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From Retaliation to Reform: A case study for correcting higher education
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | November 27, 2024 | Matthew Garrett

Posted on 12/01/2024 4:35:50 AM PST by karpov

You have undoubtedly heard about cases where intolerant administrators target professors who fail one of the ideological litmus tests that increasingly characterize higher education. Such instances have become commonplace, perhaps even banal. But when they come for you, it does not feel mundane, and you’ll want to understand the structural mechanisms such administrators abuse to achieve their devious ends. As a survivor of just such a campaign, at California’s Bakersfield College, I am now free to write about the ordeal and suggest reforms and remedies to help address the reign of terror in higher education.

In December 2022, the Kern Community College District (KCCD) board meeting took a dark turn when trustee John Corkins declared his desire to “cull” dissenting faculty and take us “to the slaughterhouse.” His remarks were in response to a race hoax orchestrated by Professor Paula Parks and her students, who dishonestly accused me (and others) of racial misconduct during a committee meeting. I had never met the accusers, and Parks later testified that she used class time to coordinate the allegations, but no rebuttal could undo the damage of her lies.

National media made note of Corkins’s violent rhetoric, which overshadowed another key comment he made in the board meeting: “We know, better than all of you know, that it’s hard to get rid of some of those people.” His words revealed a deep-seated frustration with the difficulties of ousting faculty members who are protected by legal safeguards. What Corkins failed to grasp, however, was that the district’s repeated failures to win those legal battles were not due to a system rigged to favor faculty but were, rather, a testament to the dishonest administration’s pursuit of innocent targets and the naïveté of the board members who allowed such witch hunts in the first place.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college

1 posted on 12/01/2024 4:35:50 AM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

Deep down, what it takes is men with balls who know what’s right and what’s wrong to stand up; tell the leftists to pound sand. Fire them all and don’t care about the media and the lefties that will hate them and us all. It’s the only way.


2 posted on 12/01/2024 5:15:52 AM PST by vpintheak (Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. )
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To: vpintheak

The media and leftists will hate us anyway.

Might as well be for a good reason as not.


3 posted on 12/01/2024 10:20:43 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” uitAmen. Come, Lord Jesus”)
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