Incompetence, Racism, Education, Academia

The English department at a public university declared that proper English grammar is racist.

  Rutgers University's English department will change its standards of English instruction in an effort to "stand with and respond" to the Black Lives Matter movement. In an email written by department chairwoman Rebecca Walkowitz, the Graduate Writing Program will emphasize "social justice" and "critical grammar."

  Walkowitz said the department would respond to recent events with "workshops on social justice and writing," "increasing focus on graduate student life," and "incorporating ‘critical grammar' into our pedagogy." The "critical grammar" approach challenges the standard academic form of the English language in favor of a more inclusive writing experience. The curriculum puts an emphasis on the variability of the English language instead of accuracy.

Liberal, Incompetence, Sex, Degeneracy, Education, Academia, Feminism

Eugene Lang College, part of The New School in Lower Manhattan, will offer a course next semester for students who wish to fight “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature.

  Taught by Heather Davis, “Queer Ecologies” is a four-credit course offered by the school’s Culture and Media department for students who wish to “disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature.” ...

  According to the course description, students will be taught to “reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics in light of queer theory” by drawing from research in fields such as feminist science studies and environmental justice.

Incompetence, Education, Academia

A University of Georgia professor has adopted a “stress reduction policy” that will allow students to select their own grades if they “feel unduly stressed” by the ones they earned. According to online course syllabi for two of Dr. Richard Watson’s fall business courses, he has introduced the policy because “emotional reactions to stressful situations can have profound consequences for all involved.” ...

  As such, if students feel “unduly stressed by a grade for any assessable material or the overall course,” they can “email the instructor indicating what grade [they] think is appropriate, and it will be so changed” with “no explanation” being required.

Incompetence, Oops, Education, Academia, Waste, Ignorance

A recent national survey found that a genuine, well-rounded college education is a thing of the past at many colleges and universities. Instead, most institutions offer a patchwork of niche grad requirements that often skip over vital subjects such as history, government and economics...

  The group evaluated more than 1,100 colleges and universities based on their requirements in seven “key areas of knowledge”: composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. history, economics, mathematics and science. The results showed that 66.5 percent of the schools required only three or fewer of those subjects.

This leads to a “thin and patchy education,” the report states.

Incompetence, Sex, Funny, Oops, Academia

A Rochester Institute of Technology official recently argued that a presentation suggesting students “rub one out” to “prevent sexual assault” had nothing to do with deterring rape.

  The university came under fire last week after one of its presentation slides appeared to suggest that students “Rub One Out,” with a caption explaining that “self-gratification can prevent sexual assault.”...

  Several days after the presentation, RIT President David Munson also issued a statement apologizing “to anyone who was offended by a slide that was included in our new student orientation.”

Incompetence, Oops, Education, Academia

Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging.

  At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table, The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. (See full results.)

  At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

Liberal, Character, Degeneracy, Funny, Academia, Gay

The University of California, Santa Barbara will host a book discussion next week to discuss “the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture,” specifically for “fat, gay men.” The event, a discussion of the book “Fat, Gay Men: Mirth, Girth, and the Politics of Stigma” with author Dr. Jason Whitesel of Pace University, is being hosted by the UCSB Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

Election, Incompetence, Character, Degeneracy, Education, Politics, Academia

A University of Wisconsin Madison professor offered students in her LGBTQ studies class extra credit if they visited the state Capitol on Thursday to testify against a bill she opposes... Prof. Gathman related to her students that she would give them extra credit on their final course grade if they went to the state Capitol to testify in opposition to AB 469, a bill that establishes uniform policies for how Wisconsin public schools will handle locker room and restroom accommodations for transgender students.

Liberal, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Education, Academia, Waste, Adult, Metaphor

Drama students were shocked when their teacher showed them an erotic video where she stimulated masturbation with a tampon, writhed around naked and urinated. In the X-rated video she also blew a condom out of her vagina and inserted a knife handle between her legs. The unexpected screening was held by performance artist and PhD student Lauren Barri Holstein as part of an introduction presentation to her 'Theatre and its Others' module at Queen Mary University, London.

