Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday's fish fry

Let's talk about some educational issues today...

POLL DEPT:
A new poll finds the general public has some dissatisfaction with institutions of higher education:
Well, and folks shouldn't be surprised. The word has gotten out that many big universities have huge sections of freshman in basic courses being taught by graduate students. That slightly smaller universities have those same sections taught by adjuncts. That both adjuncts and grad students get paid peanuts. Institutions made a ton of money on those courses. So where does all their money go? Perhaps too much of it goes to the salaries paid to the endless bureaucracy of deans, assistant deans, associate deans, etc etc etc...

People see other things, too. They see some prospective students getting favoritism from affirmative actions programs, favoritism denied others. They see free speech being stifled by various "speech codes" and so-called "diversity" programs. There's a lot not to like these days...

Take a look at some of these cases. Here's a case at Temple University that, fortunately, has been won...

And did you know that San Jose State University in California had at one time a housing policy that said:
"Any form of activity, whether covert or overt, that creates a significantly uncomfortable, threatening, or harassing environment for any UHS resident or guest will be handled judicially and may be grounds for immediate disciplinary action, revocation of the Housing License Agreement, and criminal prosecution. The conduct does not have to be intended to harass. The conduct is evaluated from the complainant's perspective."

So if a hard-line Democrat living there didn't like a Republican dorm-mate...
Wow. Thank goodness that's been changed, too.