Gordon Klein, an accounting professor in the Anderson School of Business, has taught at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) for almost 40 years. He is now suspended and under police protection in his home. The reason? Klein refused to exempt black students from his final exam and sent a pointed rebuttal to students asking for the “no harm” exam. The response was certainly mocking in tone, more so than I would have considered appropriate. The school has launched a formal discrimination investigation. However, the suspension, investigation, and death threats against Klein reinforce the fear of many in the academy of a raising orthodoxy on campus and a lack of support for faculty involved in controversies.
According to Inside Higher Ed, a group of students asked Klein for a “no-harm” final exam that could only benefit students’ grades as well as shortened exams and extended deadlines. They cited recent “traumas, we have been placed in a position where we much choose between actively supporting our black classmates or focusing on finishing up our spring quarter . . . We believe that remaining neutral in times of injustice brings power to the oppressor and therefore staying silent is not an option.” They specifically noted that this was not “a joint effort to get finals canceled for non-black students” “but rather an ask that you exercise compassion and leniency with black students in our major.”
Klein wrote back to one student that he was being asked to make a distinction that he could not possibly make. This is the entirety of the message:
Thanks for your suggestion in your email below that I give black students special treatment, given the tragedy in Minnesota. Do you know the names of the classmates that are black? How can I identify them since we’ve been having online classes only? Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black-half Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half? Also, do you have any idea if any students are from Minneapolis? I assume that they probably are especially devastated as well. I am thinking that a white student from there might be possibly even more devastated by this, especially because some might think that they’re racist even if they are not. My TA is from Minneapolis, so if you don’t know, I can probably ask her. Can you guide me on how you think I should achieve a “no-harm” outcome since our sole course grade is from a final exam only? One last thing strikes me: Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the “color of their skin.” Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK’s admonition? Thanks, G. Klein
The controversy led to immediate demands for the professor to be fired. Thousands have signed a petition that declares Klein must be fired for his “extremely insensitive, dismissive, and woefully racist response” and “blatant lack of empathy and unwillingness to accommodate his students.”
UCLA has launched an investigation that could lead to such termination and issued a statement that “We apologize to the student who received it and to all those who have been as upset and offended by it as we are ourselves.” It has also agreed to extend all exams, presumably for all students. I think that the extension of the time was a good idea for the school as a whole and I can certainly understand the school objecting to the tone of the response at a time of great unrest and trauma in our society. However, the email was a poorly crafted effort by Klein to object to what he viewed as an unworkable, race-based system of accommodation. One can certainly disagree with those objections, but the principle of academic freedom is to allow such views to be stated without fear of termination.
UCLA is also dealing with another demand for termination after Political science lecturer W. Ajax Peris, read aloud MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which includes the n-word. He also showed a documentary to the class in which lynching was discussed. This might have been inappropriate in Klein’s accounting case but Peris was teaching the history of racism. Students demanded that he stop the discussion but he apologized for any discomfort and continued his lecture.
The Political Science Department condemned Peris and referred Peris to UCLA’s Discrimination Prevention Office for an investigation. UCLA will host a town hall for students in Peris’ classes to discuss the “controversy.” While Peris has apologized in a writing and video, students are demanding his firing.
Such actions are applauded by many faculty who have supported the increasing limits on free speech and academic freedom on campus. There has been a startling erosion of such protections for those with opposing views at universities and colleges. Many faculty are intimidated by the response in these controversies and fear that supporting academic freedom or free speech will result in their being labeled racist or lacking of empathy. In three decades of teaching, I have never seen the level of intolerance for free speech that we are seeing across the country. As I noted, there are valid objections to raise in these incidents, but the response of universities is clearly designed to send a message to other academics that they cannot expect the protections of the universities in such controversies.
I think this post calls for more Yuri B.
https://youtu.be/0fx1BYwCwCI
~7 minutes that are worth it. The job has been completed. And Russia and China both laugh at the USA and all the wannabe commies.
The blacks need to move on. This isn’t about George Floyd just another way to cry racism .
” MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the “color of their skin.” Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK’s admonition? “
Racists want easy evaluation based on their color – Affirmative Action is racist. That has always been the truth, and AA has always been racist.
The problem in the black community is bad behavior. For decades now, such bad behavior has been excused by the existence of racism — and racism does exist. On virtually all sides, all races, all ethnic groups.
We can not get rid of racism as long as being of a different races gives you different treatment.
OT: One of the bravest women I have ever met.
Two Days Behind the Lines with Black Lives Matter
” I am not welcome here and I know it. As a white Conservative and a known face, I am a target for their rage. As I move in my wig and mask I am aware there is a hunt for me spreading on social media; I become a wanted woman, for not being wanted here. I know lynchings never went away — their victims just changed color.”
“I watched on. The Churchill statue defaced, the Union flag vandalized atop the Cenotaph — a monument of respect for those who fell fighting for our freedoms, officers bloodied and bruised. One in hospital with a punctured lung and shattered bones, horses injured by fireworks, bricks and bikes thrown at the panicked beasts.”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/two-days-behind-lines-black-lives-matter-katie-hopkins/
Off-topic, but for those following the Flynn case, Gleeson’s amicus brief to Judge Sullivan has been submitted: https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592/gov.uscourts.dcd.191592.223.2_3.pdf
(Sullivan appointed Gleeson amicus “to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss, … [and] address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury …”)
In 1970, after the 4 Kent State murders by Ohio National Guardsmen, many colleges cancelled classes for the remainder of the semester. Students went to large demonstrations. I think the vibe was similar, except we didn’t have a hint of racial tribalism in the anti-war movement.
Academia is now feeling the blowback of the mob sentiment that has been fueled by the leftist professors for the past 20 years. University Presidents are in the hot seat now to uphold a postracial meritocracy of scholarship and free exchange of ideas.
Worth reading, particularly regarding the students’ deaths. https://www.kent.edu/may-4-historical-accuracy
pbinca I was a young school teacher when Kent State happened..but I was living directly across the street from my Alma Mater, Nothing was cancelled, The students were about to take exams…but nothing was cancelled, Part of the education we received from that university was learning how to accept life and become an adult!
That didn’t take long:
https://twitter.com/The_Petrichory/status/1270712965566615557
The comments are funny too.
The Autonomous Zone on Capitol Hill in Seattle took in the ‘homeless’ and the homeless took all their food.
Now they are sending out requests for food help.
My God, that is funny!
I hope they starve but they won’t since they are prancing their revolutionary ardor in the richest country in the world. Keep it up for a few more months and the hunger will be for real.
I remember when the Indians of the American Indian Movement took over an abandoned Alcatraz. After staying on that miserable rock for awhile they realized why it had been abandoned and abandoned it.
That is funny. Realism takes another bite out of idealism.
Olly……..and Idealism just isn’t that filling. 🙂
Well it fills the imagination, but not much else.
Young– thank you for that. I needed a laugh and the aftermath of these events nearly always provides them.
One that is not so funny is the CBS story from a co-worker at the club where the police officer and Floyd worked. According to the co-worker, both knew each other well and did not like each other and had “butted heads” before. This may explain Floyd’s fighting with them as they worked to get him out of the car and it also might explain the knee on the neck. In other words, two men do not like each other at all and one killed the other (assuming the knee to the neck killed him). If this is true, then the most that can be said is that one happened to be in a police uniform and the other happened to be black. In other words, it may turn out that that the killing had nothing to do with the “police” and nothing to do with Floyd’s race. As always, however, the leftists and democrat politicians and MSM jumped to conclusions before an investigation could be done, stirred up a lot of good people and handed an opportunistic excuse to a bunch of rioters who jumped at the chance to burn and loot.
If this was the first time those on the left and the media had done this, one could almost excuse it, and it may turn out that there was official wrongdoing and racial issues, but it is sounding more and more like there was not. We know that the leftists and media followed this same pattern in Ferguson and with Trayvon Martin. The same thing also happened in Boston when President Obama jumped to the conclusion that the police acted “stupidly” in arresting the black professor.
