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#1
General Discussion / Re: Libraries, Archives, and a...
Last post by hmaria1609 - Today at 01:03:48 PM
The Friends group in Fairfax County [VA] Public Library system is having quite a sale:
https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2024/05/record-setting-number-of-books-on-sale-to-help-reston-regional-library/
Posted on WTOP Radio 5/1/24

Yesterday morning, two outreach staff from the city public school system did a tabling event out front of our library.
#2
General Discussion / Re: Anyone go to their high sc...
Last post by hmaria1609 - Today at 12:58:18 PM
Left for college and grad school, came back, got my job at the library. I did see a few of my high school classmates but they all were in serious relationships. Others I lost track.

I'm sure Facebook has been used for everyone to keep in touch, near and far. I'm not on it so if there's been reunions for my class year, I wouldn't know.

John Kelly, now retired columnist at the "Washington Post," featured upcoming reunions for some of the DC area's big name high schools in his columns. It was amazing how many alumni group years that were going strong!
#3
I don't give a shit about which higher education institutions will survive in the eternal struggle for resources. There are enough that some good ones will surely survive. I see the current fracas on campuses as a failure of governance in some places. Those with good governance will succeed.

But, to not put too dismal an edge on this, there is [Robert] Conquest's Third Law of Politics: The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. :-)

Somebody explains ["duplicative language without appropriate attribution" follows]: What makes this paradox so insightful? I take it to mean that any organisation that survives long enough ends up being run in such a way as to contradict its founding purpose. As an organisation grows and becomes more complex, it ends up acting primarily to ensure its own perpetuation. The purpose for which it was founded becomes secondary to its own survival. In fact, for many in the organisation, possibly the vast majority, its continued survival becomes confused with the purpose it was originally founded to deliver. This can lead to behaviours that seem rational when viewed from the perspective of perpetuating the organisation but look counter-intuitive when considered from the perspective of what the organisation ostensibly exists to do.

This is descriptively good stuff. I'm just predicting that those protesting got the details wrong. To hell with psychologizing -- they're being instrumentalized, useful idiots.
#4
QuoteNothing more amusing than seeing a student whiter than an albino in a snowstorm wearing a kaffiyeh.  Once upon a time, these same students would have said that was cultural appropriation.

That said, the real idiots are the faculty who have chosen to join this and are astonished to find themselves tackled to the ground and led away in zip cuffs.  PhD =/= all that bright it seems.

Quote from: jimbogumbo on Today at 12:10:29 PMI confess that I am more than a bit amazed at these posts.

There has been, imo, a nightmarish response across the nation, encouraged by conservative media and politicians, and abetted by spineless liberals and administrators. There simply was no need at a great many campuses for this series of escalations by institutional forces. None.

As with most things in culture, there is little black and white.  Some of these students are grandstanding and performing irrationally (watch the videos).  Some, I am sure, are truly concerned.  Cops behave in the manner cops tend to do in these scenarios.

As with most things in culture, the truth is somewhere in the middle of the polarities.
#5
I confess that I am more than a bit amazed at these posts. Many of the students protesting are in fact doing so because they think what Israel is doing is wrong. Just as they did in the 1980's to protest what was happening in South Africa. Just as they did in the 1960's to promote civil rights for Blacks.

There is a great deal of peaceful congregating being met with police in riot gear (just because we can?). An example from Indiana University. A small group (fewer than 100) set up tents at Dunn Meadows, a nice green space in the heart of campus. This space has traditionally been a place students throw frisbees, hang out, do what students do. It has ALSO been a space where students meet to protest, most famously in the 1960's, where thousands would be. Never any major shows of police force, because essentially nothing was shut down.


Now? The IU BoT meets on Wednesday evening and passes an emergency resolution that sets a new policy where setting up tents without prior approval is a violation. IU sends in the state police on Thursday and forcibly remove the students, and tear down the tents. Over 60 arrests. Did I mention the snipers? Yes, State Police head Carter has confirmed that over the two days this "action" was undertaken there were in fact police snipers on rooftops. All to combat a protest which featured no violence, no destruction and in fact little (if any) disruption of campus activities.


