Choices?
Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article on China, Documenting China’s Higher Ed Explosion
“Between 1999, shortly after the country’s leaders decided to focus on expanding access to and improving the quality of higher education as tools to propel the former Third World economy into the leading ranks of the world’s powers, and 2005, the number of undergraduate and graduate students earning degrees from China’s colleges and universities quadrupled, rising to 3.1 million from 830,000. Enrollments grew even faster over that period, with the number of new entering students growing to nearly 5 million in 2005.
Much of the growth has occurred in scientific and engineering fields…China is now one of the largest producers of scientific output as measured by its share in the world total of peer reviewed scientific articles, ranking fourth, with 6 percent of the world’s output, in 2004. That trailed the European Union (at 38.1 percent) and the United States, at 32.8 percent, but China’s output had doubled from 1997 while the others declined. “
And tenure?
“After generations of Chinese academics worked on the equivalent of lifelong employment contracts, some of the country’s elite institutions have abandoned tenure for all but full professors, with “associate professors in arts and sciences and lecturers in all subjects … offered employment contracts up to 12 years,” the authors write. Beyond the top institutions, “it is now common for researchers and scholars in many Chinese universities to receive only 3-year contracts,” often receiving quotas in terms of minimum scholarly publication in specific journals within precise time periods..
Education and excellence count. The management of the intellectual capital that lead China to become one of the largest producers of scientific output in the world kind of makes you wonder about the Office of the President, Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Kirkland Endowment, and the Rainbow Alliance which, of course, proudly sponsor All the Kings Men.
One supposes that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ but the allocation of resources, organizational focus, and infrastructure at Hamilton keeps stacking up. Gone are merit scholarships, curricular requirements, and the Alexander Hamilton Center. And none are coming back. It seems the programatic and initiatives of the old Kirkland Project are well nourished, broadly institutionalized, and set to consume ever more organizational energy & resources.
________________________________________________________________________________________
To: The Hamilton Community
From: Joseph Urgo, Dean of Faculty
Nancy Thompson, Dean of Students
In a collaborative effort, the Offices of the Dean of Faculty and Dean of Students have assembled a group called the Diversity Coordinating Council. The Council brings together faculty, administrators and students who are engaged in ongoing campus initiatives centered on diversity. The mission of the Council is to provide a forum for collaboration, sharing of information about events and activities, and assessing the campus climate. The Council will communicate key issues, concerns, and ideas to the senior officers of the College, who are responsible for advancing the institution’s diversity efforts.Below is the list of Council members. You are encouraged to share your thoughts or concerns with any one of them.
Allen Harrison – Office of the Dean of Students (Co-chair)
Steve Yao – Office of the Dean of Faculty (Co-chair)
Phyllis Breland – Opportunity Programs
Laurieann Russell – Alumni Relations
Joseph Mwantuali – Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Grievance Board
Kyra Young – Admission Office
Jinnie Garrett – Diversity and Social Justice Project
Yongsun Kwon – Social Justice Initiative
Reva Narula – Student Assembly Diversity and Accessibility Committee
J.R.U.
N.R.T.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
hb
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"Calling Hampshire Alums to Support a Campus Racial Justice Initiative
Type:
Organizations - Advocacy Organizations
Description:
Dear Friends & Fellow Hampshire Alums,
We are writing to express our great sense of excitement and urgency about recent organizing efforts at Hampshire Colleges. The campaign is at a critical moment that needs alumni support.
Students of color, international students and allies at Hampshire have been enmeshed in a fight that many of us were similarly involved in; to build a campus that is truly racially just and hold the administration accountable in achieving this end.
The current effort represents a crucial moment in the history of anti-racist organizing at Hampshire College. It builds upon that history and demands new solutions to an old problem; that of institutional racism on campus that reflects and compounds the greater structural racism within this country. Students of Underrepresented Cultures and Ethnicities (SOURCE) and allies have collaborated in this well-coordinated, thoughtful and intersectional campaign. They have drafted a new set of demands that builds upon those presented 20 years ago at the historic Dakin Takeover in 1988, as a result of which the Cultural Center was formed.
We've been asked by the campaign's organizing committee to gather names of alumni in support of their efforts. These names will be presented to the administration by students as they carry out negotiations.
In their letter to current Hampshire President, Ralph Hexter, they wrote, "Members of the SOURCE community are asking the administration, faculty, and student body to support them in making institutional changes. These changes are mandatory in order to increase the retention and success of students from the SOURCE community here."