The only tangible benefit to come out of all of this mess is that we have been able to attach names and faces to some of the real fascists and crazy people who populate the government of many major cities and many of our universities.
“one happened to be in a police uniform”
And he has a legal obligation not to abuse his power while at work.
“The same thing also happened in Boston when President Obama jumped to the conclusion that the police acted ‘stupidly’ in arresting the black professor.”
After the police dropped the charges and released a joint statement describing the arrest as “regrettable and unfortunate,” Obama said “the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.” That’s an example of him reaching a reasonable conclusion days later, not “jumping” to a conclusion.
Re: “The only tangible benefit …,” it’s sad that you don’t see police reform efforts as a tangible benefit, that you don’t think it’s a tangible benefit that the NY legislature voted yesterday to make formal complaints about excessive force by officers public records, … Some police abuse their power. That abuse of power isn’t good for society. Changes that help to rein in abuse are tangible benefits.
So people think that burning and looting a city is a form of abuse.
I think “burning and looting” are forms of abuse, and I also think other destruction/theft of property, violence, white collar crime, vote suppression, … are forms of abuse. “Abuse” is a large category. Police abuse of power is the subset I was commenting on, but it’s clearly not the only form of abuse that exists in society, or even the only kind of abuse of power (as we see with Trump, who abuses his power but isn’t a cop).
“And he has a legal obligation not to abuse his power while at work.”
True, but one has to wonder if he is abusing his power by using an approved restraint taught by the department and used by many other officers including, most likely, the black chief of police when he was on patrol.
If it was an abusive technique then the black chief of police had the authority to change it. He didn’t.
Honest– When others were saying that they probably didn’t know each other at their other jobs I was saying that I was pretty sure that the two bouncers at the establishment almost certainly did know each other.
The account that they didn’t like each other may or may not be true. Some of the frills being added probably are not.
Early on I also said I expected efforts to influence witnesses to start early. That happened in Ferguson on a large scale though several withdrew their public statements when under oath. It was particularly despicable that the media and activist groups were trying to get information about those whose testimony departed from the ‘narrative’ in Ferguson. There can be little doubt that information would have been used to intimidate or injure those who chose to tell the truth. I expect the same here. Defense counsel has a lot to guard against.
I thought Ellison would pressure the other cops to adjust their testimony, but he may have overreached in the charges he brought against them. Still, he has leverage.
I do not expect a fair trial. George Zimmerman did not get a fair trial, but the jury, fortunately, went against Obama, the DOJ, the ‘special’ prosecutor, a hostile judge, and a lying media. Maybe a jury will make the difference in this case.
Turley is of course correct. He is too tepid, however. The professor’s comments were sarcastic. Am I to take seriously the idea that professors are not well within the rights all of us have to be sarcastic? His point was right on. Students, suck it up and deal. You have NO RIGHT AT ALL to seek to punish anyone for speech. NONE.
Actually, students have free speech rights to say what they want about faculty (as long as it doesn’t interfere during class or rise to the level of defamation), including urging the university to fire someone.
That doesn’t mean that their argument should win, but it’s ludicrous to claim they have “no right at all to **seek** to punish anyone for free speech.” People seek to punish others for their speech all the time. People argue against candidates who say things that they think will hurt the country, people urge boycotts of companies whose speech they object to, people find libel suits, …
That should be “file,” not “find.”
This column is titled “UCLA Professor Suspended and Under Police Protection After Refusing To Exempt Black Students From Final Exam,” and Mr. Turley also writes “Klein refused to exempt black students from his final exam.”
However, Mr. Turley doesn’t provide any evidence at all that Klein was asked “to exempt black students from his final exam” and that Klein “refused” to do so.
The Inside Higher Ed article he links to says “In the UCLA case, Gordon Klein, lecturer in accounting, was responding to an emailed request from students who identified themselves as nonblack allies of their black peers. According to screenshots of the exchange shared with Inside Higher Ed, the group of students asked Klein for a “no-harm” final exam that could only benefit students’ grades, and for shortened exams and extended deadlines for final assignments and projects.” They do not mention any request that black students be exempted, and the letter from Klein that Turley quotes doesn’t say anything about exemptions either.
