41 points by JumpCrisscross 4 hours ago | 9 comments
theamk 3 hours ago
I think political interference is a horrible thing for university education.

But that particular part - "laws requiring professors to publicly post their course outlines in searchable databases" - is great, and should be done everywhere. There are actually universities who _claim_ to have great math (or physics or other science) program, but actually just teach it at "advanced high school" level. So public syllabi - something that was very common in 2000's but going out of style today - are critical for anyone choosing the university to go to.

ebiester 2 hours ago
So, that sounds fine in theory.

What's happening in practice, though, is a group of people (like Campus Watch) are looking specifically for anyone teaching gender, trans issues, race, and religion, and analyzing the coursework through their ideologies and harassing professors on account of it. And they're going through past years as well as present.

Eddy_Viscosity2 1 hour ago
Not sharing course outlines is not going to help make this problem better. Better to face those groups head on than hide.
janice1999 2 hours ago
Intent matters though. Malicious actors, who are very much in power, will use the information to target universities and ideas [1] they don't like. Don't build databases for your enemies. Censuses were a great tool too, until certain people took power, then destroying them became the moral thing to do [2].

[1] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Amsterdam_civil_registry_...

vibeprofessor 2 hours ago
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juliusceasar 1 hour ago
Telling the history of your country about how you enslaved, murdered and tortured are considered "grievance narratives" by the current administration. Declaring scientists public enemy because they don't follow your politics.
like_any_other 1 hour ago
Do they also teach about Comanche slave raids and other intra-native wars, and the native American treatment of prisoners of war and slaves, putting European conquerors in context as just another warring 'tribe', just a more successful one? Or do they teach a one-sided morality play version of history?
vibeprofessor 1 hour ago
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mindslight 1 hour ago
While this has some valid points, constructively addressing these issues is clearly not the political thrust of the destructionists who wish to simplistically downplay the history rather than framing it in a more productive manner.

Also the condemnation of "treats political disagreement as moral evil" landed harder back before the other tribe decided to embrace the dynamic and fortify their political stances with blatant immoral evil. Totalitarian terror squads attacking American society to start a civil war and break up the leader of the western world? Pretty fucking evil.

janice1999 1 hour ago
From a European perspective this response and your other comments ranting about "pronouns" and "Marxist ideology" makes me think you're either a troll parroting bizarre US political memes or, if serious, you're the one indoctrinated in a radical ideology. Either way, I suggest closing the browser and talking to people in real life.
rahimnathwani 2 hours ago
"I think political interference is a horrible thing for university education."

The University of California is one of the largest universities in the US. It is governed by a Board of Regents. The majority of those Regents are appointed by the state Governor.

Do you consider that 'political interference'?

One of the things those Regents did was vote to end the use of SAT scores in admissions. They did during a meeting in which several spoke of the value of the SAT. And they acted against the recommendations of the Academic Council's Standardized Testing Task Force.

You might think that the staggered and long terms protect against political interference/influence. But if that's the case, how do we explain how so many votes are unanimous when, on the day of the vote, some regents express opposing views?

kyboren 1 hour ago
> how do we explain how so many votes are unanimous when, on the day of the vote, some regents express opposing views?

That reminds me of the Politburo voting scene in The Death of Stalin. Small group politics at their finest.

Anyway, the UC Board of Regents is full of political hacks and corrupt cronies. Diane Feinstein's husband was famously a regent, while simultaneously serving as Chairman of both CBRE and his own leveraged buyout private equity firm.

coldtea 2 hours ago
Nobody (roughly) is choosing the university to go to based on the syllabus. They choose it based on cost, exclusivity, and networking considerations.
mmooss 2 hours ago
> There are actually universities who _claim_ to have great math (or physics or other science) program, but actually just teach it at "advanced high school" level.

What do you mean by that? And could you give an example?

It's hard to imagine any university teaching science majors at 'advanced high school' level, as I understand it. I could see a US community college or almost any university teaching intro courses that way. I can't iamgine what a 4th year chemistry major would be studying that fits the scope of 'advanced high school'.

testing22321 2 hours ago
> But that particular part - "laws requiring professors to publicly post their course outlines in searchable databases" - is great, and should be done everywhere.

You have to think about the consequences.

It seems like a great thing until doors are smashed down and people are taken away for discussing topics the current regime doesn’t want discussed.

hilbert42 1 hour ago
I am just so glad my time at university was in the late 1960s. Not only was it an exciting time to be alive but the thought of universities and professors under this kind of surveillance and being frightened to speak out couldn't have been further from our thoughts.

Universities have always had their critics and back then was no exception. Complaints centered widely from about the ratbag student element causing troubles, to critism of subsidiaries/what universities cost the state, and about the spoilt and privileged class, and that universities were a hotbed of political activism—which at the time they were—but nothing approached this level of intense scrutiny.

We students and those teaching us could say what we wanted without retribution. I remember being cheered by the student body after giving an anti-Vietnam War speech in the student union building and I suffered no repercussions, and that's how it was for everyone, staff and students alike.

It was a wonderful time to be a university student, and 1968 was very special.

direwolf20 29 minutes ago
McCarthyism wasn't long before that time
frogperson 39 minutes ago
I think its important that everyone learn to recognize the 14 points of fascism.

https://public.websites.umich.edu/~rsc/Editorials/fascism.ht...

In this case, we can recognize: "11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts".

delichon 1 hour ago
Surveillance of publicly funded activity is due diligence.
nesk_ 2 hours ago
josefritzishere 1 hour ago
This reminds me of something I read about the STASI.
antibull 38 minutes ago
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somalihoaxes 1 hour ago
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vibeprofessor 2 hours ago
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robocat 1 hour ago
Whaddabout the military then? Same same problem.

If you are interested in removing bias, then hopefully you're interested in removing bias in the military too?

Computer0 1 hour ago
Law Enforcement, Churches, Prisons, Unionized workplaces, we have a lot of ideological correction ahead of us!
Recurecur 1 hour ago
Pete Hegseth in particular is addressing those issues… :-)
curt15 2 hours ago
It's not the federal government's job to police ideology. That's the stuff of Communist China's cultural revolution. There's nothing stopping people from creating their own university teaching "correct" ideology. The US has no shortage of well-resourced individuals and organizations spanning the entire spectrum of political viewpoints.
coldtea 1 hour ago
That has been going since forever. McCarthy is just one blatant example, it happened in the 20s, and 30s, and 40s 50s and 60s and 70s and all the way to today.
vibeprofessor 1 hour ago
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realo 2 hours ago
It does not look like you actually know what "far" means , either left or right.
vibeprofessor 2 hours ago
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rationalist 1 hour ago
The author of that cartoon posted an updated version of it:

https://x.com/SwipeWright/status/1966288413939659079

29 minutes ago
direwolf20 27 minutes ago
neither one is in the same county as the truth