Incompetence, Academia, Waste

Beginning in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) will offer an English course that requires students do nothing but surf the web and waste time. The Ivy League course, “Wasting time on the Internet,” is taught by Kenneth Goldsmith, a professor and renowned poet at UPenn who previously tried to print the internet.

Liberal, Incompetence, Degeneracy, Funny, Science, Brilliance, Narrative, Crazy, Education, Academia, Gay

The University of California–Berkeley is hosting a lecture about how it is “necessary” to apply gay and transgender studies to agriculture because agriculture is all about reproduction and our food systems will suffer if we don’t... “Since agriculture is literally the backbone of economics, politics, and ‘civilized” life as we know it, and the manipulation of reproduction and sexuality are a foundation of agriculture, it is absolutely crucial queer and transgender studies begin to deal more seriously with the subject of agriculture,” it states.

Union, Education, Academia, Corruption

The University of California, Riverside is offering students course credit to register voters in support of pro-union candidates through labor activism internships... “In addition to phone banking, volunteers might get involved in mobilizing and registering voters for the fall election in support of pro-union candidates, and in support of ballot propositions regarding the state budget,” the description for the United Domestic Workers internship states.

Liberal, Incompetence, Academia

The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, will begin offering a creative writing class titled, “Wasting Time on the Internet,” in which “distraction, multitasking, and aimless drifting is mandatory.” Starting next spring, the English department at the Ivy League school will offer a class in which students “will be required to stare at the screen for three hours, only interacting through chat rooms, bots, social media and listservs,” according to a course description, Mediaite reported.

Character, Fraud, Academia, Corruption

“I hate giving classes,” Zizek said, citing office hours and grading papers as his two biggest peeves. “I did teach a class here [at the University of Cincinnati] and all of the grading was pure bluff,” he continues. “I even told students at the New School for example… if you don’t give me any of your shitty papers, you get an A. If you give me a paper I may read it and not like it and you can get a lower grade.” He received no papers that semester.

Liberal, Sex, Degeneracy, Academia, Adult

The notoriously raunchy and popular homosexual sex advice columnist and pundit Dan Savage visited the University of Oregon in mid-October, and more recently it was revealed thanks to a public records request that he was paid $24,000 for his talk, which included discussions with students about the art of fisting and gorilla suit fetishes... The Register-Guard reports the speech was also partly a launch party for the university’s new smart phone app that teaches students how to have kinky sex. Did you ever play twister as a kid? Well, toss in sex and smartphones, and you’ve got the University of Oregon’s new SexPositive App, ostensibly developed as a sex health tool. It spins two wheels with words such as “mouth” “finger” and “penis” on one side and “toes” “vagina” vibrator” and “anal play” on the other.

Incompetence, Oops, Education, Academia

Nearly half of the nation's undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don't make academics a priority, a new report shows. Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty research than teaching younger students, who in turn are more tuned in to their social lives, according to the report, based on a book titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.

Incompetence, Character, Fraud, Academia

The findings of an internal UNC probe released this month found 54 classes within the department in which there was little or no indication of instruction. The review also found at least 10 cases of unauthorized grade changes involving students who did not complete their work.

Fraud, Oops, Academia

The law school at Villanova University has been censured for submitting falsified admissions data for several years to the American Bar Association, allegedly at the behest of former administrators. The action comes months after Villanova first disclosed publicly that staff members inflated the school's median grade-point averages and scores on the Law School Admissions Test. Both data sets often factor into law school rankings.

Incompetence, Financial, Oops, Academia

Former U.S. secretary of education Bill Bennett said he has analyzed the cost and benefit of our nation’s colleges and universities and found that very few are worth what students have to pay... He determined in his study that only 150 of the nation’s 3500 universities are worth the cost and provide an adequate return on investment. That means more than 95% of colleges and universities are not worth the cost, in his estimation.

Liberal, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Education, Academia, Adult

The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMTC) is set to hold an event this spring designed to help its female undergraduate students achieve more and greater orgasms. The university’s official online description of the event entitled, “The Female Orgasm,” describes it as open to both male and female students. “Orgasm aficionados and beginners of all genders are welcome to come learn about everything from multiple orgasms to that mysterious G-spot,” reads the description posted on the school’s official events calendar. “Whether you want to learn how to have your first orgasm, how to have better ones, or how to help you girlfriend, Kate and Marshall cover it all…” it adds. “Are you coming?” it asks.

