The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Our local news has been reporting about the vandalism and damage to buildings. There have also been credible reports of non-students on campus directing/co-ordinating the vandalism.

QuoteSmashed windows, stacked furniture left after occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University

Students who don't have the luxury of ignoring their studies seem to have been sidelined by the protesters.

Quote'We can't work, we can't think': Columbia University students study for finals following protest, campus lockdown

From the article:"The students are saying we can't work, we can't think, we can't study under these conditions. We've got faculty whose papers they need to grade are locked in their offices right now," said Joseph Howley, a classics professor at Columbia. "It completely upended everything that we do."

Howley joined dozens of other faculty members on Wednesday to protest Columbia President Minouche Shafik's request for the NYPD to arrest students who had barricaded themselves inside the Hamilton Hall school building. The NYPD said police arrested 109 protesters at Columbia on Tuesday. Another 173 pro-Palestinian students at City College were arrested around the same time.

"Students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our public safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech," Shafik wrote in a message to Columbia students and employees on Wednesday.

"It is going to take time to heal, but I know we can do that together. I hope that we can use the weeks ahead to restore calm, allow students to complete their academic work, and honor their achievements at commencement."[/quote]

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on Today at 10:04:57 AMToday: Just T1.

Did some, but... I fell asleep while doing it.

Another quote from the St. Katherine's article, from their Arts & Humanities department chair: "I need to find a new job. I have four children."

:(

Here as May begins:

Sent off another communique to Wary Representative of Eminent Publisher regarding my proposal for Controversial Third Monograph. Expect this to be ongoing.

Finished the numbering of Critical Edition. This is really a critical edition of a text with edited collection of chapters providing context and analysis. Hopefully will wrap up in summer.

Meanwhile, at UCLA, counter-protesters attacked encamped students with clubs, tear gas, and fireworks, while shouting racial slurs. The cops came but then stood around.

I got a really, really long email from a student who is a[plying to medical school.  They said heheh learned so much, kept all of their notes, etc etc.
One giant glaring problem.

I was not their instructor.  I designed the labs, but labs are taught by TAs.  I don't teach the lectures either.

And even if I was their instructor, this was freshman [Baskets for Basketweavers 102] three years ago. Have I seen or heard from Stu in those three years? Nope.

I hope they have better choices for their other letter writers because I declined to write a DWIC letter.

Sent 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."

Quote from: secundem_artem on Today at 08:47:39 AMCertainly not my field, but I found this to be an interesting read from the perspectives of both sides.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/magazine/israel-founding-palestinian-conflict.html

This is brilliantly designed and executed. Thanks. Missed its original publication because I was in the Middle East at the time.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on Today at 10:00:57 AMSome or all of Jerome Slater's Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020?

Thanks. I was unaware of this book, and it might be suitable for one of my graduate courses, thought it's > 500 pages. I currently use Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.

Also, not clearly stated in my original post: my syllabus revision is not limited to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The course is about the whole region. So suggestions about other topics are welcome.

Quote from: marshwiggle on April 29, 2024, 02:19:31 PM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on April 29, 2024, 01:17:28 PMFrom the Ballon Juice blog:

"Are there some bad actors who have said inexcusable things and peddled anti-Semitic tropes? Of course. Are they the majority? No. Not even close."

That's because the majority are too clueless to find Gaza on a map, and are just parroting what the group tells them too, so they don't get left out.

I think you might not know what majority means.

Seriously, I think these students know a great deal about the situation. On the merits of calling for disinvestment, and the idea that is really even possible, not so much.