We need to re-think the concept of college

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JimBob1952

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In recent years I've developed a strong dislike toward US colleges and universities. There are many reasons for this. They overcharge their students, educate them badly, and stuff them full of stupid ideas about the evils of capitalism and the joys of woke thinking. They fall prey to idiotic race and gender hoaxes and bloat their staffs with overpaid administrators who never go near a classroom.

This is a great example of college thinking at work:

Carnegie Mellon University has condemned social media posts by one of its professors after Dr Uju Anya wished the Queen an “excruciating” death and tweeted that she hoped the Queen would die “in agony.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...arnegie-mellon-university-queen-b2163324.html

Frankly, this doesn't sound like something a sane person would say. Why would a major university put up with such idiotic behavior?
 

Her comments are objectionable,

Aren’t her comments just an example of free speech?

I believe that in the not to distant future major corporations will begin recruiting and providing relevant education to future employees.

The training may be contracted through existing colleges and universities, but I believe that the curriculum and degree will be tailored to the needs of the business much like a vocational training program.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Her comments are objectionable,

Aren’t her comments just an example of free speech?

I believe that in the not to distant future major corporations will begin recruiting and providing relevant education to future employees.

The training may be contracted through existing colleges and universities, but I believe that the curriculum and degree will be tailored to the needs of the business much like a vocational training program.
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She should be free to say what she wants. The university should be free to fire her for being a repulsive idiot. If she's saying this on Twitter, what do you think she "teaches" her students?
 

I was just talking on the phone with my son about this. He reminded me that my grandma was happy when the Czar, etc. were killed. He reminded me why my grandma had reason to hate them so. She never wished excruciating pain, just plain old death. Anyway, he feels this woman is coming from the same place my grandma did, that her emotions are reacting to an all too familiar way of life for some people.

I wish the excruciating pain was left out, but I understand the sentiment. Sometimes people have really been hurt in their pasts. The Russians are doing it now to the Ukrainians.

I feel it was right her tweet was deleted. No use in making folks so upset, wait till tomorrow and leave out what I said & express yourself thoughtfully.
 
JimBob1952 said:
She should be free to say what she wants. The university should be free to fire her for being a repulsive idiot. If she's saying this on Twitter, what do you think she "teaches" her students?
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I agree that free speech may have consequences, but the comments of one person shouldn’t be enough to condemn all colleges and universities.

I’m confident that they will deal with it.
 
Of course I'm not condemning all colleges and universities based on the comments of one person.

Rather, this one person's Twitter comments are just one example among hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of the craziness that rules college life these days. Look at the $36 million that Oberlin College has to pay for its insane defamation of the town bakery owners who caught a kid shoplifting. Look at Duke lacrosse, the UVA "rape" scandal, so many other examples of what used to be called PC gone wild.

Parents are paying as much as $80,000 a year in tuition, room and board to send their children to what are essentially asylums where the inmates are in charge.
 
Pepper said:
I was just talking on the phone with my son about this. He reminded me that my grandma was happy when the Czar, etc. were killed. He reminded me why my grandma had reason to hate them so. She never wished excruciating pain, just plain old death. Anyway, he feels this woman is coming from the same place my grandma did, that her emotions are reacting to an all too familiar way of life for some people.

I wish the excruciating pain was left out, but I understand the sentiment. Sometimes people have really been hurt in their pasts. The Russians are doing it now to the Ukrainians.

I feel it was right her tweet was deleted. No use in making folks so upset, wait till tomorrow and leave out what I said & express yourself thoughtfully.
Click to expand...

Pepper said:
I was just talking on the phone with my son about this. He reminded me that my grandma was happy when the Czar, etc. were killed. He reminded me why my grandma had reason to hate them so. She never wished excruciating pain, just plain old death. Anyway, he feels this woman is coming from the same place my grandma did, that her emotions are reacting to an all too familiar way of life for some people.

I wish the excruciating pain was left out, but I understand the sentiment. Sometimes people have really been hurt in their pasts. The Russians are doing it now to the Ukrainians.

I feel it was right her tweet was deleted. No use in making folks so upset, wait till tomorrow and leave out what I said & express yourself thoughtfully.
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Your grandma (presumably) was not a college professor with a Twitter feed. It's not a question of what happened in Nigeria before 1960, it's a question of civil discourse, something that "the academy" used to stand for. They are grinding that concept into the ground.
 
I do agree with Aunt Bea, above. What used to be thought of as "college" is morphing into either a) focused vocational training or b) the kind of ideological dream world found at so-called elite schools. Sensible people aren't going to pay $320,000 for four years of woke nonsense.
 
Pepper said:
Well it doesn't help you putting your knickers in a knot. ;)

Twitter deleted it. What more revenge do you want?
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I would like to see her fired from Carnegie Mellon and unable to find work teaching at any level. Perhaps she could learn to code.

It's not a matter of revenge as it has nothing to do with me. I'm thinking of the kind of on-campus insanity that my grandson will face in another 17 years or so.
 
JimBob1952 said:
In recent years I've developed a strong dislike toward US colleges and universities. There are many reasons for this. They overcharge their students, educate them badly, and stuff them full of stupid ideas about the evils of capitalism and the joys of woke thinking. They fall prey to idiotic race and gender hoaxes and bloat their staffs with overpaid administrators who never go near a classroom.

