The battle for new college

In part now because the indoctrination starts much earlier than college/university, but I still think people change more than you think in college.

We had Ibram X. Kendi as an Assistant Professor in African American Studies. He's pretty in your face and he was in a teaching role about the very political thing he's in your face about.

 

As I just illustrated, it goes well beyond that. Come on man.

 

What your anecdotes are better than my anecdotes? This is getting silly.

 

Yeah, as someone who has a liberal arts degree, I can assure you its never been a priority or a pet project for the university adminstration (going back to the Jeb Bush days). Its a constant battle for funding and equipment, the classes are in the oldest buildings, compared to say the hard science or anything that generates grants and research dollars. The humanities has to rebrand themselves as "Digital Humanities" to even justify their relevance to the admin and state lol. They all would love to run a trade school, even before this DeSantis insanity.

 

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the biggest college at the flagship university in Florida. It happens to lump in many humanities fields with STEM fields. They're not exactly underdogs as a whole.

 

Yes, thats been a survival strategy! Since the Bush times, humanities has to constantly prove it is relevant to the job market and can place graduates in employment, hence the turn to digital and STEM. I cant remember a time when humanities was just there for people who wanted to get educated, which is a sad thing. As I mentioned earlier, universities are far more integrated into the capitalist economy than they were half a century ago. They are basically capitalist knowledge production facilities, with a few legacy fields hanging on.

 

Did the university say why they fired him?

Also, this is a recent story. Even if your suspicions are correct, that may indicate that the school is feeling pressure from the DeSantis Administration and doesn't want to try their luck.

 

There's a lot of good in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I'm not trying to crap on anyone's liberal arts degree. I'm just criticizing specific aspects of the University of Florida that happen to be highly prevalent in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

 

Welcome to the club. I know, it sucks (genuinely not sarcasm).

 

To be fair though, is it really a good idea to have "gender neutral bathrooms in the dorms?"

I know Rawlings had community showers. Lump 18 year-old boys away from home for the first time in the same shower as girls who are also away from home for the first time, I don't think that's particularly good for the girls.

I know your point was more general, as in that of a "chilling effect," but I thought this was worth mentioning as well.

 

So let's assume you're correct that he was fired because of the bathrooms thing. He wanted 18 year old boys sharing shower space with 18 year old girls, and you're chalking it up to "crazy cons didn't like it?"

That's kind of a big deal.

 

If the fields or courses you find problematic didnt exist, CLAS as a whole would probably be in more dire straights. You seem to have a problem that someone might offer a cultural studies course called "Harry Potter and Late Capitalism" to draw curious students and put butts in seats. You are basically upset with having to market to students to keep CLAS funded. Ideally you wouldnt need to do that because schools and the state would realize the value of a liberal arts education, but thats not the world we live in. Like you think its some plot to indoctrinate the unwilling when its basically schools trying to appeal to seeker students to justify funding for the college.

 

It's not just marketing to students, it's marketing courses and field research to a specific segment of students while trying to influence others who may get stringed in along the way.