The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Yeah. I don't know whether you can expect them to be recovered.

Well, I got the call. I'm giving too many As and failing too few students.

My numbers are very skewed by the one upper-level course I taught this year, where everyone did very well because of a generous concentration of points in low-stakes assessments--definitely too generous for a group who's actually going to regularly do the work.

But even so. Guess I have to be a hardass for the next few semesters.

The server was down earlier today so I suspect that caused some loss of recent posts.

Several posts in the NYT Spelling Bee and Look a Bird are missing. I distinctly recall seeing posts in both threads and also posting last night. Did some of us get canceled?

Published Feb of 2023:

IHE: DEI and the Necessity of Self-Defense

QuoteAs Lily Zheng has noted, a fictional conceptualization of DEI drives much of the anti-DEI animus that higher ed is currently experiencing. As educators, we must use our pedagogical skills to emphasize that DEI work isn't about policing thought, discriminating against white folk and men, giving jobs to unqualified candidates based on their identities instead of their aptitude, or taking away anyone's privilege.

Rather, DEI activities are designed to address and dismantle structures and systems that perpetuate universal harm. At their core, DEI efforts are aspirations toward and actualizations of the platinum rule ("Do unto others as they would like done to them"). This expression of compassionate human decency is something that—it would seem—all people should aspire to, regardless of their personal political affiliation.

Relative, a documentary by Tracey Arcabasso Smith on Amazon Prime. Multigenerational sexual abuse within her family. Really good film. Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXpsCAWIw6M&ab_channel=GravitasVentures

None that I could see.   What will you do here?

The boneheaded decision to cancel the valedictorian's speech is the root of this particular issue, a numbskull adminiscritter's foolish desire to appease potentially offended-by-the-as-yet undelivered speech.

The potential that it sounds fake is because when people go into too much detail about something, it's often that they're lying and trying too hard to make up an excuse. "I wasn't out late with Emily, honey — it's just that I remembered we didn't have any milk so I stopped at the grocery — um, but I didn't bring back any milk because, um, it turned out they had run out of milk so I asked at the front desk if they had any more back in storage, and, um, so they had to get the manager and it took a long time, and, um..." It's a kind of running on that people do when they're stuck for an excuse. So if you give a dozen details about why you have to go, not only is it dull for the listener, but it's the kind of overuse of detail that's often associated with trying too hard to make an excuse. It comes across as weirdly inappropriate to the situation, as well as trying the listener's patience.

Quote from: apl68 on April 26, 2024, 12:38:41 PMNow USC has cancelled its main graduation ceremony entirely:

This is the kind of stuff that hardcore Republicans love to hate and talk about endlessly.