if this was censorship, or just really handled badly:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a46612912/science-fiction-hugo-awards-2024/

It has the classic Chinese passive-aggressive-social-shunning written all over it.

ciao_yall, I would rethink this assumption as it comes across as bias. Passive agressiveness cuts across all cultures, ethniticities, and nations. I've worked with students, colleagues, tech-support personnel, and other support staff of Chinese origin on campuses, and found them to be for the most part quite professional. I've had passive-aggressive colleagues though who were not even remotely Chinese let alone Asian.

Quote from: Langue_doc on February 04, 2024, 06:48:00 AM

Quote from: ciao_yall on February 03, 2024, 09:55:21 AM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on February 02, 2024, 01:09:22 PMNot really sure if this was censorship, or just really handled badly:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a46612912/science-fiction-hugo-awards-2024/

It has the classic Chinese passive-aggressive-social-shunning written all over it.

ciao_yall, I would rethink this assumption as it comes across as bias. Passive agressiveness cuts across all cultures, ethniticities, and nations. I've worked with students, colleagues, tech-support personnel, and other support staff of Chinese origin on campuses, and found them to be for the most part quite professional. I've had passive-aggressive colleagues though who were not even remotely Chinese let alone Asian.

Apologies as offense or stereotyping was not intended. I did not mean that only Chinese, or Asians in general, employ passive-aggressive behavior. Just that in this case, it fit a pattern by PRC politicians.

I assumed ciao meant the RCP government. The thing that mucks it up most is that science fiction fans can be, well, something else.