The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: Hegemony on December 08, 2023, 06:56:13 PM

Quote from: lightning on December 08, 2023, 03:09:47 PMHe was 67. That's retirement age. Why in the world would he try to get a job, after 16 years at a public compass point university. Between SS and whatever retirement plan he had at a regional public, it should be enough that he wouldn't need a job at the age of 67.

Only thirteen years at a job that probably didn't pay all that well would not be enough to take one comfortably into retirement, I would think. I'd guess he went for an academic job because that's the thing he could do. It's unclear what he did for the six (?) years between his last job ending and this year. Maybe used up his savings. He sounds as if he was not that good at handling life, and his thinking was not that balanced, and he was getting desperate, so you have it. Many men in our culture externalize their fear and despair into violence.

He apparently was an adjunct faculty member at Roseman University in Henderson in their MBA program until they discontinued the program in June 2022.

Its not just violence, but clearly he was under some sort of paranoid delusion. Or it could be a simple as applying for a job, not getting it, and then he just got pissed off that he didn't get it, regardless of how little he was really ever seriously considered. Still, even that seems to have some element of delusion.

Quote from: lightning on December 08, 2023, 03:09:47 PMHe was 67. That's retirement age. Why in the world would he try to get a job, after 16 years at a public compass point university. Between SS and whatever retirement plan he had at a regional public, it should be enough that he wouldn't need a job at the age of 67.

Only thirteen years at a job that probably didn't pay all that well would not be enough to take one comfortably into retirement, I would think. I'd guess he went for an academic job because that's the thing he could do. It's unclear what he did for the six (?) years between his last job ending and this year. Maybe used up his savings. He sounds as if he was not that good at handling life, and his thinking was not that balanced, and he was getting desperate, so you have it. Many men in our culture externalize their fear and despair into violence.

15 years in an untenured position in NC might get you *some* money in a retirement plan, or maybe modest state pension, but that and SS wouldn't be so great. Livable in some parts of North Carolina. Not livable in Henderson. So, why on Earth did he move to Nevada? Maybe its similar to stalking? He thought he was entitled to the job, so he moved there. Then he went after folks who slighted him (or were in the way when he was looking for people who slighted him).

It just seems odd, but without anything written we know of (though I suspect some ranting emails will come to light) , we may never know. And as others have just said, even if he were around to tell us, its not as though he'd definitely be insightful. Maybe. Maybe not.

Quote from: lightning on December 08, 2023, 03:09:47 PMHe was 67. That's retirement age. Why in the world would he try to get a job, after 16 years at a public compass point university. Between SS and whatever retirement plan he had at a regional public, it should be enough that he wouldn't need a job at the age of 67.

Whenever one of these shooters survive they give bad explanations for their actions.  They are in such a state of mind that they can't even describe what they were thinking, or their thoughts seem to be so superficial they can provide no real answers.

In his journals, Ethan Crumbly described his desire to hurt his classmates and hear their screams, and he explained that he was hearing voices.  He seemed to have very typically adolescent angst and anger at his parents, and he wrote things like "I will have never maken (sic) a impact in this world. The ONLY way is to shoot up the school" and "I sometimes regret about doing the shooting. If I don't though, then what is there for me?"

He tortured animals and was "withdrawn" at school.  His homelife was awful, apparently, and his parents were dicks, but that is nothing unusual.

So why would this 15 year old kid kill his classmates for fun?

There's not a good answer.

Since we're about to go into another weekend of movies, I figured I'd better update on the past two.  Two weeks ago (actually Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving since we had guests that weekend), we watched 42nd Street and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  Last weekend was Singin' In the Rain and Boyz in the Hood.  We enjoyed all of the above for different reasons (of course).  The musicals were just fun, and I had no idea that 42nd Street basically helped to save the movie musical genre.  I also didn't know until watching Singin' In the Rain (for the second time, though I couldn't remember any of it) that Gene Kelly was such a miserable person to work with.  His main male co-star, Donald O'Conner, was really amazing to watch, having a vaudeville background.  The "Make 'em Laugh" number is so physical.  Apparently he ended up on bed rest for several days and then had to reshoot it because they messed up the original filming? And he smoked 4 packs a day at the time.  Also interesting that Debbie Reynolds had not taken dance lessons before this movie and went through quite a lot at a young age while filming this.  I was having bad flashbacks during the extended dance sequence with Cyd Charisse, as it reminded me too much of the end of An American in Paris, which was apparently held in higher esteem.  I think my favorite numbers in this one were "Moses Supposes" and "Good Morning."

I think Ghost Protocol might be my favorite of the MI movies so far (maybe tied with the first one).  It had yet another director, Brad Bird, and also seemed to be a much more straightforward action movie with a good pace and fun effects.  Boyz in the Hood is a star-studded tragedy that's really hard to watch.  It's so well acted, but you just know how things are going to go down, and a lot of what is going to unfold is telegraphed.  But I guess maybe that's the point.  They know what's going to happen, as it's how it always happens there.  The cycle of violence continues.  No matter how many times it's pointed out, the players don't seem to be able to step away from the game, and of course it's often those who are not involved who get killed along the way. 

