tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post6728637944770727090..comments2024-03-15T01:11:32.832-07:00Comments on Bardiac: A Foot in the DoorBardiachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-37256718088689249022009-12-21T08:56:17.395-08:002009-12-21T08:56:17.395-08:00A foot in the door, like, to take over the entire ...A foot in the door, like, to take over the entire curriculum? His choice of words is scary to begin with.<br /><br />If he wants to *really* incorporate this concept into classes, there are several courses on campus that a lot of people already take: Psych 101, Bio 101, Eng 101, Hist 101, etc., all come to mind as places where the concept of rape and the biological and social consequences thereof could be very readily and productively handled. He'd be a lot better off enlisting professors to his cause than trying to become a professor.<br /><br />Plus...I dunno, but it seems like one college class is not going to do much for men who are disrespectful to the point of even mild violence.<br /><br />Your objection to people teaching without terminal degrees may be a *little* snobbish. ;-) Depends on the person without the degree...or with, for that matter.Victoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16601902091484978157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-22558244617284903362009-12-21T06:31:31.248-08:002009-12-21T06:31:31.248-08:00You know, this sort of conflict between faculty an...You know, this sort of conflict between faculty and staff (particularly the student life staff) sounds like the types of conflict we're having on campus too. It's a host of things - having staff teach some intro level courses, but not thinking about standard courtesies of teaching (don't put a sign on your door that says "Intro to X canceled today" when there are 3-4 Intro to X classes in that room; having the staff decide that some programs are deficient, so creating new programs rather than working within the existing structures (okay, faculty do that one too); and having staff use the campus email for all sorts of non-academic emails (holiday greetings, forwards, etc).<br /><br />There's a different sense of how a college/university campus should work. And as faculty it's frustrating -- and I think that you're right that at the moment, the staff members are winning the PR side of the conflict.<br /><br />But I think that your post points to exactly why that is: they can articulate their ideas and we cannot articulate our objections to them. I think that's because our objections are intuitive - and we think obvious. I also think that in situations like the one you describe here, the problem is that he came to the conversation with this plan in mind - and it was so unexpected that you didn't have anything except that intuitive response.<br /><br />I think we're going to continue to see these sorts of efforts -- and especially these sorts of efforts at the administrative end (which is, in the end, what student life really is), to start new programs that wrest any sort of control from the faculty who are already providing similar programs. It may not be all that malicious on the staff's part, but that's the effect in the end.<br /><br />(If this is grumpy, it's because our staff decided to start yet another counseling-type program with people untrained for it. They printed these really fancy brochures. Which rubs me, as a member of a faculty who are all taking unpaid overloads each semester this year, the wrong way. I'm not going to lie.)Emilyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05785405871792461512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-8486830095128836942009-12-20T13:24:45.832-08:002009-12-20T13:24:45.832-08:00What scares me is the thought that there needs to ...What scares me is the thought that there needs to be a college class teaching men not to rape women. Shouldn't this be something they're taught from the very moment they can draw breath? I mean - it's like teaching them not to soil their pants or how to read - this should be basic as soon as kids begin to understand what sex is. So, a student might not have known this in high school when he might have raped women, but thank god he took this *college* class so he learns that he's been doing the wrong thing?!?<br /><br />Ugh!medieval womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00457130525946143002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17974015.post-34131350824941762632009-12-20T09:27:39.259-08:002009-12-20T09:27:39.259-08:00It seems to me that they ought not be permitted to...It seems to me that they ought not be permitted to get credit toward a degree because there is no real combination of disciplines that would support such a class.<br /><br />Around here we have a "Reading" department. They teach developmental courses (lots of them) and want to branch out. They aren't qualified to teach English -- which, it seems like the college level course in "Reading" is a Lit course--- but, with one odd exception, you cannot get even a BA in "Reading". In my view, a BA includes an assumption that a student can read... although, that isn't necessarily a safe assumption.. :).<br /><br />In your case, nobody has an MA or Ph.D. in 'don't rape women'. If anything, it could go in the developmental track... which would mean that nobody would take it...Inside the Philosophy Factoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12255753259090709877noreply@blogger.com