Columbia deans placed on leave

[kaysixteen]

He did make the trains run on time, which is not exactly nothing.

That said, marshwiggle is right.  I do not know how to do anything contrary, how these attitudes might be reversed.  Various points to sadly observe:

1) Americans are stunningly unwilling to learn from other countries, and this is coupled by a stunning contempt for the opinions of foreigners.  I saw a middle-aged homeless couple lying on the street next to an expensive chain restaurant in an upscale suburb today, holding a sign (too far away for me to see writing on sign, nor to manipulate car into any chance to offer em any samoleans, if I decided to).  I have read that such things are exceedingly rare in Canada or in Europe?  But then again, the poster who commented on health care policies here is also right...

2) Evangelical pastors could start preaching, ahem, more of a full-orbed approach to the gospel, but, oh wait... hmmm... is that a Klingon battlecruiser I see establishing orbit?  Which brings me to...

3) Tomorrow night's fascinating political adventure, which meguesses is probably also more or less a sui generis Yankee phenomenon, even long before  Drumpf... some of the 'political knowledge' polling results I have seen here recently are appalling, perhaps culminating in the one from WaPo that gives Drumpf an 11 pt advantage over Biden on the question of which candidate will do more to protect democracy.  Probably the Klingon advanced troopers have given them too much bloodwine.  Kaplach!

[marshwiggle]

He did make the trains run on time, which is not exactly nothing.

That said, marshwiggle is right.  I do not know how to do anything contrary, how these attitudes might be reversed.  Various points to sadly observe:

1) Americans are stunningly unwilling to learn from other countries, and this is coupled by a stunning contempt for the opinions of foreigners. 

It's kind of like the 50 year old with a mullet; long ago, he may have been avant-garde, but now he's just old. Similarly, the U.S., when it started, was innovative by getting rid of aristocracy and so on. But that was centuries ago, and all of those countries have also moved on from then, and have made all kinds of innovations themselves. The unwillingness to even seriously examine other options to consider what might be learned from them is arrogant and unproductive.

[spork]

[. . .]

Apparently, this mechanism has already kicked in in at least one place, Emerson College in Massachusetts.

Emerson College says enrollment down significantly after "negative" reaction to student protests; layoffs planned

I'm not buying it. Administrators are trying to hide financial mismanagement. Emerson's FTE undergraduate enrollment went from 3,434 in 2009 to 4,386 in 2022, an increase of 28%. Prior to the pandemic, annual contributions were in the $8-10 million range. The bureaucrats could have set some of the revenue aside for a rainy day. Instead, annual expenses rose from $250 million in 2019 to $308 million in 2022 -- with Emerson claiming $23 million in net revenue in the latter year. They went on a spending spree, burned through that $23 million of profit in less than two years, and now have to deal with 1) the end of federal pandemic aid, 2) the 2008 birth dearth, and 3) declining student interest in performing arts/media.

The truth comes out, after the first 80% percent of the article (why the Chronicle insists on emulating academic writing by burying the lede, I don't know): https://www.chronicle.com/article/emerson-college-says-protests-drove-an-enrollment-decline-but-theres-more-to-it.

[Ancient Fellow]

The truth comes out, after the first 80% percent of the article (why the Chronicle insists on emulating academic writing by burying the lede, I don't know): https://www.chronicle.com/article/emerson-college-says-protests-drove-an-enrollment-decline-but-theres-more-to-it.

I appreciate your keeping up on this issue - can you summarize the real reasons for the decline for those who don't have access to that article?

[Langue_doc]

The truth comes out, after the first 80% percent of the article (why the Chronicle insists on emulating academic writing by burying the lede, I don't know): https://www.chronicle.com/article/emerson-college-says-protests-drove-an-enrollment-decline-but-theres-more-to-it.

I appreciate your keeping up on this issue - can you summarize the real reasons for the decline for those who don't have access to that article?

I think you have access to five articles a month if you register for a free account. If you click on the link above, you can read the article, but are notified that this is your last free article.

[spork]

The truth comes out, after the first 80% percent of the article (why the Chronicle insists on emulating academic writing by burying the lede, I don't know): https://www.chronicle.com/article/emerson-college-says-protests-drove-an-enrollment-decline-but-theres-more-to-it.

I appreciate your keeping up on this issue - can you summarize the real reasons for the decline for those who don't have access to that article?

The salient bits: median annual net price for undergrads is now > $50,000, making Emerson much more expensive than similar colleges; number of applications has decreased, percent of applicants admitted has increased; the college's organizational units were probably asked to plan for budget reductions before campus protests started.

Not mentioned in the article: Emerson's focus is on broadcasting, theater, film, and music -- that includes performance, technical production, and the business aspects. Think about what digital content creation and distribution has done to those careers over the last few decades. Eighteen year olds see more people getting rich and famous with "The Start of My Weight Loss Journey" videos on TikTok than with a college degree in communications or music.