Turley can address what students actually requested and Klein’s actual response without resorting to falsely characterizing the situation.
Thank you for actual info.
Anon– Glad you finished your daily bowl of b.s.
Actually the article says that leniency was requested for Black students, although the ones requesting the relief claimed to not be black. If you are citing to the article, Professor Turley correctly characterized the exchange. See quote from article below.
“Theirs was “not a joint effort to get finals canceled for non-black students,” the self-identified allies wrote, “but rather an ask that you exercise compassion and leniency with black students in our major.””
Column Illustrates Importance Of Teacher Unions
Teaching can be highly political; even at the grade school level. Teachers need unions to protect them from political climates like the present.
Professor Turley obviously understands that political climates like the present put huge stresses on teachers at every level. Yet Turley is also a Trump defender and enabler. This becomes a conflict since Trump has been overtly anti-union since his first day in office.
One of Trump’s early initiatives was essentially a declaration of war against Public Employees Unions. What’s more the Republican party has championed so-called ‘Right To Work’ laws (backed by Koch Bros funding). In short, ‘Trump and Republicans have been absolutely hostile to organized labor’.
Anyone who feels that cops and teachers are being scapegoated in this current climate should demonstrate their concerns by supporting organized labor in general and Public Employees Unions in particular.
Thanks Seth for mentioning unions. They are important social institutions.
I can’t speak to the teachers unions, full of good membership and even stewards, but the leadership is so phony sometimes. But on to the Republicans I love to hate, the Kroch bors.
the Kroch bros are behind these “right to work” propaganda efforts and Trump should have punished the Koches and steered far away from their schemes and instead, sidled up closer to organized labor.
he made some gains with steel unions and to a lesser extent with teamsters, but was his heart in it?
it’s true that “labor market flexibility” helps economic growth. and “right to work” laws that undermine union organizing add to this economist notion of flexibility
the problem is that building a powerful national industrial coalition to stand up to offshoring industry to China, needed support from organized labor, more than it needed Wall Street which was all in favor of offshoring in the first place.
if the goal was to stand up to offshoring, outsourcing, and promote fair trade over free trade, then unions needed to be on the team.
some Republicans understood this, and pointed it out, but then you have the slicksters who pooh poohed it. the same financial wizards who presume to control both parties, and do
If Trump wanted to break that cycle and truly represented the people, he needed more support from labor to get it done. he needed to reach out, make overtures,at least. Maybe he did but whatever it was, it wasnt enough so far. maybe he can pull it out before it’s too late.
now he should be doing that with police unions but he would need to be doing it with unions across the board. there is still time and it could make a huge difference in the election to siphon off union votes.
the Koch bros hate him and he’s failed to deal with enemies like that. he has barely even poked fun at them on tweeter. maybe a couple times. he should have sicked crazy steve bannon on them.
well, if Trump fails, and there is another go at it at some point– who knows if he fails it may be too late to stop the tsunami of renewed cooperatoin with the CCP that will surely ensue under biden– but if there is another attempt at national economic populism once Trump times out or fails, it better do better with unions or it will just fail.
now i just took a look and it seems there is a certain rapport with Teamsters leadership and Trump. he needs to build on that and fast.
in Republican politics, there is no cheese at the end of the “right to work” hole. Throw it overboard and lighten your load., Let management fight its own battles, they’ve done precious little to help so far.
I might add that a lot of the moves in Trump’s playbook were laid out decades ago by Pat Buchanan.
And where did he cut his teeth? Under Nixon
Nixon had good support from organized labor, the rank and file at least, and he pardoned Jimmy Hoffa.
And Nixon stole George Wallace’s thunder. Yes, they say Trump has a connection to Wallace. Sure he does. It’s obvious. And not all bad, either. Wallace was under-rated, and as usual, hated because he was racist. Of course his whole life experience shows that he was far more of a populist than a racist, which was usually true of Democrat party segregationists like him, but nobody is all that interested in facts of history.
