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The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

jamesgmartin.center

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Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#71

Post by titanix2 »

StreamBright wrote: post #29
rland wrote: post #18

I have read probably 4 or 5 of these articles, written by professors/teachers, claiming to have been punished for their speech. 2 common threads about them. The first is that they rarely discuss specifics about what positions or what opinions got them censured. The second is that the comments section is typically full of drive by commenters who aren't responding to the content of the post in particular but to the ide…

What radical idea he was teaching?

Probably something like the existence of only two sexes.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#72

Post by pjc50 »

golergka wrote: post #67
pjc50 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a large amount of misunderstanding (and misinformation) about what safe spaces and trigger warnings are actually all about. They have also been subject to a certain amount of .. inflation? But the core ideas are important. "Trigger" originally referred specifically to PTSD. There is a small number of students, such as women who have experienced sexual assault, for whom the subject is more than merely…

> it's people's actual experiences First-hand experience gives you unique perspective that you can share with others, but doesn't make you a final authority on the matter. Once you shared your information with others (and assuming there's no trust issues involved), you're on equal grounds as to what to conclude from it.

1) "assuming there's no trust issues involved" is doing an awful lot of load-bearing there

2) One of the things that people keep starting "free speech controversies" over is the idea that some groups are intrinsically less intelligent or apt than others. When, as a member of such a minority group, you are confronted with this idea, what can you conclude from the suggestion that you are intrinsically less intelligent than your classmates?

- the instructor is right, and you should drop out?

- the instructor is prejudiced, so you will receive unfair marks?

- the instructor is wrong about this, and likely to be wrong about everything else?

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#74

Post by ausbah »

edraferi wrote: post #3

It seems like there’s a gap in the market for a hard-nosed, teaching-first university. A place full of passionate professors with high standards. A place where high school valedictorians work their ass off for a B. A place where you feel your best will never be good enough because the standards are impossible... until, one day, you get an A. And that grade MEANS something. And after four years, the students walk out…

Wow, sounds like any top 30 university in the US...

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#75

Post by etrevino »

WesternStar wrote: post #70

I think the way to read the response of the Faculty Comittee is this. He was an adjunct he hasn't earned the protection of academic freedom. He gets to keep his job if he fulfills what we feel like is necessary to be a member of our community. We feel like he's a negative experience for students and we don't think his addition is worthwhile. I'm all for not indulging the carebears but the message "You were allowed to…

He wasn't an adjunct. Some universities (or schools within universities) do five year contracts now as an alternative approach to tenure.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#76

Post by akhilcacharya »

TheOperator wrote: post #7

I think there is something to the notion that there should be schools which are inclusive to students who would struggle under teachers like this. I just don't see why that school should be Duke University. I don't understand why the most elite schools seem to be among the most likely to decide that their students need protection from harm. Polarizing teachers seem like they should be right in an elite universities w…

I think it’s the other way around - people at elite schools are the most likely to complain and be listened to by their fellow elites, and that goes for the Professor here too.

I didn’t hear about any incidents like this at my alma mater, which is 20 miles away from Duke, probably because the elites don’t care about what we have to say. It’s one of the many things that turns me off from the “campus war” meme.

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#77

Post by gumby »

Ntrails wrote: post #51
rland wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free speech is necessary, but not sufficient. It isn't simply that the speech has to be free; it also must be worth exploring. To use my analogy, the Earth-centered model is free speech, but it isn't worth much, because it is wrong.

> Earth-centered model is free speech, but it isn't worth much, because it is wrong . And yet in schools around the world people are taught that electricity flows from positive to negative, and everyone is happy. xD (slightly disingenuous, but I'd say wrong and not useful are merely correlated rather than 1-1 linked)

> And yet in schools around the world people are taught that electricity flows from positive to negative,

Seriously? I have never encountered this

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#78

Post by akhilcacharya »

edraferi wrote: post #3

It seems like there’s a gap in the market for a hard-nosed, teaching-first university. A place full of passionate professors with high standards. A place where high school valedictorians work their ass off for a B. A place where you feel your best will never be good enough because the standards are impossible... until, one day, you get an A. And that grade MEANS something. And after four years, the students walk out…

Sounds like my low ranked public school...

https://www.ncsu.edu/

I’d recommend if only for the convenience and price!

Again I feel like a lot of people on HN are privileged by a childhood of high achievement..I didn’t have that and could never get into a Duke-like institution (or Duke either for that matter).

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#79

Post by ggm »

ptah wrote: post #69
ggm wrote: post #30

This "trigger warning" and "harm" thing.. I've been out of tertiary education too long to understand it. I'm sure it's not only American but it feels like an American crafted problem taken worldwide. Future leaders in minority communities need to be able to defend themselves but learning to do it by firing academics on negative feedback feels like the wrong lesson. I'd rather they did it in a real ballot box, not in…

minorities should not have to waste energy defending themselves, when others use that energy to further themselves instead

Do you think that applies to the key concern at hand, academic freedom and tenure?

Re: The End of Being a Duke Professor and What It Means for the Future of Higher Ed

#80

Post by mac01021 »

lowdose wrote: post #37
mmmBacon wrote: post #24

This is the world we live in now. Doesn’t matter if you actually harmed someone. What matters now is whether someone feels you as doing harm. The word of the person who perceives harm is taken as fact and the accused has little to no recourse or defense.

Is this is a symptom of a very developed society in which abundance of wealth creates the possibility where certain individuals will always find a way to feel victimized?

People throughout history have been prone to feel victimized. The Third Reich, among other movements was built on this phenomenon.
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