Oct. 12, 2006

Quick Takes: Literature Nobel, U. of Washington Scholarships, Another Flap Over 9/11 Skeptic, College Groups Back Diversity, EPA Compliance, Niagara Suspends 6 Athletes, Robin Hood Studies

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Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish writer, this morning was named winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy said that Pamuk, who was born and lives in Istanbul, was honored for his “quest for the melancholic soul of his native city” and work in which he has “discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.” Pamuk is known for his novels and also for his stands on human rights — with comments he made about the Armenian genocide leading to his prosecution by Turkish authorities, although the charges were dropped. Pamuk spent several years in the United States, as a researcher at Columbia University and as a writer in residence at the University of Iowa, through its International Writing Program.
The University of Washington announced Wednesday that it would start to provide scholarships to cover all tuition and fees for state residents from low-income families. Students will be eligible if their family incomes are at or below 65 percent of the state median income, which is currently 235 percent of the state poverty level. For a family of four, that would reach $46,500. The university expects to support about 5,000 students a year in the program — of 20 percent of undergraduates
Kevin Barrett, a controversial adjunct at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who believes the U.S. government was responsible for 9/11, is in hot water again. This time he is being criticized for an essay in which he wrote “like Bush and the neocons, Hitler and the Nazis inaugurated their new era by destroying an architectural monument and blaming its destruction on their designated enemies.” Politicians in Wisconsin are outraged by the comparison between President Bush and Hitler. The Associated Press quoted Barrett as saying Tuesday that he didn’t mean to compare Bush and Hitler personally, but was comparing events. He added that “Hitler has a good 20 to 30 IQ points on Bush.” The university issued a statement from Provost Patrick Farrell saying that it did not endorse Barrett’s views.
The American Council on Education and 20 other higher education groups have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court backing the right of public school districts to consider race and ethnicity when establishing school enrollment patterns. Schools and colleges use very different methods to achieve diversity in their student bodies, and courts have generally applied different standards to determining the constitutionality of those standards, so the Supreme Court cases in which the college groups filed the brief may end up having no immediate impact on colleges. But the college groups argued that many of the principles for supporting diversity in educational settings are similar.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to create a center aimed at helping colleges and universities to comply with federal environmental laws and regulations, the agency announced Wednesday. In a speech at Washington University in St. Louis, the EPA’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the agency would provide up to $350,000 over five years in a collaboration with the National Association of College and University Business Officers and three other groups: the Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence; the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association; and the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers.
Niagara University has suspended six basketball players — from one to eight games — who are facing charges that they assaulted one of the university’s baseball players in August.
In what may be a first, a master’s program has been created in Robin Hood studies. The one-year program will be offered, naturally, by Britain’s University of Nottingham.

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Comments

50%

” .. He added that “Hitler has a good 20 to 30 IQ points on Bush.”

Old country saying: “common sense is worth 50 points on the IQ test.

In Mr. Barrett’s case, how true. Why does U-W hire adjuncts with such low IQs?

B.D., at 5:40 am EDT on October 12, 2006

Tin Foil Hat Studies

Provost Farrell’s statement about his responsibility for his academic enterprise:

“When Kevin Barrett’s views first drew widespread attention, we made it clear that this was a course on Islamic thought. Because of the nature of the course and of political realities, we expected that some of the course material might be unpopular or provocative.

“The university does not support statements that are anti-Semitic, and we do not endorse Mr. Barrett’s personal views.”

Harry Truman he is not.

Publius, at 7:45 am EDT on October 12, 2006

Good news from the University of Washington. The ban on affirmative action in the state is bearing fruit. When the 14th Amendment is restored across the U.S. we should see much more of this; help where it is needed, not help to the already-privileged of a preferred ‘race’.

Pleased, at 10:45 am EDT on October 12, 2006

Belief and Knowledge are assuredly different things, though many people insist that their beliefs amount to knowledge without being able to prove them even in an unrigorous fashion.

This said, it is worth noting that 1/3 of Americans, according to a recent poll, think the government itself was involved in making 9/11 happen.So 1/3 of your compatriots may have their thinking caps confused with tinfoil hats.

Thane Doss, at 11:30 am EDT on October 12, 2006

Pu-Lease, Pleased

If the folks who are so concerned about wiping out affirmative action put their energies (and money) into de-segregating our K-12 schools and providing adequate funding for ALL students we wouldn’t need affirmative action. The 14th ammendment has NEVER been adhered to with respect to K-12 public schools. Until that situation is dealt with, any efforts to curb affirmative action at the post-secondary level should rightly be viewed as attempts simply to maintain the privelage imparted by superior K-12 schools.

Dis-Pleased, at 12:10 pm EDT on October 12, 2006

Pu-Lease, Dis-Pleased

Many victims of affirmative action would be rightly surprised to learn that their schools had been superior, and lots of members of preferentially-treated ‘racial’ categories would be miffed to hear their excellent schools called inferior. Dis-Pleased’s argument can lead to some pernicious conclusions; for example it could be argued that Asian and white students need superior schools to compensate for the disadvantages they face under affirmative action. It is time to leave all this logic chopping behind and simply target help to those who need it, as Washington so admirably plans to do.

Still Pleased, at 1:45 pm EDT on October 12, 2006

Why hire adjuncts like Barret?

B.D., you asked why U of Wisconsin would hire adjuncts as dim as Barret.

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because it’s cheaper and easier to hire and fire adjuncts like Barret than to give them tenure and chairmanships. Look how much trouble the University of Colorado has had getting rid of Ward Churchill now that his academic misconduct and resume fraud have come to light.

Of course, the U of Colorado could have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment had they checked out his claims to be a Cherokee and a former paratrooper (he is neither). They might have gotten a better candidate for the chairmanship of their ethnic studies department than a man who lied about his own ethnicity or one who holds a PhD instead of Churchill’s MA in communications. But, given their unfortunate example, can you blame the UW for hiring somebody who works cheaper and is easier to ditch?

Jack Olson, at 4:35 pm EDT on October 12, 2006

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Quick Takes: Literature Nobel, U. of Washington Scholarships, Another Flap Over 9/11 Skeptic, College Groups Back Diversity, EPA Compliance, Niagara Suspends 6 Athletes, Robin Hood Studies

Comments

50%

Tin Foil Hat Studies

Pu-Lease, Dis-Pleased

Why hire adjuncts like Barret?

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Assistant Professor Tenure Track, Media, Technologies & Culture St. Mary’s College of California

Coordinator II, Corporate College Lone Star College System

Nanoelectronic Facility — Triangle National Lithography Center Director NC State University

FT 9/11 Mo Faculty — 2025A Saint Louis University

Development Assistant (112032) Northeastern University

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