I know this story was even covered in the NYT and is getting a fair amount of play nationally, re: the empty-headed audacity of the complaining students and the craven “our wealthy customers are always right” cave by the administration. How does anyone take NYU seriously anymore when it comes to the hard sciences? How does anyone take seriously NYU grads who apply for medical school? (Very unfair to the professors still trying to teach with rigor and demand serious effort from their students; very unfair to the truly accomplished STEM grads from NYU whose reputations may be affected by this stunt). But this story really says it all. How much does NYU cost? And what does a graduate really get other than four years in lower Manhattan and all the non-academic amenities such schools now offer their mostly wealthy customers? Would-be med students at a supposedly top school, now demanding organic chemistry be dumbed down enough so that pretty much anyone there who wants to be a doctor (for what - money and status?) can get in without having to show they have the knowledge, work ethic, and intellectual chops to even get through a core prerequisite. That pretty much says it all. What does the world’s phoniest, least impressive “public intellectual”, Ibram X, says we should use as our key criterion: the students’ “desire to learn”?! Not, of course a desire to learn manifested in rigorous study - or even going to class, watching the videos the professor made and posted at his own expense, or making a serious effort to understand what in exam questions was even being asked. No, just the assertion that they want to learn (and, let me guess, never ending accusations that any failure on their part is a sign of some sort of racism, either personal or institutional, interfering with that desire to learn). Look, that surgeon really “desired” to perform the transplant competently, but personal and systemic biases interfered in their ability to actually do so. That can only mean we must double and redouble “antiracist” racial discrimination against the most demonstrably knowledgeable and competent potential doctors until enough demonstrably less knowledgeable and competent feel that their desire to learn and desire to ascend to the top of some of the most challenging professions most consequential to public health and safety are duly honored and respected.
https://reason.com/2022/10/03/maitland-jones-jr-organic-chemistry-nyu-fired/
I know this story was even covered in the NYT and is getting a fair amount of play nationally, re: the empty-headed audacity of the complaining students and the craven “our wealthy customers are always right” cave by the administration. How does anyone take NYU seriously anymore when it comes to the hard sciences? How does anyone take seriously NYU grads who apply for medical school? (Very unfair to the professors still trying to teach with rigor and demand serious effort from their students; very unfair to the truly accomplished STEM grads from NYU whose reputations may be affected by this stunt). But this story really says it all. How much does NYU cost? And what does a graduate really get other than four years in lower Manhattan and all the non-academic amenities such schools now offer their mostly wealthy customers? Would-be med students at a supposedly top school, now demanding organic chemistry be dumbed down enough so that pretty much anyone there who wants to be a doctor (for what - money and status?) can get in without having to show they have the knowledge, work ethic, and intellectual chops to even get through a core prerequisite. That pretty much says it all. What does the world’s phoniest, least impressive “public intellectual”, Ibram X, says we should use as our key criterion: the students’ “desire to learn”?! Not, of course a desire to learn manifested in rigorous study - or even going to class, watching the videos the professor made and posted at his own expense, or making a serious effort to understand what in exam questions was even being asked. No, just the assertion that they want to learn (and, let me guess, never ending accusations that any failure on their part is a sign of some sort of racism, either personal or institutional, interfering with that desire to learn). Look, that surgeon really “desired” to perform the transplant competently, but personal and systemic biases interfered in their ability to actually do so. That can only mean we must double and redouble “antiracist” racial discrimination against the most demonstrably knowledgeable and competent potential doctors until enough demonstrably less knowledgeable and competent feel that their desire to learn and desire to ascend to the top of some of the most challenging professions most consequential to public health and safety are duly honored and respected.
Our enemies need not fear us, we are destroying ourselves quite nicely from within.