Character, Fraud, Academia, Corruption

LAST month The Chronicle of Higher Education published a damning investigation of college athletes across the nation who were maintaining their eligibility by taking cheap, easy online courses from an obscure junior college. In just 10 days, academically deficient players could earn three credits and an easy “A” from Western Oklahoma State College for courses like “Microcomputer Applications” (opening folders in Windows) or “Nutrition” (stating whether or not the students used vitamins). The Chronicle quoted one Big Ten academic adviser as saying, “You jump online, finish in a week and half, get your grade posted, and you’re bowl-eligible.”

Liberal, Incompetence, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Academia, Waste

A major public university hosted an event last Wednesday which was aimed at teaching students how to properly use sex toys. The University of California – Merced (UCM) sponsored the event, entitled “Is There a Buzz in Your Bed,” which had the stated goal of teaching students about “various sex toys” and different ways “to play as a couple or alone.”... UCM’s Health Education Representatives for Opportunities to Empower Students (HEROES) was responsible for hosting the event. The group has an annual budget of $66,000, which is derived from mandatory student fees... HEROES is also sponsoring an ongoing “condom design contest” with the winning graphics to be used on condoms “distributed to students” after the winner is selected on December 7th.

Liberal, Crime, Incitement, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Academia, Tolerance, Religion

According to Fordham’s media relations website, Singer, a tenured Princeton bioethics professor, spoke from 4 to 6 p.m. in a panel the university promised “will provoke Christians to think about other animals in new ways.” Singer has long lamented the societal stigma against having sex with animals. In the essay, titled “Heavy Petting,” Singer concluded that “sex across the species barrier,” while not normal, “ceases to be an offence [sic] to our status and dignity as human beings.” “Occasionally mutually satisfying activities may develop” when humans have sex with their pets, he claimed.

Fraud, Oops, Education, Academia

George Washington University, ranked #51 in the latest U.S. News college rankings, admitted on Thursday that it has been inflating the percentage of its incoming freshman class ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class for at least a decade.

Character, Education, Academia

Some college students may wish they could major in partying, but at Yale University, the kids are actually clubbing for class credit. Madison Moore — a doctoral candidate in the Ivy League school’s American Studies Program — is teaching a course that includes DJ lecturers, a field trip to Meatpacking hot spots Le Bain and the Boom Boom Room, and a discussion titled “Looks, Doors and Guest Lists: Getting Past the Velvet Rope.” The cover charge at Yale is steep — tuition is $40,500. “I worry about whether people will think this is serious,” Moore told us.

Liberal, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Academia, Adult

“I raised my hand and said, "I don't masturbate," Royce reveals. "He said I had to do it at least three times in order to get a grade in the class." Kubistant reportedly asked students, some of whom were high-schoolers taking the course for college credit, to list different types of sex and sexual positions.

Character, Fraud, Academia

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Two years after allegations of academic misconduct involving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football program surfaced, the school is still struggling to keep its academic reputation from being tarnished.

  The UNC Board of Governors is scheduled to discuss this week a review of the African and Afro-American Studies program at UNC-Chapel Hill that found 54 classes had little or no indication of instruction and at least 10 cases of unauthorized grade changes for students who didn't do all the work.

Editorial, Incompetence, Oops, Academia, Jobs

A university degree is no longer an automatic ticket to a decent job and a pleasant living. According to a devastating story by The Associated Press last week, more than 50 per cent of recent university graduates in the United States are either unemployed or working in jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees.

  They’re more likely to work as “waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined.”

Editorial, Incompetence, Academia

The article reported that a record 91 percent of Harvard University students were awarded honors during the spring graduation. The newspaper called Harvard’s grading practices “the laughing stock of the Ivy League.” Harvard is by no means unique. For example, 80 percent of the grades given at the University of Illinois are A’s and B’s. Fifty percent of students at Columbia University are on the dean’s list.

Financial, Oops, Academia, Waste

If there was a return counter at the other side of the stage where they could exchange their education and degree for a full refund, how many would walk over and demand their money back? A lot, as it turns out.