There has been, imo, a nightmarish response across the nation, encouraged by conservative media and politicians, and abetted by spineless liberals and administrators. There simply was no need at a great many campuses for this series of escalations by institutional forces. None.


#6
Quote from: spork on May 01, 2024, 01:37:57 PMSent to me by a parent of a current Columbia undergrad:

https://twitter.com/elicalebon/status/1785560131100618798?s=49&t=RRIS-Y6CCLizLM83-jthEA

The key sentence, in my opinion, is "You don't see this in lower tier schools from kids of lower socio-economic standing because they aren't plagued with the guilt of privilege that they're seeking to launder through Middle East role plays of feigned suffering."

Nothing more amusing than seeing a student whiter than an albino in a snowstorm wearing a kaffiyeh.  Once upon a time, these same students would have said that was cultural appropriation.

That said, the real idiots are the faculty who have chosen to join this and are astonished to find themselves tackled to the ground and led away in zip cuffs.  PhD =/= all that bright it seems
#7
Research & Scholarship / Re: May Research Thread
Last post by Parasaurolophus - Today at 10:59:52 AM
More on T1, will finish reading for my referee report.
#8
Teaching / Re: One submission for two cou...
Last post by RatGuy - Today at 10:04:42 AM
I don't blame the student in my case — after all, I've seen the work in the scaffolding and it's all fine.

My problem is an instructor in a first-year class who
a) has an assignment so bland that mine could be plugged in and still make an A (this was an intro to research class and apparently the instructor didn't care how the research came about)
b) assumed my policy was his policy, even if that policy runs counter to that of atuswbt handbook, college academic misconduct rules, and (I've come to learn) the policies of the first-year writing dept
#9
General Discussion / Re: NYT Spelling Bee
Last post by cathwen - Today at 10:04:08 AM
Good morning/afternoon!

QBwH yesterday, last words coulee and ounce. Genius with pangram today, one word to go.

LB: I had jackpots-swirl and jackpot-twirls.

Happy puzzling!
#10
Teaching / Re: One submission for two cou...
Last post by Wahoo Redux - Today at 09:41:33 AM
Quote from: mbelvadi on Today at 08:42:26 AMI completely agree with posters who point out that this is a curriculum issue - if a student CAN submit exactly the same work for two different courses, then there's too much overlap in those two courses for it to be academically legitimate for a student to get credit for both even if they don't copy themselves.

I had this one time and plagiarism software picked it up.  "Self-plagiarism" is not a big problem in writing courses, but it is a problem.  The issue is not curricular, it is simply students trying to use something they already wrote in another class and passing it off, which generally doesn't work. Generally, unless a student flunked or dropped out of the exact same class previously, they will turn in a paper that looks a little bit like the assignment but is not the assignment.  This has been my experience.  I have had other papers not caught by the software for which I've commented, "This appears to be a paper for a [XXX] class" and then graded them appropriately, which is to say, with a poor grade.  In other words, students will try to use past material in a class, but it generally does not work too well.

On other occasions I have read papers that look like, say, a history or a business paper that has been rehashed to look like the assignment.  But if the software does not pick anything up, what is one to do but grade the assignment on its merits, which again are not generally very good.

The problem is, did the student self-plagiarize, or did they just write a bad paper that does not follow the confines of the assignment?  Or did they try to write a paper like the one they wrote before rather than reading the specifics of current assignment sheet?  These things happen too.

So I, at least, don't see a curricular problem but a simple problem with students trying to pull a fast one (nothing new there).  Sometimes it will work, as will paying someone to write a paper for you, sometimes it will not.

At least we have software now.  In the old days instructors used to email papers around asking if anybody recognized it when they were suspicious.