5/5? Now you're just being plumb silly. 😉 I am, however, impressed with your line of reasoning on your choice. Not only are universities filled with the woke, they are also filled with the clueless. Nice work making the best of it.
If only there were a candidate that gave the answers in bold. Perhaps your essay will get potential candidates and interviewers to think about free speech and academic freedom--at a university no less!
Growth of the student body and improved research are fine goals. Still, academic freedom and free speech are under serious attack by the woke left. I suppose less so in Florida, allowing for more importance to be placed on those other goals.
I hope Stevenson did well on the scenario questions!
I loved these questions. And in fact, I would propose that they form the basis of a training manual or article or course so people can arm themselves against this kind of nonsense.
Unfortunately, Academia (and many other parts of the R&D enterprise) have been infected by this "woke mind virus". And we need to have the tools to be able to beat it back. We need to be able to inoculate ourselves against this foolishness. And these questions are a great start in that direction.
We spend so much of our time and effort in actually doing STEM, which is pretty involved, and in raising money as well, that we are not prepared for these kinds of attacks or disruption. We must get better prepared. I agree completely.
I will be using these insightful questions myself in my future endeavors.
Interesting essay Dorian. I hope for more of this and less of the lamer posts. Your being appointed to the BoT of a Florida university is the second good thing I have heard about Florida in the past week: the other one being that the Guv signed a bill to make intentional release of party balloons unlawful. I had to look it up - it's halfway between Orlando and Tampa - even though it's inland, I expect it's in swampland still vulnerable to sea level rise. I suppose they might benefit from your specific expertise on causes of sea level rise, etc, in addition to your measured opinions on academic issues.
I'd quibble with your hoped-for hypothetical response to #5. I'm not sure academic freedom is properly thought of as a right, but if it is, it is not only an individual right but also a collective right. Far below is a quote and a link on that specific issue. But first, I'll drift into semantics ...
Is gravity a force? We speak of the "force of gravity" but isn't that because gravity is something more than just a force? Likewise, is freedom a right, or something more? I think it is something more which encompasses the professional rights we assert under its conceptional framework.
Of course one has only so much time to respond, and your hypothetical responses were necessarily short, but #5's presumes much, especially that the Dept Chair was responsible for the posting on the Dept website. Also, the President ought not get directly involved in that level of micromanagement - the President might delegate that to an appropriate dean to investigate and deal with, I'd guess.
"Silence is Violence" can be best appreciated for its Johnny Cochran-esque rhyme and meter, "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit."
"institutional academic freedom safeguards the university as a whole from government or other outside interference. It permits the university to select its faculty and to determine areas of study, appropriate teaching methods, and which students to admit." https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/academic-freedom/
About #5: wouldn’t your proposed resolution violate the electrical engineering department’s First Amendment rights? My understanding of Citizens United is that all corporations (“a number of persons united in one body for a purpose”) have such rights.
More to the point, while a university is legally allowed to run itself in such a way that departments can make collective political statements, I would imagine you think it is a unwise way to run a university (I agree!!) and vote correspondingly.
5/5? Now you're just being plumb silly. 😉 I am, however, impressed with your line of reasoning on your choice. Not only are universities filled with the woke, they are also filled with the clueless. Nice work making the best of it.
Dear Dorian,
If only there were a candidate that gave the answers in bold. Perhaps your essay will get potential candidates and interviewers to think about free speech and academic freedom--at a university no less!
Principled and succinct, with decisive action. Thank you, Dorian.
Good scenario questions.
Growth of the student body and improved research are fine goals. Still, academic freedom and free speech are under serious attack by the woke left. I suppose less so in Florida, allowing for more importance to be placed on those other goals.
I hope Stevenson did well on the scenario questions!
;-)
Spot on, Dorian! I will use some of these questions in the future.
I loved these questions. And in fact, I would propose that they form the basis of a training manual or article or course so people can arm themselves against this kind of nonsense.
Unfortunately, Academia (and many other parts of the R&D enterprise) have been infected by this "woke mind virus". And we need to have the tools to be able to beat it back. We need to be able to inoculate ourselves against this foolishness. And these questions are a great start in that direction.
We spend so much of our time and effort in actually doing STEM, which is pretty involved, and in raising money as well, that we are not prepared for these kinds of attacks or disruption. We must get better prepared. I agree completely.
I will be using these insightful questions myself in my future endeavors.
Interesting essay Dorian. I hope for more of this and less of the lamer posts. Your being appointed to the BoT of a Florida university is the second good thing I have heard about Florida in the past week: the other one being that the Guv signed a bill to make intentional release of party balloons unlawful. I had to look it up - it's halfway between Orlando and Tampa - even though it's inland, I expect it's in swampland still vulnerable to sea level rise. I suppose they might benefit from your specific expertise on causes of sea level rise, etc, in addition to your measured opinions on academic issues.
I'd quibble with your hoped-for hypothetical response to #5. I'm not sure academic freedom is properly thought of as a right, but if it is, it is not only an individual right but also a collective right. Far below is a quote and a link on that specific issue. But first, I'll drift into semantics ...
The ALA describes it as a conviction, but the AAUP and others say it's a professional right. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/academicfreedom and https://www.aaup.org/programs/academic-freedom/faqs-academic-freedom
Is gravity a force? We speak of the "force of gravity" but isn't that because gravity is something more than just a force? Likewise, is freedom a right, or something more? I think it is something more which encompasses the professional rights we assert under its conceptional framework.
Of course one has only so much time to respond, and your hypothetical responses were necessarily short, but #5's presumes much, especially that the Dept Chair was responsible for the posting on the Dept website. Also, the President ought not get directly involved in that level of micromanagement - the President might delegate that to an appropriate dean to investigate and deal with, I'd guess.
"Silence is Violence" can be best appreciated for its Johnny Cochran-esque rhyme and meter, "if the glove don't fit, you must acquit."
"institutional academic freedom safeguards the university as a whole from government or other outside interference. It permits the university to select its faculty and to determine areas of study, appropriate teaching methods, and which students to admit." https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/academic-freedom/
About #5: wouldn’t your proposed resolution violate the electrical engineering department’s First Amendment rights? My understanding of Citizens United is that all corporations (“a number of persons united in one body for a purpose”) have such rights.
No, I don't think so. A corporation is a well-defined and specific legal entity. A department is not a corporation.
More to the point, while a university is legally allowed to run itself in such a way that departments can make collective political statements, I would imagine you think it is a unwise way to run a university (I agree!!) and vote correspondingly.