  A majority of Americans (57 percent) say the higher education system fails to provide students with good value for the money, according to a recent Pew study. The average annual cost of a four-year public college this year, including room and board, was $20,339, up nearly 8 percent from the year before.

Liberal, Funny, Oops, Education

Frustrated by huge class sizes, sparse resources and a disorganized bureaucracy, he set off to the University of Connecticut to get an MFA in his passion—puppetry. Three years and $35,000 in student loans later, he emerged with degree in hand, and because puppeteers aren’t exactly in high demand, he went looking for work at his old school. “But sub pay is about 50 percent of a full-time salaried position,” he says, “so I’m working for half as much as I did four years ago, before grad school, and I don’t have health insurance…. It’s the best-paying job I could find.”

Fraud, Education, Academia

The request came in by e-mail around 2 in the afternoon. It was from a previous customer, and she had urgent business. I quote her message here verbatim (if I had to put up with it, so should you): "You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me paper?" I've gotten pretty good at interpreting this kind of correspondence. The client had attached a document from her professor with details about the paper. She needed the first section in a week.

Hate, Incitement, Union, Violence, Character, Fascism, Academia

Videos showing two University of Missouri instructors apparently advocating for union violence don’t represent the UM System as a whole, a spokeswoman said. In one clip, Ancel tells students, “Violence is a tactic, and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.”

Liberal, Degeneracy, Academia

The course begins next semester and will be divided between class work at Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus and fieldwork that will require students to become involved with the Occupy movement outside of the classroom.

Editorial, Liberal, Degeneracy, Education, Academia

Guess how many top-tier universities offer a course on Lady Gaga? Four! The University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, Wake Forest University, and Arizona State University all now offer semester-long explorations of Lady Gaga’s apparently profound influence—since 2007—on music, fashion, and the LGBT lifestyle. Yet none of these universities requires students to take a course in U.S. history before graduation.

Liberal, Brilliance, Education, Protest, Academia

If you’ve been wondering, “How exactly are these protesters still students if they’ve been camped out in Zuccotti Park all semester?” Well, one University of Alabama student — Henry Perkins, a junior at the school — is earning college credit: “I asked my professors and they said to go for it,” Perkins told the Daily News. “They’re living vicariously through me.”

Fraud, Academia

Students at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences who received A's for two courses that were never taught will get their money back, but they'll still get to keep the academic credit, an administrator reported on Wednesday.

Incompetence, Academia

In recent years, study after study has found that a college education no longer does what it should do and once did. Whether these studies look directly at the capabilities of graduates, or instead at what employers find their capabilities to be, the result is the same: far too many college graduates have not learned to write effectively, they can not read and comprehend any reasonably complex book, they have not learned to reason, and their basic knowledge of the history and institutions of the society in which they live is lamentably poor.

  “An astounding proportion of students are progressing through higher education today without measurable gains in general skills” is the anguished conclusion of a respected national study, entitled appropriately Academically Adrift.

Incompetence, Funny, Academia

A study published Wednesday by the National Education Association has determined that a four-year college education is still a better investment of one’s time and money than spending the same duration chained to a radiator in a dank, unlit basement.

Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Narrative, Academia

A workshop at Harvard University on Tuesday night delved into the ins and outs of anal sex, with a presenter denouncing the “stupidity of abstinence” and the joys of “putting things in your butt,” according to a College Fix reporter who attended the event.

  The workshop was held as part of the Ivy League university’s Sex Week, which launched Monday and runs through Nov. 12. Titled “What What in the Butt: Anal 101,” the event drew nearly 50 students...

  “Come up front guys, were gonna have some dirty fun,” she said as the presentation began.

  Noting “not all men have penises, not all women have vaginas,” she added “the butthole is the great sexual equalizer. All humans have a butthole.”

Oops, Academia, Jobs

The economy continues to be a friendly place for job seekers today, and not just for the ultra-educated — economists are predicting ever-improving prospects for workers without a degree as well.

  Recently, job-search site Glassdoor compiled a list of 15 top employers that have said they no longer require applicants to have a college degree. Companies like Google, Apple, IBM and EY are all in this group.