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Dear Boston College and Cornell University, I have just upgraded my subscription at The Free Press to "Founder". As a result, my budget is tight and I will be unable to contribute as a loyal alumnus to your respective endowments. Everyone, It is a start - cornellfreespeech.com Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Free Speech “The right to speak my min…
Dear Boston College and Cornell University,
I have just upgraded my subscription at The Free Press to "Founder". As a result, my budget is tight and I will be unable to contribute as a loyal alumnus to your respective endowments.
Everyone,
It is a start - https://cornellfreespeech.com
Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Free Speech
“The right to speak my mind out, that's America ... The right to think, speak and write as we believe without fear that Big Brother will retaliate against us because we don't tow the party line.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Cornell '54
Associate Justice / United States Supreme Court
Good for you and congratulations on using your money wisely!
Fortunately in the UK tuition fees were comparatively cheap when I studied (around £3000 a year - now they're £9000 a year). And there's a lot of help available for those who struggle to finance it. It would be great if the US could take a page from our playbook, but sadly that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
When I first rode into college on my horse, tuition, fees, room and board and laundry were $950 a year Now it I over $25,000 a year.
I know. I don't know how you guys live! I see hope in the publication of these kinds of pieces and students reacting against institutional tyranny. It's about time!
Yes, I agree on tuition fees in the US, they’re obscene. Hence the top heavy administrations justifying their existence through punitive overreach.
It’s the same in politics in the US, grotesque sums of money involved. Hence the corruption not just of body but of spirit.
It should be said though that the lower fees don’t protect against menacing administrations in the UK. Much of the psychosis that’s permeating US universities is evident in UK universities.
I’m from the UK, but am now a newly minted US citizen, though I’ve been here on and off since 1988. I’ve watched over the years as both countries have been on a precipitous decline. It’s not a pretty picture for either country, sadly.
It's largely a phenomenon of the entire Anglosphere, but is starting to creep into European institutions.
Thank you so much for this link! This kind of sharing is no doubt the greatest asset of The Free Press's community.
Too bad RBG didn't understand the metaphor she used. It is TOE the line. You know, stand with one's toes against the line. Kinda like her jurisprudence, about 2/3s right, but missing a critical component to make it whole. Not a bad average, I suppose.
I am RBM Cornell, '72
At 18, I was a mess. I got accepted a state university but, instead I decided to enlist in the US Navy. I found out I had a new perspective in life, I needed time to grow up, I needed learn about personal responsibility and the responsibility to take care of subordinates. I went back to college after my enlistment using my GI Bill. Wow, I was glad I spent a few years getting real life experience before attending college. College calculus was hard but it was nothing comparing to working 24 hours straight, on topside, in the middle the Alaskan winter storm
Amen. Joined Navy late. Learned a lot.
cornell never pretended to give a crap about its students when i went there
Different era, no doubt. I attended our state college (Western Washington State College, now a university) in the mid-70's and I don't remember anybody who looked out for student well-being. You were on your own. Now the pendulum has swung much too far in the opposite direction.
Your post is jaw dropping. Our universities have gone to hell in a hand basket. We need someone with backbone (almost impossible to find in today's climate) to tell these heavily government endowed schools that if they do not adhere to the 1st Amendment and fire their anti 1st amendment, woke, administrators, their endowments will be cut off.
My alma mater Texas A&M used to be a bastion of conservatism but I see it slipping into the abyss. The admin is allowing a black professor to ignore the rules of grammar and capitalize the word black no matter where it falls in a sentence. That sounds very woke to me.
I am considering canceling my endowment to the university.
In addition to government, a large amount of endowments also come from private foundations and "philanthropists" with their own agendas, of course; many of which are all too happy to see the Constitution ripped to shreds, unfortunately.
Polecat, can't believe a man with your values is giving a dime to the university, any university. I recommend that you stop your support today, and demand all previous donations be returned on the basis that they were fraudulently obtained, i.e., you thought you were giving to an institution of higher learning not an indoctrination mill. It's that bad.
I agree with your sentiment, yet these universities have such bloated endowments that they don’t care so much about alums. The only way to fight back is for students and faculty to hire great attorneys and fight them in the media and courtroom.
Class of '17. I loved my time at Cornell, but I'm glad I graduated when I did, and I really feel for the students there now. I noticed a major change in the atmosphere after Trump was elected and it got even worse during the pandemic. When I went back to campus to visit a friend in grad school there in 2021, the campus was unrecognizable. It seemed that all of the energy had been sapped out of the place. It looked like a bunch of robots walking around. It definitely wasn't the fun place I remember when I attended.