[dismalist]

The truth comes out, after the first 80% percent of the article (why the Chronicle insists on emulating academic writing by burying the lede, I don't know): https://www.chronicle.com/article/emerson-college-says-protests-drove-an-enrollment-decline-but-theres-more-to-it.

I appreciate your keeping up on this issue - can you summarize the real reasons for the decline for those who don't have access to that article?

The salient bits: median annual net price for undergrads is now > $50,000, making Emerson much more expensive than similar colleges; number of applications has decreased, percent of applicants admitted has increased; the college's organizational units were probably asked to plan for budget reductions before campus protests started.

Not mentioned in the article: Emerson's focus is on broadcasting, theater, film, and music -- that includes performance, technical production, and the business aspects. Think about what digital content creation and distribution has done to those careers over the last few decades. Eighteen year olds see more people getting rich and famous with "The Start of My Weight Loss Journey" videos on TikTok than with a college degree in communications or music.

There seems to be a tendency to not wishing to ascribe enrollment changes to protests. Of course enrollment changes are caused by many things, but it's hard to believe campus governance has no effect on enrollment changes in the face of protests or that, indeed, the effect is positive. Remember, Emerson claimed it was recruiting events  that were disturbed.

As for tuition, Emerson has raised tuition ca. 4% over year over the last few years, including for 2024/25. That's about the inflation rate on average, so no big deal. Its tuition relationship to competitors will not be too different from prior years. Its propaganda further claims its tuition is up to $10000 less than direct competitors. I doubt that's an outright lie, because it's verifiable.

Customers will sort themselves.

[apl68]

Not mentioned in the article: Emerson's focus is on broadcasting, theater, film, and music -- that includes performance, technical production, and the business aspects. Think about what digital content creation and distribution has done to those careers over the last few decades. Eighteen year olds see more people getting rich and famous with "The Start of My Weight Loss Journey" videos on TikTok than with a college degree in communications or music.

Could be.

[Langue_doc]

Update:

Columbia Removes Three Deans, Saying Texts Touched on 'Antisemitic Tropes'
Nemat Shafik, the university president, called the sentiments in the text messages "unacceptable and deeply upsetting."

[Wahoo Redux]

Update:

Columbia Removes Three Deans, Saying Texts Touched on 'Antisemitic Tropes'
Nemat Shafik, the university president, called the sentiments in the text messages "unacceptable and deeply upsetting."

Quote from the article:

The announcement came about a month after a conservative website published photos that showed some of the text messages sent by the administrators.

Quote from the Free Beacon article NYTimes linked to:

The text messages, which were captured by an audience member sitting behind Chang-Kim who photographed the vice dean tapping away on her phone, also used vomit emojis to describe an op-ed about anti-Semitism by Columbia's campus rabbi.

Chang-Kim's messages and those of her colleagues are clearly visible in the photographs. The Free Beacon verified the authenticity of the photographs with the person who took them.

Don't know what to think about this.  With all our electronic communications we have became an amazingly Panoptic culture in which ostensibly private conversations become public fodder when some random person takes picture of one's cell phone.  And how stupid is this vice dean?

[Langue_doc]

Too many problems with the Columbia story: too many deans, the conflation of opposing Israel's policies with anti-Semetism, deans and other higher-ups texting in public, and on topics that shouldn't be touched with the proverbial ten-foot pole, people sitting nearby taking photos of these texts, and tattling on the texters.

[treeoflife]

The three (now ex-) deans represent the best example for the state of administrators in so many institutions, the do not have even the common sense to keep their bigotry private. If you need to be an as*hole at least have the common sense to keep it private.

[dismalist]

Too many problems with the Columbia story: too many deans, the conflation of opposing Israel's policies with anti-Semetism, deans and other higher-ups texting in public, and on topics that shouldn't be touched with the proverbial ten-foot pole, people sitting nearby taking photos of these texts, and tattling on the texters.

The three (now ex-) deans represent the best example for the state of administrators in so many institutions, the do not have even the common sense to keep their bigotry private. If you need to be an as*hole at least have the common sense to keep it private.

Yes, all this is true. But it tells us more of the proverbial culture of the place.

The way things get this way is when there's too much money around. Too safe.

[Ruralguy]

People do this at schools without money too. Its the culture of never
shutting off your damn phone and always replying to texts, regardless of the inanity.
Its 50 year olds acting like 15 year olds (most of their ages are probably a bit lower than that).

[kaysixteen]

The prob I saw in this story is that by firing the three deans, the prez (in an obvious desperate attempt to save her own job, btw) has essentially ruined the careers of these three professionals.   What is their recourse, their likely chance of success in a lawsuit?   Having been publicly labelled 'anti-semite', might as well just be the same as 'Nazi', or even 'Holocaust-denier'...