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June 09, 2005

PC Overload In Oregon [Say Anything]

The University of Oregon will soon be basing the pay and promotion of faculty not on how well the teach their students but rather on how well they "get along" with people of "different backgrounds."

Which makes me wonder: Will liberal professors be docked pay for not getting along with their more conservative-minded colleagues and students? I'm guessing no.

The faculty is, obviously, pretty upset by this. They're also upset at the fact that the University will be hiring forty new faculty members to teach courses in "diversity-related topics, including race, gender, gay and disability studies."

Disability studies? What, pray-tell, is that? Are we teaching people how to be disabled now? Maybe its a class for disabled people teaching them how to succeed despite their infirmities, which would still seem like an odd choice for a college course.

But these odd courses aside, the University of Oregon also has a policy requiring non-minority students (read: white students) signing up for certain math or English classes go to the end of the line until their minority counterparts have had a chance to get signed up.

A few decades back some places in this country required that their minority citizens sit in the back of buses and use facilities separate from those utilized by whites. Rosa Parks and other brave civil rights leaders of the day fought against this sort of discrimination. Is the administration at the University of Oregon really telling us, through their actions, that the cure for these past injustices is to perpetrate the same kind of injustices white students on their campus?

If so, that's more than a little bit ludicrous. When are these people going to learn? If you want equality, you must treat everybody equally.

posted by Ace at 09:48 AM

Comments

If I were a parent I'd pull my kid out of that school and tell them to stick their tuition bill where the sun don't shine.

Posted by: lauraw on June 9, 2005 10:06 AM

What's a matter, dingers? Afraid the training will expose you for the racist nazis you are????

http://www.liberalavenger.com/

Posted by: STOP DINGERS on June 9, 2005 10:07 AM

Please don't give the troll any traffic.

Posted by: lauraw on June 9, 2005 10:09 AM

Wow. Someone brought out "racist nazis" already. That didn't take long.

Liberal Avenger, your intelligence is only surpassed by your originality.

Posted by: Jason on June 9, 2005 10:14 AM

What the hell is a dinger?

Posted by: Master of None on June 9, 2005 10:17 AM

On the other hand, Laura, there's something to be said for the rhetorical style of someone who immediately announces that anyone not sharing his viewpoint is a racist Nazi (which verges on a tautology... I mean, I must have missed the History Channel's piece on the egalitarian Nazis).

It saves all of us the trouble of finding out for ourselves that the troll's site is not a place for reasoned or reasonable discourse.

Posted by: WarrenM on June 9, 2005 10:17 AM

Oh, and the four question marks are another handy sign -- beware of folks who try to substitute punctuation for effective communication.

Thanks for dropping by, troll. We're sure we'll see improvement next semester.

Posted by: WarrenM on June 9, 2005 10:22 AM

Article

I haven't seen where this involves getting along with other faculty and staff. Looks like it's how well they can support cultural diversity in order to boost minority numbers in enrollment.

The part about making whites wait in the back of the line, if true, is total horse shit.

I'm all for giving a deserving student a chance, but not at the expense of someone more deserving, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, et al.

So U of O's minority enrollment is 13%, half of the national average. 26% is still pretty damned sad.

For every Lebron James, there's a million more who think they have the same chances.

Creating opportunities for a better life starts with parenting. Teach your kids what is important. Hard work and determination count for one hell of a lot.

Posted by: compos mentis on June 9, 2005 10:25 AM

Sorry about the link all. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants html novice. Obviously.

Posted by: compos mentis on June 9, 2005 10:30 AM

Right from the start, the Civil Rights Movement gains for blacks were accomplised through the effective boycott of businesses.

Until the Right does the same thing we cannot and will not change this monstorous injustice. No president, no congress and especially, no Supreme Court is going to right these wrongs until We the Sheeple demand it through direct action and boycott.

And it bugs me that it's not happening when we don't even really have to do anything to accomplish it. All we have to "do" is to not send our kids there and not buy any of the goods and service of all the sponsors of the U of Oregon, (for example) for six months or a year and this shit would change completely! Yet we do nothing, we don't even talk about boycotts!

THE RIGHT MUST BOYCOTT!!!

Posted by: 72 NAZIS on June 9, 2005 10:52 AM

I am currently taking a class on diversity in education and employment toward my master's. The topic this week is Racism and one of the things I have to do is read 4 articles on the topic and write a 25 word "main concept" of each article. Well, I am reading this article and I swear to god it's not even 2 typed pages long - the author blames George W for the "collective fantasy that the US is a meritocracy with a level playing field." He says Bush is a "mediocre student with a string of failures in the oil business...trading all his life on privileges that come with being a white man with family connections...that he did not rise to one of the world's most powerful positions in the world on merit..." Yadda yadda yadda. He goes one to ask if anyone can imagine a black man with Bush's record making it such a position.

I think my 25 word concept is going to be something like "The main idea of this article is that you truly can blame President Bush for everything that's wrong in the world. Now up yours and have some pie." I think that's more than 25 words tho.

It ain't easy being a conservative working and attending a major university let me tell you.

Posted by: SithChick on June 9, 2005 11:13 AM

The "Stop Dingers" post linking Liberal Avenger is NOT the Liberal Avenger, so take that into consideration if you post there.

Posted by: on June 9, 2005 11:27 AM

So, we define diversity by a peson's race, ethnicity and gender while at the same time teaching people that those things don't matter.

And here I thought I could go through one day without hitting the gin before noon.

Posted by: planetmoron on June 9, 2005 11:35 AM

For the record, I did not post the asinine comment above. It was posted by an imposter seeking to cause trouble for me.

The word "dinger" is a mystery to me as well.

"Winger" or "Wingnut," on the other hand...

Posted by: The Liberal Avenger on June 9, 2005 12:03 PM

Some links on cultural competency:

http://www.joannejacobs.com/mtarchives/015250.html

Professor Plum on cultural competency:
http://educationation.org/blog/?cat=2

Posted by: Terry on June 9, 2005 12:41 PM