This is a great example of college thinking at work:

Carnegie Mellon University has condemned social media posts by one of its professors after Dr Uju Anya wished the Queen an “excruciating” death and tweeted that she hoped the Queen would die “in agony.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...arnegie-mellon-university-queen-b2163324.html

Frankly, this doesn't sound like something a sane person would say. Why would a major university put up with such idiotic behavior?
Click to expand...
Free speech?

According to Anya, GB caused a lot of suffering under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth.

“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,” she tweeted.

She also responded to Bezos, tweeting at him directly: “Otoro gba gbue gi” - which roughly translates to an Igbo insult wishing someone death - “May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers.”
 
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JimBob1952 said:
As I said, she is free to speak. The university should be free to employ her, or not, as they see fit. And parents should be free to pull their children out of any school that would hire such a malign nitwit.
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Her family suffered because of GB's colonialism, so her attitude is understandable and somewhat justifiable.

@JimBob1952, has your family suffered because of higher education? Why the extremist views?

Our Founding Fathers were highly educated, as were most inventors and innovators, as well as our great leaders. I've never known or known of anyone who regretted getting educated. Some regret going deep into debt, and the cost of college is a legitimate gripe, as is the cost of administration as you noted. Something definitely needs to be done about those issues.
 
SeniorBen said:
Her family suffered because of GB's colonialism, so her attitude is understandable and somewhat justifiable.

@JimBob1952, has your family suffered because of higher education? Why the extremist views?

Our Founding Fathers were highly educated, as were most inventors and innovators, as well as our great leaders. I've never known or known of anyone who regretted getting educated. Some regret going deep into debt, and the cost of college is a legitimate gripe, as is the cost of administration as you noted. Something definitely needs to be done about those issues.
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My views are mainstream libertarian/conservative. Most conservatives are horrified by what's going on at colleges and universities today.

Neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln went to college. Neither did Ben Franklin, nor Harry Truman. The Founding Fathers who did go to college studied mathematics, religion, rhetoric, Greek, Latin and other "hard" subjects, not the history of comic books or other idiocies on offer today.

I've known a number of people with more or less worthless PhDs who deeply regretted wasting time and taking on debt.

I have a college degree and read voluminously, so I'm not anti-education. I'm just anti- the way higher education has evolved over the past, say, 60 years in the US.
 
JimBob1952 said:
I'm just anti- the way higher education has evolved over the past, say, 60 years in the US.
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It sounds to me more like you've allowed propagandists to tell you a bunch of lies which they want to use to frighten you into agreeing with them.

I think you should enroll in a couple college classes and base your opinion of colleges on real life.

Here's a description of some of the people you think are being brainwashed of "evils of capitalism and the joys of woke thinking" - this is partial description of the Stanford Business School accelerated mid-career course students for 2023:

"...this year’s class includes an entrepreneur from India who launched the country’s largest retail organic food chain, a retired colonel from the U.S. Air Force who led intelligence for U.S. Cyber Command, and an infectious disease physician and political leader from Slovenia who coordinated a national COVID-19 response.​
​
The class has more than two dozen experienced entrepreneurs; 18 current or former CEOs; nine members with military, government, or diplomatic experience; 15 professional investors; and five law firm partners."​
​
​
 
I would never have graduated from college if I didn't bend to the thinking of extreme leftist professors. Perhaps lucky for me, I was a bit older than the average student. So, I had mostly formed my own ideas of the world.
 
JimBob1952 said:
In recent years I've developed a strong dislike toward US colleges and universities. There are many reasons for this. They overcharge their students, educate them badly, and stuff them full of stupid ideas about the evils of capitalism and the joys of woke thinking. They fall prey to idiotic race and gender hoaxes and bloat their staffs with overpaid administrators who never go near a classroom.

This is a great example of college thinking at work:

Carnegie Mellon University has condemned social media posts by one of its professors after Dr Uju Anya wished the Queen an “excruciating” death and tweeted that she hoped the Queen would die “in agony.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...arnegie-mellon-university-queen-b2163324.html

Frankly, this doesn't sound like something a sane person would say. Why would a major university put up with such idiotic behavior?
Click to expand...
There is a current lady on this forum (not on this thread) who used the exact same language when a politician got Covid.
She said she hoped he suffered in agony before he dies.
Where does all this HATE come from?
 
JimBob1952 said:
Carnegie Mellon University has condemned social media posts by one of its professors after Dr Uju Anya wished the Queen an “excruciating” death and tweeted that she hoped the Queen would die “in agony.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...arnegie-mellon-university-queen-b2163324.html

Frankly, this doesn't sound like something a sane person would say. Why would a major university put up with such idiotic behavior?
Click to expand...
I have to say I find this kind of thing awful! I am neutral on the British Royal Family, but don't see it as nearly so much my business as citizens of the UK. I tried to figure out where Uju Anya is from, and am not sure but it does not look like any country that is in the British Commonwealth see https://ujuanya.com/ if this is true she is particularly out of line with her comments.

However I do support free speech and believe she is entitled to her opinions and has the right to express them, no matter how wrong...

On the other hand I would not want any of my tax money going to fund what she is teaching, not if this were in any way related to it.
 
Nathan said:
What a great higher education bashing thread, it's what "conservative thought" has degenerated into...
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I hope not, a lot of conservatives are quite well educated.
senior chef said:
I would never have graduated from college if I didn't bend to the thinking of extreme leftist professors.
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I never felt any such pressure, in fact some of my professors were quite conservative. Just normal folks for the most part.
 

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