{"id":37778,"date":"2017-02-08T12:30:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37778"},"modified":"2017-02-08T12:30:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:30:53","slug":"leftist-courses-targeted-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/leftist-courses-targeted-conservatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Leftist courses targeted by conservatives?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mathscontent\"<\/a><\/p>\n

College employees are particularly vulnerable to e-mail scams. Our e-mail addresses are readily available, and regular hacks of the system mean the entire mailing list is at the disposal of your typical e-scammer.<\/p>\n

Our particular weakness (at the risk of exposing it) are phishing scams sent, falsely, from the Poo Bah. We know better than to click on links and download files, but when it comes from the Poo Bah, there\u2019s a problem: we can use common sense and ignore it, but then there\u2019s a real risk of angering the Poo Bah by not downloading or supporting whatever he asks whenever he asks it. It\u2019s a tough choice, but many faculty decide to fall for the scammer rather than risk the kind of rage documented often enough in this blog.<\/p>\n

A few universities, more accurately professors of certain courses at those universities, received suspicious e-mails recently:<\/p>\n

Duke warns professors about emails from someone claiming to be a student, seeking information about their courses — many in fields criticized by some on the right. Some Michigan and Denver faculty members have received similar emails but from different source.<\/em><\/p>\n

These e-mails weren\u2019t really all that scammy; all that was requested was the reading list or syllabus from the courses involved. The scammy part is the request (probably) didn\u2019t come from a student, with a conject that someone \u201con the right\u201d is doing it. The courses are those with titles that might well be Left-oriented, or at least titles where it\u2019s unclear what books might be in the course:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026on courses called “Money, Sex and Power,” “Energy and Environmental Justice” and “Religion and Mass Incarceration.” The email messages, which did not come from a Duke email account, were very similar in asking for a reading list so the alleged student “could get a better idea of if the class is right for me.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, I get a few of these every semester as well, from students wanting some advance idea of what will be in the course. Most math courses give a pretty clear indication of what\u2019s in them from the title (eg, \u201cStatistics\u201d), but others are vague enough that it\u2019s quite fair for a student to have no idea what would be in them (eg, \u201cMathematical Methods\u201d). I think nothing of giving out my syllabus to any who might ask, or telling them what book I\u2019m using\u2026I\u2019ve no shame in what I discuss in class. The professors for these particular courses, on the other hand, feel they have something to fear:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026<\/em>didn’t want to inadvertently help someone trying to attack either higher education generally or certain fields of study. \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an interesting thing to fear: someone might not agree with what you\u2019re doing in the course. Many faculty refused to respond to the syllabus request because they didn\u2019t think it came from a student. Why should only students know even roughly what\u2019s discussed in a course? In a classroom environment, students are often (quite understandably) intimidated\u2026is the material being discussed so fragile that it can\u2019t withstand exposure to an audience not afraid to question it?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in an era where student debt is skyrocketing, tuition is perpetually rising, and our graduates are all too often no better off in any measurable way after 4 to 6 years of study, even when they get a degree. I think it\u2019s very fair in these circumstances to ask some questions about what, exactly, is going on in our classrooms.<\/p>\n

And I also think it\u2019s a little suspicious that we have some professors wary of exposure of what they\u2019re doing in their classes.<\/p>\n

I know, \u201cyou must be guilty if you don\u2019t expose all your secrets\u201d is the cry of the oppressor but\u2026most campuses, most courses, already post their syllabi and reading lists online. Why are courses called \u201cEnvironmental Justice\u201d getting special treatment in this regard?<\/p>\n

As is so often the case, the comments are far more interesting to me than the actual \u201cnews item.\u201d A few are worthy of counter-comment:<\/p>\n

Gender Studies has always been a Right Wing target, so we’re primed for scrutiny, critique, and insult.<\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose the above is correct, but maybe the time really has come to start asking yourselves why<\/em> you\u2019re such a target? Certain fields, not just Gender Studies, but African Studies and most especially Education do seem to consistently be the butt of jokes and the target of scrutiny by \u201cthe outside world.\u201d I suspect it\u2019s the endless scandals and hypocrisy that are factors here, but that\u2019s just my opinion. The fact is still these guys never seem to look in the mirror for answers. (Allow me to gratuitously add, many of these are the same people that think Trump only won because America is filled with deplorables and Russia hacked the election, whatever that accusation means.)<\/p>\n

My courses are in Information Sciences and Technology, so not controversial at all. My syllabi and assignments are on publicly accessible web sites and linked to my home page to allow not just students, but also potential students, employers, parents and anyone interested in the course to see the specifics.<\/em><\/p>\n

I include the above to demonstrate mathematics is hardly alone in thinking that, yeah, we shouldn\u2019t be ashamed of what we teach in class. Why do certain other fields feel this way?<\/p>\n

Well this is most interesting. Since when did the content of a class being openly taught at a University become a secret? I certainly do not think people should lie about their identity. But if say a WSJ reporter requested this information, would the request be rejected? If so why? As a society do we not have the right to inquire about what our sons or daughters are being taught at these ever more expensive bastions of knowledge? Fear of someone disagreeing with you does not seem like a rational response to a request for information.<\/em><\/p>\n

These all seem pretty valid questions, although I doubt a WSJ reporter would ask them\u2026seems more of a Breitbart thing to me. Isn\u2019t it odd that we no longer expect mainstream news to do investigation but instead turn to alternative news for that sort of thing?<\/p>\n

I agree. MIT has spent millions of dollars putting EVERYTHING FROM EVERY COURSE online for anyone, anywhere in the world, to use. <\/em>https:\/\/ocw.mit.edu\/index.htm<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the modern world. It\u2019s time our institutions of higher education focus on prestige and integrity (MIT has both), over growth.<\/p>\n

All the above said, there\u2019s still the issue of the culture of fear in higher education today, where saying a word out of line can get you terminated instantly. While the professors\u2019 fears above may well indicate something shady going on in the classroom, I concede it could simply be due to being in an environment where you must always be afraid.<\/p>\n

And that still<\/em> means we should question what we\u2019re doing in higher education.<\/p>\n

www.professorconfess.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College employees are particularly vulnerable to e-mail scams. Our e-mail addresses are readily available, and regular hacks of the system mean the entire mailing list is at the disposal of your typical e-scammer. Our particular weakness (at the risk of exposing it) are phishing scams sent, falsely, from the Poo Bah. We know better than […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13389],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-course-content"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeftist courses targeted by conservatives? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/leftist-courses-targeted-conservatives\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leftist courses targeted by conservatives? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"College employees are particularly vulnerable to e-mail scams. 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