Posted on 05/01/2020 6:00:51 AM PDT by karpov
Humorless, intolerant leftist academics are a force to be reckoned with on many college campuses, and a new case at the University of North Texas (UNT) pushes the envelope.
After earning his PhD in mathematics from Baylor University in spring 2019, Nathaniel Hiers found employment at UNT. He began teaching full-time as an adjunct faculty member in the fall semester—three sections of linear algebra and one of calculus. The mathematics department thought highly enough of Dr. Hiers that, in November, it notified him that he was invited to renew his contract for the coming semester. Hiers promptly emailed back to say he’d accept the school’s offer.
Trouble for Hiers began, however, on November 25. He was relaxing in the faculty lounge that afternoon, waiting for a colloquium to begin, and noticed a stack of fliers. They weren’t identified as a university document and had been left anonymously. The subject of the fliers was “microaggressions” and the argument they made was that such speech, although unintentional, is harmful to some individuals’ physical and psychological health. Therefore, faculty members were encouraged to avoid them.
The flier gave a number of examples of microaggression such as saying, “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” and “America is a land of opportunity.”
Those expressions, according to the flier, are harmful because they support “the myth of meritocracy” and promote “color blindness.” Another example of a microaggression listed was “being forced to choose Male or Female when completing basic forms.”
This idea that certain groups in the population are so sensitive to and easily harmed by such apparently benign utterances has been around for many years. Some academics believe it, while others find it to be just a weak and unproven assertion.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Three sections of linear algebra is not a surprise. Linear algebra is a core course for majors in STEM subjects, and more recently business majors given the emphasis on Financial Econometrics. Linear algebra was one of the most useful classes I took.
Heather Mac Donald has written quite a bit on this, how universities and education have been infested by political correctness, even in the “hard sciences.”
Mark
I don’t disagree, but I’ve never seen more than one section of pure linear offered in any semester. Most STEM programs (except pure mathematics) get the LA they need as part of an advanced calculus class.
The democrat party has officially abandoned the things dreamed of by Dr. Martin Luthor King.
I have a feeling that his “I Have a Dream” speech would today be classified as “hate speech.”
Most people who call themselves “democrats” have no idea how the political party has devolved, and the repulsive ideals promoted by the leadership. I hope that most of the people who make up today’s democrat party are the “useful idiots,” who either willingly ignore the proclamations of the dem leadership, or are simply completely ignorant of anything the dems do, and just reflexively vote “D.”
If not, I’m afraid that we are lost as a nation and as a people.
Mark
I’m thinking that they meant “classes.” When I was at “Stony Brook,” classes were referred to as “sections.”
I have never had an idea as to why.
Mark
Mark
(sound of grey_whiskers purring)
Yep, anyone in the DFW area knows that you can’t spell C*** without UNT.
I was a "returning student" to SUNY @ Stony Brook to their Computer Science program (which also requires a number of engineering classes.) I had taken Calc I and II at a community college several years before, so they refused to accept my calculus credits, but the only class they had open that I could fit into my schedule was "Honors" calculus I, which was being taught by a visiting (full) professor from Hungary.
The very first class, she wanted to see what sort of experience the students had in math, so she asked us to pull out pens and paper, and to prove that between every two rational numbers, there's an irrational number, and that between every two irrational numbers, there's a rational number. My response (which was the same for about half of the class) was, "HUH?!?!?!?!?!"
I had no problem with her accent, since I have relatives from Eastern Europe, unlike some of the Chinese instructors and professors, I had, one, for digital logic, would occasionally lapse into Chinese during his lectures, and the Chinese students in the class would ask him questions in Chinese, and he'd answer in the same language. Every non-Chinese student (including 2 Indians) had to request a different instructor, and when denied, we were forced to drop the class.
Still, I did get a B+ in the Honors Calc class, but was able to get into a standard "Engineering Calculus II" class the next semester!
Mark
Or if the final disposition is already a done-deal against, you, the best response to a "microaggression" is a "macroassault and "macrobattery." Then hide the body.
Mark
You went to SB? So did I! MSM.
Don’t stray from the plantation, no matter what your skin color...or else.
IMHO, they probably meant three semesters of linear algebra...
Also, IMHO, teaching linear algebra and calculus is not a very good fit for a new instructor... Unless it was tensor algebra and tensor calculus...
Applied linear algebra is usually taught together with multivariate calculus.
Agree... I was assuming (and neglected Benny Hill’s warnings) single-value calculus 1-2...
The death toll of leftism from the French Revolution onwards plus all of the abortions is probably close to a billion people.
Keep that in mind the next time you hear lectures on morality from leftists.
Would an upraised middle finger qualify?
Good luck to Dr. Hiers. Sue the living snot out of all concerned. Do NOT agree to a non-disclosure clause in your hefty settlement, then go public in books and speeches, publicize this as widely as possible. America needs to be shown just how deeply the leftist agenda has penetrated academia, and how radical the cultural bolsheviks who run our universities are. Fight back.
A storm is coming.
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