Except those who want to learn from it. Nixon learned fast. Trump learned from Nixon, in a lot of ways. This is one way that he needs to get with the Buchanan, Nixon, Wallace playbook, and get closer to organized labor and fast.
A few deals here and there could really grease the skids. Probably Trump knows what to do. if he built in NYC, he knows the names. Just get off Twitter and do it, fast.
Left-leaning academics and politicians are surprised to come under attack. Even de Blasio has been challenged by his goofy looking daughter for his white privilege and the leftist mayor of Seattle has been ordered to resign by a mob that took over city hall. Pelosi has been attacked for posing in traditional African cloth.
These silly people can look to China’s recent past to see where this leads. Perhaps soon we can see the pandering leftist academics wearing dunce caps and pummeled down the street by an exultant mob.
You fed the monster and you let it loose. Don’t expect those of us who treasured civilization to give up our tears of laughter when your monster eats you.
Maybe these leftist will go on a long march and end up in the ocean.
If it keeps up the best hope might be if Trump turns out to be the dictator these fools claim he is. However, he has been well within the limits of the Constitution so far.
Great professor response.
Hopefully the AAUP will take up this case of a clear violation of tenure rights — anybody teaching for 40 years certainly has tenure.
Oh yes, for the great unwashed, that is the American Association of University Professors.
listen to the arrogant old perfesser Benson call us the “great unwashed”
as if to say only ivory tower academics like him bathed!
the arrogance is spewed from his foul mouth like foul smelling vomit, without a hint of irony!
chutzpah, you know what that means right David?
Mr Kurtz, but I don’t bathe! Just Making Stuff Up again.
And yes, I know what kutzpah means…
😉
Oh yeah, man of the people Kurtz is against the elites. He likes his leaders to be born in a log cabin on 5th Ave and make sure corporate tax cut bills are written not just for billionaires, but for millionaires. And just so the deplorables who’s kids will be paying for it aren’t burdened by health care insurance payments, has gotten millions of them off it!
“anybody teaching for 40 years certainly has tenure. ”
Nope, Klein is not tenured; he’s a lecturer:
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/faculty/klein
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/faculty
CHD — thank you for the correction. Nonetheless, after 40 years there are some protections. I do hope that the AAUP will argue his case with the UCLA administrators, who certainly ought to know better…
They do address many aspects of academic freedom and free speech: https://www.aaup.org/our-work/protecting-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-and-first-amendment-2007
But I don’t see anything about stupid email responses to students.
If it’s true that the entire course grade is based on the final, then he should have simply responded that he’s sensitive to the concern that students posed and also to the difficulty of grading when courses have moved online in response to COVID-19, and that any student who wished could instead take the exam pass-fail, or something like that. His response was foolish, counterproductive, and understandably offensive to many.
UCLA has apparently placed him on leave until it’s resolved.
Committ – when I was in college the only time they were “sensitive” was if your roommate committed suicide and then you got a week’s grace to get your s**t together. The professor nailed it.
Kind of reminds me of the “cargo cults” in the South Pacific. If you just give them the grades and degrees it means they are qualified and resulting success guaranteed
As a Hispanic, I should have tried this in order to get out of exams and then played the ethnic card when denied. Might have even gotten a few harda@@ professors fired. What was I thinking?
antonio
antonio – as an agnostic, I always took Good Friday off. All you had to do is tell the professor you were taking it off. You did not have to prove you were Catholic. 😉
@paul c schulte
I appreciate the input but my guess is you were permitted to take it at another time. Sounds like apples and oranges. Our school made a similar provision for religious students but no one got out of the exam altogether.
Have a feeling that whatever you give these privileged pets will ever be enough. And society will keep on giving and giving. Anybody like the tune of $14 trillion for reparations? And if you question let alone oppose it, you are a BIGOT.
antonio
antonio – I don’t remember exams being given on Good Friday. It just solved so many problems to skip it.
@paul c schulte
Not sure what your point was. There is a difference between giving religious students an alternative time to take an exam or not giving an exam on a religious holiday and excusing an entire group from exams altogether due to race or ethnicity.