The problem is bloated administration full of power hungry and middlingly intelligent nobody's seeking to justify their existence. While lack of free speech is one of the symptoms, bloated administration is the "root cause."
There are plenty of ways to find all kinds of success and life. To use the words of a middling intelligent Stanford administrator who seems to have no other purpose than limit the future opportunities of current law students at Stanford, not to mention stunt their ability to learn how to make persuasive legal arguments - the juice isn't worth the squeeze at these once truly elite institutions.
My husband and I, despite not coming from money and not attending super elite schools, are more successful than well over 90% of Ivy graduates our age (by a factor of 3.5 for the 90th percentile our age according to Washington Post Statistics). We have plenty of friends who went to equivalent schools to ours making in our income range. We have friends with very successful businesses who never even finished undergrad. Most importantly, we are happier and find far more joy contributing to our community than the numerous Ivy grads we know personally.
Our kids know we will not in any way support them attending an Ivy/ Ivy adjacent institution despite the fact they both check all the boxes on grades, standardized testing, leadership, character, and elite extra curriculars. If the alumni of these institutions want to save what remains of their reputations, they should focus on eliminating the counterproductive and often plainly cruel administrative bloat destroying them from the inside.
What we need is another 10,000 administrators to monitor the existing 10,000!
God no, not MORE power-hungry bureaucrats! I hope you were being sarcastic (hard to tell on here).
I don't know how anyone is surprised by how Stanford is run by nut case tyrants. It's the west coast, California for Christ's sake. The land of fruits, nutz and flakes. Being insanely left wing is the norm.
You are not wrong. But it’s seeping out too. We live between two states, California and Nevada. Unfortunately the Californians that move to other states to get away from the “lunacy”, then bring it with them.
If you’re a Californian who moved, for the love of all that’s sane please leave behind your California mindset!
I politely disagree JAE.
The people that leave California leave because of their disdain for how the state is run politically and the high taxes. If it is this exact "lunacy" they are trying to escape, why would they "bring it with them"?
If you live in a state that you feel is being influenced by "Californians seeping out" perhaps you should be asking yourself instead why the citizens and politicians of your state are changing their position because there are not that many Californians moving to one specific state to make that much influence, especially considering the fact they left California for said "lunacy".
And what is a "California mindset" exactly? And how is it so powerful as to sway so many people to change the politics of where you reside?
Respectfully, your argument in prejudicial at best and ill-informed at the worst.
Be well
Hahahaha! I love it when people couch thinly disguised disdain in politeness. Good for you, better to be civil.
Reading your post one could assume you’re taking umbrage because you’re a Californian. Maybe not, perhaps you simply enjoy defending California and its residents. Because if I have to make a case to you regarding the lunacy of California when its major cities, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and even lesser locations such as Santa Monica are becoming uninhabitable, then I cannot help you. It’s right under your nose, everyone’s nose in fact, what the lunacy is, it’s very smelly and it’s on full display.
As to the influence California transplants have on politics, and I’m a transplant myself, the state where I live now suddenly turned Blue with the influx. As did Colorado, and now even Idaho is worried. And it’s not because the Democrats the transplants vote for are brimming with wonderful notions and ideas to make life better, it’s simply because they had a D by their name!
That’s the embedded lunacy.
So, I respectfully suggest to you if you haven’t heard of yellow dog voters yet, look them up.
I am very well thank you, same to you.
They flee California because it has turned into a shit hole with high taxes and stupid restrictive laws and Its lunacy. They are banning internal combustion cars and truck in 2035 yet their electrical gride can't handle the electric cars they have now.
They move to a red state and then vote for the same for type of lunatics that destroyed California. Democrats/Socialists are truly insane.
In Texas, we need to put up signs that say "If you are from California and moving to Texas, please turn around and go back to your insane asylum . We already have too many left wing nuts in Austin."
Well let's take a beat before you lampoon an entire state because of extreme liberalism Lonesome Polecat.
As a longtime California resident we are not all what you claim and your mischaracterization is just another example in a long line of far right talking points that continue to perpetuate the biases that render this country into partisan tribalism and an inability to have civil and productive discourse with each other.
40+% of this state also does not agree with your assessment.
Unfortunately for California we have our own version of political grift in the forms of Governor Gavin Newsome, Feinstein, Boxer and Pelosi.
But let's be honest with each other, Republican and Democrat politicians differ only in how they screw the population to serve their corporate donor's interests and themselves.
