Monday, August 7, 2017

To My Fellow College Faculty

In case you wonder why your non-ivory tower acquaintances wince when they introduce you to friends: 8/5/17 PJMedia:
On the other hand, it's really, really tough to lose your college teaching job by spouting off leftist slogans. Which makes Kevin Allred a very special guy. He is a white man who, for several years, taught a course in the Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University entitled “Politicizing Beyoncé.”
Judging by all accounts, it was a perfect example of a thoroughly ridiculous 21st-century humanities course, heavy on pop culture and political correctness and light on anything remotely resembling academic or practical value. It was a very popular course with the Rutgers student body, doubtless because it was less challenging than, say, Quantum Mechanics.
(Sample student comments from Rate My Professors: “Awesome professor! Doesn't believe in grades and is very lenient. No actual homework.” “BEST. PROFESSOR. AT RUTGERS. Like the second class the computer wasn't working and he cancelled class.” “He doesn't even lecture, we watch one or two of Beyonce's music videos and then we discuss them ... super easy.” “SUPER CHILL! Like literally, he let us choose our final grade!”)...
“We were informed by Rutgers PD,” explained the NYPD in a statement, “that he made threats to kill white people.” Allred himself, in a piece published online last month, maintained that “[a]n anonymous complaint from a parent claimed I forced students to destroy an American flag, threatened every white student in class by saying I would shoot them all given the chance, then returned home and tweeted proof of my dangerous behavior.”
The tweet read as follows: “will the 2nd amendment be as cool when I buy a gun and start shooting atrandom [sic] white people or no...?”
Although the doctors at Bellevue sent Allred home, he was later visited (he says) by members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. And Rutgers, after temporarily suspending him, gave him the heave-ho. In the aforementioned piece, in which he depicted himself (naturally) as a victim and rejected all the accusations made against him, Allred said that the whole episode “makes me want to teach harder, more ferociously, and more unapologetically than ever.”
Of course fired by Rutgers meant hired by Montclair State University.  Of course Allred is white.

Stuff like this shows the fundamental unseriousness of some departments, and that perception soon spreads to the larger institutions.  I really recommend you read the student comments at RateMyProfessors, and ask yourself, "Is this college, or young adult daycare?"

1 comment:

  1. Ahhhh... yes. Montclair State. Home to Professor Grover Furr for the past 30 odd years.

    A professor so nuts that to call him bat-crap crazy insults bat-crap.

    He is a major Stalin fan, supporter, defender. Stalin did not kill a single person. Not even in the purges. He once sent me about 150 pages of clippings, in Cyrilic Russian to prove it. This was when I mentioned the 20-30mm who died under Stalin in a discussion group.

    Furr has his on Wikipedia page if you want to look him up. Be sure to check his website.

    John Henry

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