I suppose that whatever blacks want is reasonable, all the time, everywhere and we are racist for not going along without question.
Again, how do you like paying your share of the $14 trillion? I owe blacks NOTHING, my ancestors were in Spain and Latin America.
antonio
lawyers dont make settlements with people who were not the parties in real interest.
because those settlements don’t settle anything
if the reparations are just a sop, a payoff to rioters, then i would oppose them
at least the reparation are an open demand for payola. instead we have the illusion of “defunding police” which actually means diverting budget funds to Democratic party controlled “social agencies”
the cop unions are totally betrayed by the entire Democratic establishment. this is obvious. but then again so many unions have been betrayed by them for decades and yet for some reason Republicans ever fail to capitalize on this.
why? a) false liberterian ideology that sounds good on paper and fails in life,
and b) Kroch brothers funding “right to work” propaganda mills
@mr kurtz
“lawyers dont make settlements with people who were not the parties in real interest.”
What you say is true enough, these 3d parties have no standing. BUT don’t you realize that saying such things is indicative of your white privilege?
antonio
antonio – I am hoping to be dead long before I have to pony up my part of the 14 trillion. However, I hope Benson lives to a 100 and has to live in a cardboard box to pay it off. 😉
Due to the miracle of Keyes, it will pay itself off. But my 100th birthday is only 20 years and a few months off. $14 trillion will take rather longer.
🙂
@paul c schulte
Don’t worry too much about Benson and his leftist cohorts. Reparations will only be required from deplorables and other such cretins (as defined by the left). Possession of a “good white” card will exempt the holder from any such payments. Just like it exempts them and their property from dindu attacks.
antonio
antonio — I don’t have even one cohort much less a multiplicity.
😉
Yeah Antonio, we are all aware of the outreach programs of the Spanish government to the peoples of Africa and Latin America. Legendary!
@btb
I make no excuse or apology for whatever the Spaniards may or may not have done in Latin America. History is what it is, for good, ill or a little of both. I am quite aware of the History of Latin America, from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. My ancestors were a great conquering people (though not perfect) of which I am proud.
Sorry, amigo, “white guilt” as promoted by western leftists doesn’t work on Latins of whatever stripe (white, mestizo, etc). That is a distinctly Anglo-Saxon disease to which I am immune.
Looking forward to ponying up your share of the $14 trillion? I don’t owe a dime.
antonio
antonio – try telling that to the tax man.
@paul c schulte
It will be interesting to see how our elites determine who is subject to paying reparations and who will receive them. I contend that whites have been paying reparations for years in the form of AA, set asides, special scholarships, lowering of standards, etc. and the debt will never be repaid even with an additional $14 trillion.
May be the proverbial straw that “broke the camels back”. Hispanics of whatever race or ethnicity have little patience for black shenanigans. Have a feeling other minorities share a similar opinion.
antonio
Another school to add to the list of those whose students ahould not be hired. No proof of competency why take the chance with expensive machinery and in a further vein the safety of the other employees
Paul C I have Catholic friends who enjoy using the “Stations of the Cross: alibi/excuse, if they need one,,,LOL
The fundamental Zimbabwe transformation. Yes we can.
Weird that it is happening under Emmanuel Trumpstein.
The kabuki is wildly entertaining.
Prof should get a black prof to post the exact same message. Then when the school doesn’t condemn him, sue for race discrimination under 42 “U.S.C. Section 1983 et al.
Defund the UC system
time to boycott future black professionals cuz you wont know if they deserved to get into medical school, dental school, business school. you wont know if they know their sh!t.
old bat – my accountant is a black female and she has done our taxes for close to 30 years. She really knows what she is doing. 🙂 She is talking about retiring and I am not sure I trust the young kid who would be taking over. 😉
Paul, tell your accountant that if she retires she will have to be a contributor on this blog for the rest of her life. I think she will then reconsider.
