Attend a pro-police rally have people threaten your job...

 I don't normally post on Sundays although that custom has been broken fairly recently, but I just needed to share this lunacy from Reason:

David Peterson is an art professor at Skidmore College, a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. In late July, the professor and his wife, Andrea Peterson, attended a "Back the Blue" rally—not as supporters of the cause, they say, but as curious spectators.

"Given the painful events that continue to unfold across this nation, I guess we just felt compelled to see first-hand how all of this was playing out in our own community," he later told the student newspaper.

They stood on the edges of event, watching pro- and anti-law enforcement demonstrators argue with each other. After 20 minutes, the Petersons left to eat dinner.

But unbeknownst to Peterson, the couple's attendance at the rally was noticed. Now Skidmore students are demanding that both Peterson be fired for "engaging in hateful conduct that threatens Black Skidmore students," according to Times-Union columnist Chris Churchill, who wrote about the controversy.

All Professor Peterson and his wife did at this Back the Blue rally was to observe. If you're down with BLM and their fcuk the police rhetoric they can't be observers, they have to say fcuk the police....

So here's the truth of this matter with these students with the professor feelings over logic. Logic is thrown out of the window. If you're not with the students who are there for an education and likely utilizing student aid, student loans or even their family's money to say their boycotting a member of the faculty because their classroom is no longer  considered a safe space is utter lunacy. No longer a safe space because they were observers to a pro-police rally and the people who demonstrated against the rally. 🤷

I will refer you to my free expression page, although if you're a passive observer not taking either side free expression doesn't apply here unless someone out there just decides your presence and lack of participation constitutes expression.

h/t Instapundit

Is college worth it?

[VIDEO] I wish I had this advice from Dave Ramsey back in high school. The expectations for many of us whether from our families to even some of the teachers/counselors in school was that we'd go to college. The advice I should've gotten was about planning and then of course having a plan once I got the degree.

What does this mean? What type of job do you plan to have once you graduate? How much money are you willing to spend on college?

With that said over the years, I've had to realize that perhaps we've been going overboard with sending our young people to college. It's an important investment for sure, but again most young people need to plan. I really didn't even if it took me some time to finally finish.

Another thing that I've said is that it seems a college degree has become devalued and taken for granted to the point where it's not just another high school diploma. An undergrad degree once had value, how do we give it value again?

This clip was from a little over three years ago and hopefully parents are discussing college and long term plans with their children who are high school juniors or seniors.

First year student housing issues at CAU

I can relate somewhat with the students of Clark-Atlanta University who are experience some issues with their housing as they began their fall semester:

Clark Atlanta University freshman and sophomores must live on campus to ensure they “receive a strong foundation and create a path of success,” the school’s website says.

But for many students, campus living served as a distracting stressor instead of a stabilizing element on the first day of the fall semester. Sophomore Asma Alamin spent Wednesday morning in Augusta, where she lives, seeking information about temporary housing instead of going to class like she’d planned.

The 23-year-old received an email from CAU in April that included her housing assignment and roommate’s name. When she got to campus on Monday, there was a “huge line” of students waiting for dorm keys.

The students were eventually asked to sign in and wait for a call with more information, Alamin said. The school later told her no dorms were available.

“I feel like Clark needs to be there for their students,” the pre-med student said Wednesday. Alamin said she feels let down, having had higher expectations for the Historically Black College and University (HBCU).

A CAU spokesman said in a statement Monday that students who hadn’t completed the “financial enrollment process are being offered temporary housing.” Alamin said that option wasn’t presented to her.

Alluded to in an article from The Root:

Clark Atlanta’s crisis is indicative of the problems of many small colleges. Institutions that are financially strapped or don’t have large endowments like larger, predominately white institutions that often survive on the revenue from tuition and housing. Because of this, these kinds of issues become prevalent, especially at historically black colleges.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology who researches college housing at Temple University, says colleges force students to live on campus oftentimes because colleges view housing as a money-maker.

Ahhhh housing is a money maker, but then what excuse does CAU have to not having housing available for students? I wanted to say HBCUs should do better, and why because many of their students are coming from backgrounds which enables them to procure student loans and grants. And if CAU is a lot like Morehouse - a private university - going there isn't cheap.

My experience at Morehouse especially during the first decade of the 21st century gave me a lesson about how Morehouse ran their affairs. There were points where I feel as if the prestigious institution could've done some things more efficiently especially registration, housing or financial aid. Perhaps make it more easier for students and their families to understand the process. I often felt Morehouse had nothing on the community college I left behind to go to Atlanta.

Then someone shared this article which shows it's not just HBCUs that have this problem. Evidently this is a problem at UC Berkely, having more students than beds to provide for them - especially if they must stay on campus the first two years of college.

