The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: FishProf on Today at 10:01:49 AMHello Dr. Fishprof,
I am interested in your [Behavior of Underwater Basket Weavers] course during the summer I semester. I do have a family vacation planned from June 12th - 23rd. If this prohibits my ability to succeed in your course please let me know. I am willing to make up any work and or complete any work while on vacation as well.
Thank you,
STU

Hmmm.  Six week filed-based course in which we meet 2x a week = 12 class meetings, and you are going to miss 3.  Yes, that is going to make it hard to succeed.

I never understand *how* the student plans to make up that much class in that short of a time (let's ignore the fact that your class has an essential field component).
They don't seem to understand that they have to work twice as hard to just barely get caught up.  That's challenging enough for an online, self-paced class.  Basically impossible for an in-person course.

Hello Dr. Fishprof,
I am interested in your [Behavior of Underwater Basket Weavers] course during the summer I semester. I do have a family vacation planned from June 12th - 23rd. If this prohibits my ability to succeed in your course please let me know. I am willing to make up any work and or complete any work while on vacation as well.
Thank you,
STU

Hmmm.  Six week filed-based course in which we meet 2x a week = 12 class meetings, and you are going to miss 3.  Yes, that is going to make it hard to succeed.

Just work on T1 when time permits.

Good morning!

I have 3/4 pangrams and am at genius so far.  I agree that this is a rough start for a Monday! Yesterday we needed bee buddy for palmy. ?

No luck on LB again.

Happy solving!

Good morning!

A slew of pangrams and above genius. I don't think I completed yesterday's bee, so will have to see if I can do so today. As for today's bee, what were the puzzle setters thinking, setting such a tedious puzzle on a Monday!? Some of us do need to work.

Happy solving!

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 05, 2024, 05:21:47 PMIHE: Virginia County Defunds Community College Over SJP Film Screening

Lower Deck:

QuoteAfter Students for Justice in Palestine showed a movie on campus at Piedmont Virginia Community College, a local county suspended funding for the college.

"The resolution mentioned the film screening but did not explain what about the film or the SJP chapter raised concerns about antisemitism."

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 04, 2024, 02:34:20 PM

Quote from: marshwiggle on May 04, 2024, 07:44:55 AM

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 03, 2024, 08:57:21 PMAnd for the record, I think one can be anti-occupation and anti-occupied Palestine without being antisemitic.  Israel has things to answer for and America should stop supporting her until she becomes a humane state.  Oh, and Hamas is a terrorist organization.

However, we have been marching, screaming, occupying, and fighting police for close to a hundred years if you count the Bonus Army of 1932.  MLK prevailed because of his maturity in the face of oppression.  Now we have kids occupying their very vulnerable college campuses, resisting when given lawful commands by the police, and then crying to the media when they are arrested.  And many people have a specific kneejerk reaction, "The students were peaceful," as if that gives them the right to break the law.

We need a new cultural imagination to meet our challenges.  I don't think the old system is working any more.

Well said. What I think many young people don't get is that MLK modelled his actions on Gandhi, and both of them saw that their protests were only a pointer to the social change that would inevitably happen in a basically moral society. No protest had to achieve specific, short term results. The impatience of protests now requires that they have concrete, immediate outcomes, so the disruption has to escalate until they win.

"Getting out the message" has been replaced by "getting in peoples' faces until they cave."

Well, to be fair, MLK and Gandhi led disruptive movements.  I mean, the point of protest is to make people uncomfortable and to make the news.

One other distinction is that when they broke the law, they broke the specific law they wanted to change. Modern protesters just break whatever laws they like, which is basically run-of-the-mill criminal behavior.

They are not remotely following the example of MLK and others.

QuoteBut they were also involved in a lifelong fight against institutionalized oppression and for their own and their peoples' civil rights, and they both paid the ultimate price.  I've never thought it right to point to the "entitled" or "rich" kids as if it's their fault that their parents are wealthy or to talk about "elite" students as if it is an accusation to be accomplished enough to get into an Ivy, or any college, for that matter.  But we also have to acknowledge that the price the students are paying is pretty cheap, even if they are arrested, and their chants such as "This is what democracy looks like" are cliche, a little facile, and not the ostensible point of their protest. No matter what happens in Palestine or their college campuses, these kids are going to be fine. Then I would be careful about martyring students or professors.  It is bad optics to see cops in riot gear----they look like your typical bad guys in video games or sci fi films----but the police don't want to get hurt, and who can blame them?  I'd armor-up too.  Then I read stories from professors who have no sympathy for a late paper or a missed exam but who are then outraged by police officers upholding the law, hypothetically speaking, of course.  And being a kindly professor is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

I just don't see the analogous situation between the great era of protest in the '50s through '70s that garnered so many ethical changes in our society and the situations now.  I think we have copycat kids who, while I agree with their stance, are enacting a paradigm that is rather self-serving.   

Their tactics reflect their failure to follow the moral principles of those they claim to emulate.

IHE: Virginia County Defunds Community College Over SJP Film Screening

Lower Deck:

QuoteAfter Students for Justice in Palestine showed a movie on campus at Piedmont Virginia Community College, a local county suspended funding for the college.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 05, 2024, 09:20:43 AMT1 and the report for real today. And hopefully a nap, too.

Did my chunk, submitted the report, napped for 30 mins.

I'm glad you were able to help your daughter and her wife out, cathwen! Yikes.  That's a long drive to have to deal with car issues, and breaking down is so stressful.  I hope the rest of their trip goes smoothly and that car repairs work out, too.  Sorry to hear about the tow truck.  They often don't seem to be in any hurry to get to you, unfortunately.