Posted on 02/23/2005 8:48:38 AM PST by freespirited
University of Illinois officials said Tuesday they can't locate Ward Churchill's master's thesis and aren't sure if he was required to write one.
The embattled University of Colorado ethnic-studies professor claims undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois' Springfield campus, which was known as Sangamon State University until 1995. Springfield is in Sangamon County.
University of Illinois at Springfield spokeswoman Cheryl Peck confirmed that Churchill received a bachelor's degree in 1974 and a master's degree in 1975. But no thesis is on file, she said.
"We can't say for sure he didn't write one," Peck said. It is not clear if a thesis was a requirement at the time Churchill received the degree in communications, she said.
CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said she did not know if faculty members inquired about Churchill's thesis in 1991 before giving him tenure.
Documents released last week by CU indicate some faculty members had reservations about granting tenure to a professor who lacked a doctorate.
The documents are silent on a master's thesis.
On Tuesday, Illinois faculty members described Sangamon State - in the 1970s, when Churchill attended - as focused on innovative teaching methods, including an emphasis on social issues of the day.
The campus did not have academic departments. Instead, faculty members were rostered under interdisciplinary groupings, including Churchill's major, communications in a technological society.
Students could major in traditional subjects, such as history or English, but they could also design their own majors in consultation with the faculty.
Larry Golden, a political scientist and one of the original professors when Sangamon opened in 1970, said the school was not as freewheeling as it sounds.
Proposals for self-designed majors were given extensive faculty review, he said.
The campus served only juniors, seniors and master's-degree students. They would have taken the standard courses at a two-year college before coming to Sangamon.
The program included an "applied-studies term," in which students earned credit by working off campus. Projects ranged from working with a state legislator to community organizing.
The students were required to take part in a seminar and write journals or term papers as part of the program, Golden said.
"You couldn't just go to an anti-war rally in Washington and say, 'That's my experience,' " Golden said.
HEY! I have a bachelor's degree! Can I be a tenured professor, too????
I seem to remember 30 semester hours as the basic requirement, 6 additional if no thesis, but I didn't get my master's, so my recollection may not be correct. 36 hours would be logistically do-able. I did not find the graduate level electives I took towards my BS to be any more difficult than the under grad courses required for my major.
I think you give a hamster a cigarette and pump his lungs, I learned that at Oak Ridge.
" think I ate at a McDonalds there once. Maybe I have a degree from that university. I hope it's a PhD"
You have a Master's of Macs, which confers the right to eat fatty non-PC food.
They are legit engineers (though not P.E.'s).
NC State came up with a way to factory more people through the program by elminiting the need for a thesis or project (thus adding two classes), and then letting you count up to 4 of your undergrad classes twice (once for the BSE and once for the MSEE) so in the end, all it takes is two relatively light semesters of three classes each for the master's.
HEY HEY HEY!
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an excellent school. The College of Engineering alone is one of the best in the nation, as many technologies we use every day were pioneered there. There are people of every race, creed, religion, and culture who attend that University, each leaving with values they have learned through their experiences with friends, instructors, church and family. Like all large universities, these values held by graduating students vary from person to person.
Judging all UI or CU grads on the basis of one raving lunatic with poor values and hatred for America is like judging all Congressmen on the records of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
Or is judging people by stereotype in favor of one's individual merit the way you do business?
Sounds like you chose wisely. I want to begin my PhD in Jan. if I can get my business off the ground within the next few months but that will dictate everything. what is your PhD in and how long did you take to earn it?
Yeah, I saw that too and wondered.
this is sarcasm?
thanks.
A one year's masters and no thesis--how very super elite.
His whole teaching history is a joke--a continuing joke that started in Sangamon when he designed his own degree.
Gotta love modern academia!
vaudine
Thank you.
My Ph.D. is in communication studies. It took me 15 months to do my M.A. and 3 and 1/2 years of classwork and three years working on the dissertation to finish the Ph.D. (The dissertation took so long because I was working full-time while I was writing).
It was worth it even though I'm no longer teaching full-time. Given the consulting I do, I get to teach every day--it's just not in a classroom. I also get to use what I've learned about human communication to try to do some good rather than simply writing in academic journals (that has a place, but it just wasn't for me).
What do you want to get your degree in?
Muleteam1
I am leaning towards business organizational mgt. simply because my BA and MBA are in Business. The other one I thought of was something theologically based because the PhD would be for personal reasons only and would have little bearing on my work.
well spoken.
If this is true, it only shows the Harvard faculty is more bigoted, dishonest, intellectually bankrupt, and morally depraved than I originally gave them credit for. After all, it's a lot like a union that's involved in a legitimate labor dispute with an employer over working conditions claiming that's not really the issue, but their employer's failure to join the Klan and participate in the most recent lunching and burning of a black is what's REALLY BAD about the employer.
Good luck to you. The opportunity, like most everything else, is what you make of it. I'm grateful for mine--it is quite a luxury and a gift to be able to learn about something that truly interests you!
Thanks for your support.
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