Insights into the Academy
Item one: the prostitution of intellectual integrity. Steven Keslowitz, a 19-year-sophomore at Brooklyn College has published (Hats Off Books) a learned discourse on the television show "The Simpsons." The Associated Press story notes that the book contains footnotes and a bibliography. It also displays considerable intellectual depth. "For example, addressing the question of Homer's parenting skills, Keslowitz invokes philosopher Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative before quoting Homer himself: 'I'd rather drink a beer than be father of the year.'"
This new book has excited 21-year-old Joseph Belkin, who teaches a class at Tufts on "The Simpsons." He assigned it to his class and observed, "It's a quick, fun read." Tony Daily, who teaches "Homer Simpson's America" at the University of Alabama read the book but decided not to make it required reading. He explained, "I needed something a little more challenging."
Item two: big-time sports on campus. According to Skip Rozin in the Wall Street Journal, a mere 21 of the 65 teams that started the recent NCAA tournament had graduation rates better than 50%. Four of the teams failed to graduate a single basketball player over the past six years. (The winning men's team, from the University of Connecticut, has a 27% graduation rate.) Three tournament teams were on probation for major violations but were allowed to compete anyway. William Friday, chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, says, "To bring young persons to your campus, involve them in a sport…then have them leave with no degree and qualifications for a better future is wrong."
Drug dealing by a murdered basketball player was the story at Baylor. At the University of Colorado, football players were accused of rape. At St. Bonaventure, the school was put on three years' probation for enrolling a junior college basketball star with inadequate academic preparation. In Iowa, a high school quarterback reported having consensual sex with a coed during his two-day recruiting visit last fall, and that the encounter appeared to have arranged by either players or the football staff. (The Iowa Deputy Attorney General dismissed the allegation.) And so it goes. Economist Andrew Zimbalist calls campus sports a $3 billion a year industry.
Item three: the never-ending story of political correctness on campus. It was a tie this year for first place in the Collegiate network's 7th annual Campus outrage Awards, also known as the "Polly Awards." At the University of California, Santa Barbara, a Chicano Studies thesis entitled "Gay men of Color in Porn" was presented as part of the campus's Multicultural Center's "Race Matters Series." The taxpayer-funded series is trying to legitimize pornography as an academic pursuit.
The other "Polly" winner was Yale University, which approved and assisted a student-sponsored "Sex Week at Yale." The events were co-sponsored by a so-called adult film company. A porn star served as a keynote speaker.
And the highly-paid administrators continue to spout platitudes about "academic excellence," continue to practice discrimination in their admissions and hiring standards, and continue to hike tuition costs annually. It's a good life, if you can get away with it. Apparently you can.