Help Wanted: Only the Woke Need Apply
"After hypocritically ranting about the threat to 'academic freedom' posed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s higher education reform proposals, the faculty and administration at the University of Texas–Austin appear poised to end the remaining vestiges of free expression and free inquiry at our institution. The university’s 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' (DEI) policy – which already requires that those seeking hiring and promotion demonstrate political commitment to critical race theory and radical gender ideologies – will now be 'sharpened,' apparently to include mandatory 'diversity' statements from job applicants. " - RealClearEducation, 8/9/22
Online Leaders: Fully In-person Students Will Be Outliers
"It's not that chief online officers expect that fully online education will dominate; they see a blended future, in which both exclusively face-to-face and exclusively online students will be outliers by 2025. Instead, most students will take courses based in classrooms that have significant digital components, or classes delivered mostly online that have residential components." - Inside Higher Ed, 8/9/22
A Novel Plan to Reduce Student Debt
"In the reversal of Roe v. Wade (1973) and the discontinuation of the intrusive 'Lemon Test' in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, we have seen the Court return to its proper place as an interpreter of the law, rather than a cultural arbiter. But the work is not yet done. In this new era of judicial restraint, a logical next step would be to revisit Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), a decision which artificially increased the need for a college degree — one of the root causes of our current student debt crisis." - Law & Liberty, 8/8/22
Covid Vaccine Mandates Heighten School Inequity
"Most Covid restrictions in the U.S. have long since ended, but the school districts in New Orleans and the District of Columbia are mandating Covid vaccines for children to attend school in person this fall. ... If school began today and the mandates were strictly enforced, at least two-thirds of black adolescents in Washington and almost half of all children in New Orleans wouldn’t be allowed in the classroom." - Wall Street Journal, 8/8/22
Families should be allowed to direct federal pandemic aid
"Public K-12 schools received a total of $189.5 billion in federal pandemic aid. Unlike the grants provided to college students, none of this money was given directly to families to be used to help their children recover from the substantial learning loss that resulted from the pandemic. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is seeking to change that and allow families of K-12 students to have direct access to federal pandemic aid, as was the case for college students." - The Hill, 8/8/22
The Packaging Is the Problem
"In a seemingly quinquennial occurrence, higher education finds itself on the defensive. A global pandemic kicked off the latest soul-searching, existential crisis in higher education. Despite largely meeting the pedagogical and technological challenges of switching from in-person to remote instruction during the middle of an academic term, questions about the value and future of higher education abound. Why haven't colleges and universities already offered all of their courses online? What is the value of a degree in today's world? Why do colleges and universities continue to adapt so slowly?" - Inside Higher Ed, 8/8/22
Va. Gov. Youngkin faces second suit over teacher tip line
"Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is facing a second lawsuit over his administration’s repeated refusals to release records related to an email tip line he set up for parents to report school employees who teach 'divisive' subjects. Nonprofit ethics watchdog group American Oversight and the law firm Ballard Spahr filed the suit Monday in Arlington County Circuit Court. The suit seeks documents that show how Youngkin (R) and his staff used the tip line, including how they responded to tips submitted." - Washington Post, 8/8/22
Diversity-Office Funding Wastes UNC-System Resources
"Colleges and universities nationwide are quickly adopting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideologies, and the UNC System is no exception. In recent years, this has led to DEI-inspired task forces, departments, and hirings, and DEI has become embedded in all 16 of the schools’ strategic plans." - James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 8/8/22
It’s Time to End Higher Ed’s Gimmicky Sales Tactics
"Private-public partnerships — arrangements in which college projects or services are outsourced to for-profit providers — have been all the rage in American higher education for some time. ... The latest trend in this space is colleges’ entering into opaque tuition-sharing agreements with for-profit “online program management” companies like 2U, Academic Partnerships, and Pearson to offer distance-education programs. Initially trumpeted as an innovative model to expand access and drive down costs, the programs have seen a spate of recent media stories that paints a far less favorable picture: College-OPM partnerships are Faustian bargains that drive up tuition costs and reduce educational quality." - Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/8/22
College leaders appear at White House to discuss Dobbs fallout
"Many college leaders objected in June after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the longstanding right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. ... Monday’s appearance at the White House gave higher ed sector leaders a new stage to discuss the way the decision is reverberating on campuses as the fall term gets underway." - Higher Ed Dive, 8/8/22
Should we be easy on students after the pandemic? Maybe not.
"Many think the disastrous educational effects of the pandemic mean we should let up on our kids, at least for a while. That’s one of several reasons many schools are reducing homework and making good grades easier to get. Could that be the wrong approach? The College Board has compiled data indicating that students should be given more of a challenge, rather than less." - Washington Post, 8/7/22
It would be hard to convince me that this isn’t a joke😂
Let’s call it for what it is, Microagression Manipulation. It’s a form of gaslighting that exerts control over individual thought and individual value that one group tries to remove from another, not for the sake of progress, but for the sake of power and control. Microagression Manipulators are dangerous sociopathic individuals who rank no higher than a common bully, yet have a unique ability to lead by coersion. They tend to live in their world of false virtue, false truths, false historical contexts, while convincing the masses that they somehow are the moral compass for the greater good. The depths of their own individual deceit is profound. The university leadership that perpetuate this behavior, glorify it even, are significantly weak and destructive ambassadors for education. They don’t know it yet, mainly ignorant of their own intellectual demise, but they are destroying the once great pillars of education and free thought, rather than building upon it.
I doubt it was really a professor writing this, the grammatical structure is too remedial. You can tell it’s satire because it uses leftist jargon, but not framing. For example, I would not focus on one person being “clearly triggered”, but ask how many more would be or have been? I would say the speaker is emblematic of how our society creates such poor moral character (“white privilege”) and claim the moral high ground (conveniently for me, on the political left). Moral equivalencies are also in fashion – they would posit that such microaggressions are mere symptoms of something more dire.
I could have trolled him better, IMHO.
The key issue here is to identify the forces behind it.
– Who put so many of these ideologues into positions of power in academia, media, and government?
– How did they do it?
– Why did they do it?
– What do they hope to accomplish?
Looking at the general form, with a little thought, one can discern who is behind it, and the answers will shock you.
Real satire now requires very little imagination. A superlative recording device will deliver in short order endless material, diverse in variety, eerily genuine in quality, and superbly realistic in presentation. What’s not to like about it?
It’s hard to tell sincerity from satire these days.