Paul,
This is my profession and it’s likely the “young kid” is already doing the heavy lifting of your tax prep. And if she is as good as you say, then you should expect to be in good hands with whoever takes your account. Well, that is if you’re not already a pain in the ass client. 😉
OLLY – my wife is great at record keeping and we don’t press her on getting it done. It is old home week when we visit to do our taxes. 🙂
I would enjoy you and your wife as a client. 🙂
OLLY – we may be looking for a new accountant. 😉
Old bat: that’s the sad conclusion many will come to…a degree from one of these schools won’t mean as much as it used to. Can you imagine someone drafted into the Union Army writing to Lincoln saying, “I’d like to fight to end slavery, but I’m halfway through re-roofing the barn and getting my crops in, so could I postpone for 6 months please?”
🙂 Bob, but, but don’t you know, we’ve progressed as a culture and we have to consider the feelings of the oppressed among us. Of course these students will eventually graduate and enter the workforce. If they aren’t prepared for the real world, the employers will simply sort it all out. Well, that is as long as they don’t get buried in legal fees first.
Already done.
As long as the Right tolerates this adolescent nonsense, the Left will keep at it. We’ve become embarrassing, permissive parents who stand there and allow their kids to destroy a grocery checkout because we told them they can’t have a candy bar. And then we buy the candy bar for them. I mean…any parent can tell you what needs to be done to end this. But for some reason we aren’t allowed to hold Leftists to the same societal standards of behavior (to include following the law) as the rest of society. It’s baffling.
the socalled right has been inept since probably FDR’s time.
the right if it existed would exert pressure on trustees not ignorant students or low level professors
Parts of the response was certainly mocking in tone, more so than I would have considered appropriate.
It was an “ask” deserving of the shredder. Nonetheless, his response was completely appropriate. These children need to understand that once they leave their safe space of learning and begin their chosen career, clients won’t care about your asks. They’ll want their accounts reconciled, payroll on time, tax filing deadlines met, effective representation wrt the IRS, and so on. A college/university degree should mean more than passing courses at the convenience of the student. Imagine military bootcamps not training to the environment they will eventually operate. The real world won’t care about your personal problems, especially if it creates problems for them.
I would imagine these little a$$wipes are in school rather than serve in the military where people are allowed to tell them what to do and there is punishment if they don’t. They could not survive in that world, and they won’t do well after graduating. Just give them a diploma and make room for people who are serious. The diploma will mean nothing pretty soon, and that is as it should be.
Bob,
I recall in the 90’s the Navy experimenting with what we called Stress Chits or Stress Cards for recruits boot camp. When the good intent met reality, the program died.
Navy RDCs (Recruit Division Commanders) began reporting that some recruits had taken to raising their cards while being disciplined as a way of signaling for a “time out.” It’s unclear whether any of those enduring basic training really thought that was the purpose of the cards or whether this was just standard armed forces jackassing, but the Navy took no chances and got rid of the cards.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stress-cards/
We are raising generations of citizens completely ignorant and apathetic of what made this country great. And their resulting dependence on the state is exactly how the rest of us will suffer the consequences.
In the Marine Corps and the real combat arms portions of the Army the story went around that a sergeant just through the card on the ground, pizzed on it and began a 20 mile road march. My thought was why did that Sergeants trainees get off so light. Shake’n’Bake Whip’n’Chills will never be trustworthy enough to lead or worst to have to follow in the ‘real’ world..
The voice of reason. What a refreshing breath of fresh air. Thank you.
Thank you Jenn!
How else would one make the point that the “ask” was frivolous and in reality (that place that most of us have to live in) no one gives a rat’s rump about your feelings when it comes to fulfilling your obligations. When rioting and vandalism take precedence over a final for which the grade is the only one you get for taking the class, I consider mocking to be an appropriate way to bring it home to elite sillies that have no idea what real life is like and will have it fly upside their head one day and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s what happens when you don’t have anyone to hold your little hand and pat your little head”. Making them dependent on bullying their way through life isn’t doing them any favors, ask anyone.
Making them dependent on bullying their way through life isn’t doing them any favors, ask anyone.
Good point. It’s not doing the rest of society any favors either.