There has to be a solution. Perhaps stop enrolling more students than they can accomodate. Perhaps make some changes to their procedures in situations like this. Perhaps find ways to accomodate the demand and that might mean you'd have to create some housing in the surrounding neighborhoods which during my time at Morehouse didn't exist.

What can we do about it?

Dr. Helen: Should Your Child Attend an Ivy League?

If you want know my answer, no one parent nor student should put a whole lot of stock in attending an Ivy League university. If you get admitted great, but realize that it's not the end of the world if you choose another university. It's also not the end of the world if you decided that trying to get in proves to be too rigorous and you need a break.

Now that you know my opinion read this by Dr. Helen who just so happens to be the wife of the Instapundit! Though Instapundit is actually Glenn Reynolds not Ed Driscoll who actually wrote the post I just linked.

Reparations

[VIDEO] Last week on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson debated a young woman from Western Kentucky University that supported a student resolution to call for free tuition for Black students as a reparation for slavery. I first posted this video with other links regarding this particular story over at E.M. hopefully you'll check them out.

To start honestly my position on this issue isn't particularly clear. In some respects I'm opposed to reparations for the descendants of slaves. In other respects, reparations are a good thing if they prove to be beneficial towards those affected individuals.

On this blog over a decade ago I mentioned that historically Black colleges could be considered a reparation. Many of these schools - Howard, Morehouse & Spelman for example - were founded after the Civil War to educate the newly freed Black population of America. Many of these schools either founded by governments or by white missionaries.

My thing is reparations are OK if Black America could truly benefit from them. Not just a simple check for one person to do with as they please. I mean truly use any reparations to create new opportunities for a very disadvantaged portion of the American population.

Education is an issue for many Black people, I would dare say public education hasn't served many "minority" students very well. Perhaps reparations can create K-12 schools that would truly serve "minority" students and provide the education that are missing from public schools.

Perhaps building wealth and upgrading Black communities. Reparations to build up vacant lots and abandoned buildings. Reparations that would allow people to open up their businesses and hopefully succeed in their ventures.

Another possibility scholarships to get more Blacks into the desired STEM fields. And then why stop at STEM, perhaps encourage Blacks to go into fields where there aren't many of us. Perhaps into business or law or perhaps even go into higher education and pursue terminal degrees.

So many ideas with this, but what concerns me is the fact that the American taxpayer will pay the reparations to people who are no longer around who really deserve them. I'm certainly a few generations behind those individuals who were directly affected by slavery. No one in America today should pay for the sins of a different government over 150 years ago who allowed the owning of other human beings and their abuse.

I often tend to doubt that those who are proponents of reparations want to really benefit the community. Perhaps there are those who only want their cut of any money. At least we can continue to debate this issue and my hope is that the discussion will truly be about upgrading the future of Blacks in America.

Quickly paying off $220K in student loans - fake news?

Posted over at Electric Moleskine with the FB post below. It highlights all that was suspicious from the article posted from Business Insider.

What is going on at Morehouse?

I'm interrupting the Cubs' pennant winning celebration on this blog for this report from the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. There is a plan to raise costs of attendance and mandate that students stay on campus through junior year.

The cost of attending Atlanta’s historically black Morehouse College has increased by more than $10,000 a year for some students.

The all-male college is requiring its 2,100 students to live on campus at least three years – not just freshmen, as had been its tradition.

That guarantees Morehouse, which is rebounding from several years of enrollment and cash flow declines, about $13,000 in mandatory room and board fees from each sophomore and junior, over and above tuition and student fees running about $26,700 per year per student.

Cathy Tyler, executive director of strategic communications for Morehouse, says the college gave students a heads-up about the change when they were freshmen and saw no backlash as it was put in place for the Class of 2017.

But the policy is being criticized in an online petition calling for the ouster of Morehouse President John S. Wilson Jr. and his senior leadership team.

The petition, which was launched Oct. 1, says requiring students to live on campus through their junior year is “unethical” and places “the school’s financial burdens on the backs of parents and students.”

This news comes the week of homecoming when many alumni and friends come from all over to engage in many facilities but mainly to show their support. Support not only for the institution but for the football team as there is a game to be played on Saturday.

Question is while it seems this plan has been in the works, how likely it is that those anonymous petition signers will get most of what they ask for?

Liberal Activism Is Giving Students Panic Attacks, Depression, Failing Grades

At Morehouse, I was never an activist and plus if I decided to speak on an issue it would be easy to blow me off because I'm an unknown. With that being said at Brown University - via Reason - student activists are suffering from falling grades to other issues due to their activism. Then this final point:

But there's a problem with that idea: when separated from their precious campus safe spaces, ex-students might encounter some actual injustices in the real world (police brutality, the War on Drugs, warrantless government spying, unauthorized foreign interventions—you name it). And I'm just not sure people who burst into tears every time they encounter some mild pushback on a relatively trivial issue—like an offensive column—are ready to turn pro.

I suppose there are plenty of activists out there who aren't ready to turn pro.