Florida Colleges show how to reform public universities

I would be infinitely more interested in this book, if (1) it weren’t written by the guy in charge of it, and (2) it came out in 5-10 years once the effects of the changes has become more clear. At this point, it seems like the best this book can do is confirm simple math like this: “woke is bad. we fired woke professors, and now we have less woke professors, so school is better.”

 

amen. Just another culture war money grab. It’s like rushing the field after scoring a TD in the first quarter and then writing a book about it.

 

Im not an anti-woke warrior, but I do think that there are some valid criticisms to be made of some of the initiatives pushed under the woke umbrella. I posted this in the past to this same question:

While most have rightly fought for minority rights, some have elevated the status of identity above the mutable characteristics of people, which I think is dangerous.

One, we are a tribal species, so it risks pushing us to think of ourselves as belonging to a group of “white people” or “black people”, rather than people. Framed this way, we are more likely to see people in the other group as one of them.

Two, some have suggested that the experiences of these different people are incommensurable. This is also problematic, as it basically appeals to authority over argument. Eg How can a male ever evaluate an argument that starts with “As a female, I can tell you that…”? It can create a scenario where reason is relegated to a secondary role in decisions. There shouldn’t be “black science” any more than there should be “black jobs”.

At my university, I’ve seen some of this first hand. A couple of my faculty in biology literally spend entire class meetings discussing colonization of science and equity. I think these ideas deserve evaluation, but probably not in a genetics class.

I’ve also seen the reverse where some actual biological ideas are refused based on social significance. I brought up to a colleague a groundbreaking study that identified almost 4,000 gene variants associated with years of schooling. The colleague responded, “isn’t that eugenics?”

Clearly, the fight for minority rights comes from a good place, and certainly we have more work to do in this area. It just also seems that some have pushed this battle into problematic spaces. Hope that answers your question.

 

Id also like to add an addendum to my post above. Just because I think that some “woke” viewpoints are dangerous does not mean that I support putting a partisan hack in charge of a complete political overhaul of a university. I absolutely do not and believe this whole project amounts to attempted authoritarian control of a realm that should be independent of political interference.

 

I'm not sure what you mean. What groups are excluded, and how do you know that? Kindness and respect are universal. We were all taught that - or should have been - as soon as we were old enough to understand it.

 

What are you trying to say?

 

But I think that’s the point.
DEI is overkill and possibly inadvertently excludes some people who may or may not be “diverse”.
If it’s already diverse, what the hell is DEI all about?!
Waste of money and actually shows exclusion.

 

Do you ever read my posts?
I am no Trump follower.

 

Didn't their US News and World Report ranking drop by like 22 spots this year amongst liberal arts colleges? Seems like quite a hit.

 

You continue to be the best, most level headed poster here.
Thanks for being you.
Also hope your family is doing better after the storm.

 

My wife sidelines as a college admission consultant, and is therefore very much plugged into the appln/admit process, stats, buzz, etc.

She's telling me UF, FSU, and UCF applncnt pools are not just more competitive than ever (pretty much happens every year), but that they're astronomically more so this year, with monster influxes of out of state applications.

She thought they'd likely taper off a bit due to the hurricanes, and zero adjustment of deadlines.

Imho, the bump is a direct response to the publicity Florida school got for fighting woke idiocy very publicly, and very publicly taking the common sense position of taking up for our Jewish student bodies in the wake of the Palestinian attack on them, rather than the rabidly toxic hate centered mental illness, that sought to feel for @#$%&n po po Hamas, and duh innocent little warm, fuzzy #@%^&n terrorists, which spread like herpes in an orgy, through duh ivy leagues, NYU, Stanford, SoCal, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and other such beds of mentally ill wokeism.

All this, while 'tenure' was drastically trimmed back, professor protests, and the Ivory tower egghead revolt had ppl talking shit about how Florida's secondary ed would suffer by golley!!! Prepare for the brain drain!!!

LMAO!

Yeah...move over Ivy's....we'll take those brilliant kids y'all repelled with your toxic epidemic of mental illness...

You can take our contaminated, entitled tenured mentally ill profs.

Bye! Don't let the door hitcha where the good Lord dun splitcha!

 

Next time you're going to be around your woke buddies, take a straight, white male wearing a MAGA cap. Then, just sit back and watch the kindness and respect flow.

 

Stay away from anyone that uses the terms woke or libbie. They are bringing down our society

 

A lot of us weren't paying attention apparently.

 

If you are going to throw straw man arguments that appeals to feelings of frustration or victimization, can you define your definition of 'woke' for us. Please!

Also, can you share with us how your straw man is constructive to the current dialog. I mean, any self-denigrating gross generalizing like this must have some type of goal outside of venting hatred. Right?

 

As hilarious as your obsession with one word? I think not.

 

Yeah, we need to look at Georgia and Alabama as standards to live up to, not those f--s in the NE!!!

Yeah!!!! MAGA forever!!!!

 

We’re talking over each other. My response was to a poster who basically said diversity itself should not be valued in university setting. My point is that it absolutely should be valued, because diversity (in origins, ideas, thought, upbringing) adds value to the educational experience in a university setting. My point is not about the merits of DEI, one way or the other. My point is that diversity itself is a valuable commodity in a university setting.

 

I agree with all of this, but it still ignores the fact that MAGA thrives on this as much if not more than the self-professed woke crowd. It literally defines who they are as people and as a movement. It is the White Whale that defines them.