We will be sending a petition with names of Hampshire alumni to campaign organizers to be used in their negotiations with the administration. Please respond with your name and year of entrance (F02) on the wall below or with a message to one of the group administrators. We are aiming to compile a lengthy list of names by monday so please respond ASAP.
____________________________________
PURPOSE AND DEMANDS OF SOURCE
This week is being executed in an attempt to raise awareness about the need for serious change in the way that the institution approaches anti-racism. The week will consist of art, activism, and the events listed below.
Members of the SOURCE community are asking the administration, faculty, and student body to support them in making institutional changes. These changes are mandatory in order to increase the retention and success of students from the SOURCE community here.
All we demand is that Hampshire be actively anti-racist.
.
DEMANDS
We demand the following:
1. Re-establishment of Dean of Multicultural Affairs position (as stipulated from the Cole Agreement), in addition to the already-existent Presidential Assistant for Diversity position.
2. Creation of four new positions for full-time faculty in ALANA and Queer Studies.
3. Transparency in the process by which adjunct faculty become permanent faculty.
4. Re-evaluation of the Multiple Cultural Perspectives academic requirement.
5. Mandatory anti-oppression trainings for faculty, staff, Public Safety, and Residential Life staff and interns.
6. Stability in financial aid packages. If a student's needs do not change, then the package must remain the same over the course of the student's time at the college. Further, a student's ability to register for classes will not be hindered by holds or other issues related to financial aid status.
7. Institutionalized funding for the Cultural Center, SOURCE groups, QCA groups, and Women's Center. Identity-based groups will be exempt fro the process of "group recognition" each semester.
8. Permanent staffing at the Cultural Center, Women's Center, and Queer Community Alliance. Creation of a new staff position at the Cultural Center to be filled by an individual experienced in addressing the needs of international students.
9. Establishment of at least one residential hall designated for students of color, in the dorms, by Fall 2008.
10. Designation of a Queer-Identified (and not just Queer-Friendly) residential hall in the dorms.
11. Allocation of funds to expand library and media resources relevant to Third World Studies and students.
12. Immediate hiring search, for which a committee will be formed with students for whom this position is intended to serve, for a new staff member in health services with the goal of hiring this person within one year. Person must provide some kind of concrete experience/qualifications for relating to students of color, international students, queer students, trans students, and female students.
13. Guaranteed permanent identity-based housing on campus. Aggressive recruitment of students of color, international students, queer students.
14. For Hampshire to live up to its current plan of responsible investment, keeping with historical precedent of divestment from South Africa, we demand that Hampshire should cut financial ties with countries that occupy and practice racial apartheid.
15. Establishment of a comprehensive racial harassment policy to be outlined in Non Satis Non Scire.
16. Creation of a position in Institutional Advancement geared towards raising funds that specifically address issues of diversity on campus.
17. Closing of the college on Colombus Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to hold a campus-wide teach-in on racism and imperialism.
LASTLY, we demand that a committee of students and administrators be established to negotiate these demands and assess whatever agreements follow."
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The WASP's, the prep school gang, immediately surrendered.The first step was to destroy any allegiance to any other organization other the administration. Hence, the fraternities had to be ethnically cleansed as bastions of resistence. Barrett Seaman III was the front man for the cultural Marxists, who spent his working life promoting diversity and multiculturalism at Time Magazine.
Hamilton has devolved into whatever it is now: a sleep-away camp for rich kids and minorities, run by a PC correct faculty. Of course, there is no Core Curriculum, of course there is a equistrian club and sailing club.
It should be pointed out that what Hamilton became was the result of the deliberate actions of the Board of Trustees and the willingness of the alumni to go along with it. Can it devolve further, hardly seems possible after Annie Sprinkle and Warc Churchill, but perhaps I am being too optimistic.
Cheers,
pfs
“The first step was to destroy any allegiance to any other organization other the administration. Hence, the fraternities had to be ethnically cleansed as bastions of resistence.”
Please get the facts before making claims of “ethnic cleansing”, Mr. Streitz. The frat houses closed, but the fraternities - and sororities - are still going strong on the Hill.
http://www.hamilton.edu/college/Student_Activities/organizations.html?action=getOrgs&category=GO
also, I'm not sure that fratboys losing their houses is comparable to my cousins getting deported to Poland. gain some perspective, people.
"no one here pointed out"
You did, and it's posted.
Maybe I'm just a dumb fratboy, but I fail to see the blatant anti-Semitism in his post. Could you please clarify?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism