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 RandalFlagg
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Registered: 06/15/02
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 UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program 
#3865788 - 03/03/05 11:45 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050303/ap_on_re_us/unc_foundation
UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program
Thu Mar 3, 9:24 AM ET U.S. National - AP
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - More than 70 faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are demanding that administrators stop negotiations with a foundation that wants to create a Western cultures program at the school.
Chancellor James Moeser said he believes many faculty members are wary of the proposal simply because of the John William Pope Foundation's conservative values.
"It will be a major enhancement of our offerings in Western civilizations," he said Wednesday. "And it won't be done at the expense of any other program."
The proposed program would include an academic minor in Western cultures, new honors courses, freshman seminars, undergraduate research awards and study abroad scholarships. The foundation gave the university $25,000 to study the proposal and has said it could donate up to $700,000 a year to fund it initially.
Faculty members complained in a letter to administrators that they have not been adequately involved in the discussions.
Sue Estroff, professor of social medicine and former faculty chairwoman, said a recent curriculum revision revealed no need for more emphasis in Western studies. "Are we for sale, and if so, what for, and if not, what are the guidelines?" she asked.
Foundation President Art Pope has said the proposal is not an attempt to influence the university's curriculum.
"We're not going to let a handful of left-wing faculty stop the students from benefiting from the program," he said.
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Psychoactive1984
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Registered: 02/06/05
Posts: 3,546
Loc: California, Monterey Coun...
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3865805 - 03/03/05 11:52 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Left-wing ...right-wing...
One fish ... Two fish ...
Red fish ... Blue fish...
Either way, if it's extending the curriculum and if it's done in the right manner seems good to me.
Although... really, seems like their just handing out degrees these days. I wonder how hard it'll be to study western cultures.... considering they're a part of one. To vague of an article to form a basis on really.
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RandalFlagg
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: Psychoactive1984]
#3865816 - 03/03/05 11:58 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I wonder if there are employers lined up to employ people with "Western Studies" degrees... 
Why are there so many useless degrees offered at universities?
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 Baby_Hitler
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3866715 - 03/04/05 06:11 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Because so many companies won't hire you unless you have a college degree, even though the job only requires a high school level of skill.
It's a scam to keep poor people down of course.
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Seuss
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: RandalFlagg]
#3866814 - 03/04/05 07:22 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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> I wonder if there are employers lined up to employ people with "Western Studies" degrees...
As an employer, I often look for a completed degree regardless of type. We can do on-the-job training, but a degree shows me that the person is able to stick with something for several years and complete it. This is the kind of person I want to hire.
> It's a scam to keep poor people down of course.
Not at all. I will almost always take a non-degree applicant that has good long-term work experience over somebody fresh out of college. If you put the high school grad up against the college grad, I will almost always take the college grad first.
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Catalysis
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3869114 - 03/04/05 05:06 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Baby_Hitler said:
Because so many companies won't hire you unless you have a college degree, even though the job only requires a high school level of skill.
It's a scam to keep poor people down of course.
On a related news story, Yale no longer charges tuition for poor people...This is just part of a trend that is actually giving the poor opportunities that even upper-middle class people would never have. Shit, I had to work my way through college and pay every penny.
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Baby_Hitler
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: Seuss]
#3869309 - 03/04/05 05:51 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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If any of those people had any real talent they would be working for themselves.
Are we talking about people who have a degree relevant to their job, or people who have a bachelors in underwater basketweaving?
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DirtMcgirt
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3869648 - 03/04/05 06:55 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
> I wonder if there are employers lined up to employ people with "Western Studies" degrees...
As an employer, I often look for a completed degree regardless of type. We can do on-the-job training, but a degree shows me that the person is able to stick with something for several years and complete it. This is the kind of person I want to hire.
Thats why they offer so many degrees. Of course employers choose college grads over a comparable high school grad. So everybody wants one. The quality of a college eduaction has slipped so much though that to graduate college you need not intelligence only money and a spare 5 years. Colleges add stupid degrees (fashion design for christ's sake? Or western Civilization? Most general education courses required for any degree anywhere are studies in western civilization-this program should be called the "undecided" or "Gen Ed" major) and dumb-down degree programs to increase enrollment (and therefore, income and expandsion). There are too many colleges/universities, not enough equal funding for primary schools, and not enough vocational schools. People just go through the the steps to get the degree and not work for it intellectually for the most part.
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"And we, inhabitants of the great coral of the Cosmos, believe the atom (which still we cannot see) to be full matter, whereas, it too, like everything else, is but an embroidery of voids in the Void, and we give the name of being, dense and even eternal, to that dance of inconsistencies, that infinite extension that is identified with absolute Nothingness and that spins from its own non-being the illusion of everything."
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Baby_Hitler
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Re: UNC Faculty Decry Western Cultures Program [Re: DirtMcgirt]
#3872064 - 03/05/05 06:01 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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People just go through the the steps to get the degree and not work for it intellectually for the most part.
That seems to be the case. Most of them just want the piece of paper. They don't care if they learn anything.
Many of the ones who do try seem to be in it for the grade rather than the actual knowledge.
Then again, I'm willing at this point to accept any form of motivation myself. If the thrill I got from impressing my teacher with my amazing learning skills helped get me out of bed in the morning, I would tap that energy.
Some of them may care more than they seem to. They're just trying to look cool like they don't care.
Yes, it's funny that learning is taboo in my culture.
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