Dartmouth's 'Hostile' Environment

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 5, 2008 | Joseph Rago

[The_Reader_David]

‘Unreceptive of French narrative theory’? The students and their parents should countersue both Venkatesan and Dartmouth for fraud. They were paying for an education.

[Enchante]

Yes, but if a prof wants to force all of her students to regurgitate the nonsense which says that reality is nothing but a social construct and science is merely whatever we want it to be then she’s going to have to resort to more coercive methods when the students don’t submit.

[DGHoodini]

Typical EuroCommie Trash.

[PrkChps]

Perhaps the tuition bill is an invalid social construct?

[GourmetDan]

"Scientific facts do not correspond to a natural reality but conform to a social construct."

Looks like she's correct on that point.

A lot of things people think are scientific 'facts' are nothing more that popular belief.

[Tax-chick]

The remarkable thing about the Venkatesan affair, to me, is that her students cared enough to argue. Normally they would express their boredom with the material by answering emails on their laptops or falling asleep. But here they staged a rebellion, a French Counter-Revolution against Professor Defarge. Maybe, despite the professor's best efforts, there's life in American colleges yet.

LOL!

[The_Reader_David]

I miss Lingua Franca. I covered academe the way popular publications cover Hollywood, except that it was as well-written as The Economist. Lots of fun. Besides the role it played in L'affaire de Sokal, it had great articles about controversies on cannibalism (PC cultural anthropologists saying the humans-hunting-humans variety was fabricated vs. scientific physical anthropologists pointing to hard evidence it really happened), cuss words in the Balkans (a favorite Serbian curse, obviously originally used against Turks and Bosniacs, translates as 'f**k your god'), political infighting at various notable departments, and of course, the twice annual 'who got hired, 'who got tenure' and 'who got promoted' compedia.

[y6162]

I’d like to know what she expects to win? What was her loss? Intellectual stress. Anguish. Good luck collecting on that.

Dartmouth is a private school. Students were paying for a product and didn’t like what they were getting. The students should sue Dartmouth to get their tuition back.

[Arguendo]

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - Rule 11

Rule 11(c), specifically.

[murdoog]

Yes, but if a prof wants to force all of her students to regurgitate the nonsense which says that reality is nothing but a social construct and science is merely whatever we want it to be then she’s going to have to resort to more coercive methods when the students don’t submit.

Good point. I should probably amend my advice to include

(d) I am teaching nonsense

the solution to which would be

(d) Quit teaching nonsense!

[murdoog]

I thought about Sokal too. I suspect she read his paper and thought it was real.

[Malesherbes]

China produces engineers and mathematicians. We produce lawyers and “French narrative” theorists.

[Albion Wilde]

I teach college. Argumentative students come with the territory. If a student argues with something I said, it’s for one of three reasons:

(a) I made a mistake
(b) He doesn’t understand what I’m saying or
(c) He is being a smartass

It's interesting that your list does not include "Student has a different, but possibly valid, experience or point of view that he (or she) offers for discussion."

[Albion Wilde]

I think the college should withhold her paycheck. When she complains that it is not in her inbox, they should say that a so-called "check" is a social construct, and its absence from her inbox is not a fact, but a notion determined by her own sense of reality. Which of course they do not share.

Good one! Similarly, I was once overdosed by a smartass doctor for four months. He insisted on seven pills per week, but I should have only been taking five per week. I strenuously objected that I was being overdosed and it was making it hard for me to concentrate on the computer screen to do my work. Finally he lowered the dose and said, "Well, I've just been tweaking the dosage." I replied, "Fine, then you won't mind sending me 2/7ths of your paycheck for the next four months, since it's just a tweak."

[Albion Wilde]

It ain’t Cornell, but you might enjoy this article anyway. It was sent to me (for laughs) by a doctoral candidate at a top university.

[MrB]

I was reading the in print (WSJ) last night - my wife asked me what I was laughing at.

This situation falls under the description of

“sometimes all you can do is point and laugh”

[murdoog]

It's interesting that your list does not include "Student has a different, but possibly valid, experience or point of view that he (or she) offers for discussion."

I teach Computer Science, not a humanities discipline, so "different, but possibly valid" doesn't apply very often.

Also, see post 30. :)

[Albion Wilde]

“sometimes all you can do is point and laugh”...

LOL!!!!!

[Albion Wilde]

I teach Computer Science, not a humanities discipline, so "different, but possibly valid" doesn't apply very often.

Excellent. You're off the hook, then!