Beyond Standards

My father used to ask a student to draw a line a meter long on the blackboard, take a look and tell the student the length was not right. “Practice,” he would say, “until you get it right.” That truncated part of my father’s lesson seems to be the model for contemporary American educational policy.…

“Victimhood” As an Ableist Conceit

What sort of disability might Arthur Brooks have? I don’t know, and I can’t tell immediately through the medium of the Internet. I suppose I could use that medium to find out more about him, but I want to take him at the value he presents. In today’s The New York Times, he poses as…

Mind-Numbing but Unabashed Ignorance

Here is an item written by Larry Klayman for the Far-Right media site World Net Daily: “As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and rejoice in the greatness of His and the Father’s universe, we turn to the New Year. A traditional ritual is reflecting on the past year, and as Time…

Housing Provided to Public University Presidents in Ohio

Peter Kirstein very recently did a post to this blog titled “Universities, Penthouses, and CEO Venality” [https://academeblog.org/2015/12/21/universities-penthouses-and-ceo-venality/] Coincidentally, the Dayton Daily News recently has published an article by Josh Sweigart on the housing provided to university presidents in Ohio. Although it includes some attention to the new residence being provided for the new president of…

Residences of Presidents of Public Universities in Ohio

This is a visual addendum to my concurrent post on this topic. Because Santa Ono, President of the University of Cincinnati, lives off-campus and accepts no housing subsidy from the university, I have excluded his residence. Other notes: The residence included here for the president of Cleveland State University was listed for sale in September…

Disability, the Academy, and Gestural Violence

By Stephen Kuusisto   In his essay “How Can We Explain Violence Against Disabled People?” Dan Goodley, Professor of Psychology and Disability Studies at the University of Sheffield argues that offenses against the disabled have their origins in ableist cultural practices. He points to the circulating practices of ableism: The cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek, in his 2008…

No Comment

It turns out that Martin Shkreli endowed an NYU professorship, the Martin Shkreli Professor of Pediatric Nephrology. Current holder is Howard Trachtman who, according to The Huffington Post, “previously served as a consultant at Retrophin, where Shkreli was CEO.” The article goes on to quote NYU spokesperson Lisa Greiner, “We reviewed potential conflicts of interests at each…

Can Reality Be an Oxymoron? (3)

First several higher-ed items: Concordia U Public Safety Director Fired for Masturbating in Office No Phones, Please. This Is a Communications Class   Other Items: 1,900 Killed in Syria during Peace Talks 2nd Order Mistake Leads to Drive-Thru Shooting at Grand Rapids’ McDonald’s Ariana Grande Will Not Be Charged In Donut-Licking Incident Border Patrol in…