IT services emailed to ask if they could delete my Moodle course shells, since they take up a lot of space (4 gigs--they're mostly online courses, so...).

No. Absolutely not.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 08, 2023, 09:38:43 AMI'll finish the first report today. Then read for the second, and maybe accomplish something else, we'll see.

Did both, and wrote a couple hundred of my book chapter.

He was 67. That's retirement age. Why in the world would he try to get a job, after 16 years at a public compass point university. Between SS and whatever retirement plan he had at a regional public, it should be enough that he wouldn't need a job at the age of 67.

QuoteHarvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism
The president, Claudine Gay, told the campus newspaper that she "should have had the presence of mind" to answer differently.

Here's the article:

QuoteHarvard's president apologized for her testimony before Congress about how she responded to antisemitism on campus — another sign that the controversy over her remarks and similar comments by the presidents of M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania was not going away.

"I am sorry," Claudine Gay, Harvard's president, said in an interview that the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, published on Friday. "Words matter."

"When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret," she said.

The interview came as Dr. Gay, along with Elizabeth Magill of Penn and Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T., faced a storm of repercussions from the hearing, including a demand from more than 70 members of Congress — all of them Republicans, except for three Democrats — that they resign.

Their testimony "showed a complete absence of moral clarity," the lawmakers said. They added that the testimony "illuminated the problematic double standards and dehumanization of the Jewish communities" fostered by the presidents, and said all three should leave their jobs.

Asked during Tuesday's hearing whether urging the genocide of the Jewish people amounted to defying Harvard policies against bullying and harassment, Dr. Gay replied, "It can be, depending on the context."

Dr. Gay said in the interview that she had become "caught up" in a volley of questions on Tuesday from Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, and "should have had the presence of mind" during the exchange to "return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged."

Ms. Magill has drawn some of the sharpest criticism for her testimony, with influential donors and alumni pressing for her ouster from Penn. One contributor moved to rescind a gift worth roughly $100 million. Penn trustees, who met in emergency session on Thursday, were scheduled to meet again on Sunday evening.

But the uproar surrounding Dr. Gay has also been infused with debate over how universities handle racial issues.

Bill Ackman, a billionaire investor and Harvard alumnus, insisted on social media this week that the appointment of Dr. Gay was connected to the university's goals for diversity, equity and inclusion.

"Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to identifying the best leaders for our most prestigious universities," Mr. Ackman wrote in a post on X. "And it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role that they would likely not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale."

Harvard said it had no comment on Mr. Ackman's post. In her announcement last year about Dr. Gay's elevation to the role of president, Penny Pritzker, who led the presidential search committee, said more than 600 people had been nominated to lead Harvard. When Ms. Pritzker opened the search last year, she said that Harvard was seeking a person with, among other qualities, "a commitment to embracing diversity along many dimensions as a source of strength."

Ibram X. Kendi, the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, argued Friday on X that it was "racist and sexist" to "assume superior White and male leaders earn their positions through merit, and inferior Black and woman leaders receive their positions due to identity."

Dr. Kendi added, "These ideas show up in times of crisis: The Black and woman leader is assumed to be the problem." He declined further comment.

Dr. Gay has offered no public signal that she is considering resigning, and there has been no indication that she is facing as grave a revolt as Ms. Magill is at Penn. The fallout from Dr. Gay's testimony has nevertheless been conspicuous, including Rabbi David Wolpe's resignation on Thursday from the antisemitism advisory committee that Harvard formed after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Rabbi Wolpe said in an interview on Friday that he had been uncomfortable being perceived as the "voice of the Jewish community" on the panel.

"I was left with a job that had a lot of accountability and no authority," he said, noting that he felt he could still "be a force for good" by meeting with students in his capacity as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School.

In a series of posts on X announcing his resignation, Rabbi Wolpe had described Dr. Gay as a "kind and thoughtful person," but said he had concluded that combating Harvard's troubles was "the work of more than a committee or a single university."

Rabbi Wolpe added: "It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, or posting on X, or yelling at people who don't post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is the summation of one's moral character. This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning."

Dr. Gay said in a statement that the rabbi had "deepened my and our community's understanding of the unacceptable presence of antisemitism here at Harvard." She added that she was "committed to ensuring no member of our Jewish community faces this hate in any form."

But Rabbi Wolpe said there had been immense damage to the credibility of some universities that had been pulled into intense debate since October. Parents, he said in the interview on Friday, were calling and saying they no longer dreamed of sending their children to schools like Harvard and Penn.

"When I was growing up, such a thing was unthinkable," Rabbi Wolpe said.