We'd all be the better if we didn't wear our political identities as a badge of honor.
There is not very much I consider honorable in today's political classes.
Both parties are guilty for varying transgressions against the American People.
Thanks for the respectful understanding.
Thank you for your reasoned response. I particularly agree with this statement - "Republican and Democrat politicians differ only in how they screw the population to serve their corporate donor's interests and themselves." - 100%!
I've long said that petty partisanship is one of the biggest factors in this country's divisiveness (by design, no doubt), and it's so disheartening to see how many people allow themselves to get sucked into it. If they could only recognize that, they might be able to transcend party politics (and ideologies), which would go a long way toward resolving this country's many problems.
Fair enough. And yes, neither party is any good. Looking to politicians for truth, beauty, inspiration, honesty or help is a huge mistake. Like deciding which clump of dirt is better than the other clump of dirt.
Dean
I found this article both very credible and yet scarcely believable.
The 1:1 administrator/student ratio is by itself proof of gross incompetence. What justifies the harsh treatment of students and the refusal to implement and abide by elementary principles of fairness and due process? Where is the common sense.
I wouldn’t send my dog to Stanford.
Are there any universities run by conservatives which are as bad as Stanford? How does it compare to Hillsdale College or Notre Dame?
I too found this article enlightening, credible and very revealing.
And I am abhorred by the lack of compassion shown by the administration of Stanford to their student body. The University has an agenda that is entirely intolerant to any commonsense principles. It could not be more illiberal today if they tried. And this is a place so renowned for higher thinking and education that any sense of irony is now lost on both faculty and administration.
It's fair to say they have gone to extremes to shelter themselves in policies created to cause more harm than good. Stanford is guilty of a new type of indifference, a kind that is blind to the real world around them and the impact that indifference has on its students. Shame on them.
And the 1:1 administrator/student ratio is precisely why tuition rates have skyrocketed and liberal arts colleges have such insular thinking.
Should your kids choose the path of college education, I hope they choose a school that embraces a fair and open discourse to those with diverse or opposing viewpoints and backgrounds. That is the purpose of higher education and a tenet held in high regard by Abraham Lincoln himself.
Thanks for participating in a reasonable discourse.
Cheers
So to a large degree US News and World Report's college rankings depends on the percentage of graduates employed after graduation. How many of these administrators are former students who graduate not qualified for gainful employment and end up back at the university as an administrator, to help inflate these colleges rankings?
I agree with most of what you say but you get what you vote for and that is the highest homeless population in the US, DAs who won't prosecute criminals, a defund the police populace. Your state has gone off the rails and has been for the last few decades.
Look at who your state elects to high office and tell me I am wrong.
What police departments have been defunded?
San Franciso's was to the tune of $120,000,000
If the police weren't defunded it wasn't for lack of trying. Look what this Dem hypocrite is asking for.
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2023/03/20/san-francisco-supervisor-demands-more-cops-after-backing-defund-the-police/
So...the police were not defunded?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc7news.com/amp/sfpd-budget-defund-the-police-department-funding/12321818/
"San Francisco is on the precipice of a potentially catastrophic police staffing shortage, and there are too many public safety problems we'll be helpless to solve if we don't start solving SFPD's understaffing crisis first." SF Chronicle. Jan.24/2023.
Only 4 police officers protecting 130,000 residents in the city's Sunset district on a nightly basis.
https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/130k-san-franciscans-protected-by-just-four-cops-every-night-supervisor-says/
The Worst is yet to come says ABC News.
https://abc7news.com/sf-crime-police-staffing-car-break-ins/12230630/
Gosh, where is comprof's answer to this post?
Why would I disagree with any of that? I know the things you're saying to be true. I live here. I am very aware of the rampant homelessness and crime, the weak DA's going soft on punishing criminals and I find it frustrating that it continues because of feeble minded voters and pandering politicians.
But I clearly stated 40+% of this state is in the opposition of those primarily responsible for California's current elected class of politicians.
I didn't vote for those currently in office personally, so you don't actually "get what you vote for", you get what the majority votes for. But I won't tuck tail and run away, I don't need the shield of a political party to live my life here. California is too beautiful a state with fantastic weather, some amazing people and an economy that I am certain far out earns the economy of the state in which you reside. And I'm proud of that economy and playing my part in it.
Shoot I'll bet you eat all kinds of fruits, nuts and vegetables grown right here in the "land of fruits, nuts and flakes" and all of it picked by migrant farm workers. Thanks for contributing, we appreciate you.
But I digress, you clearly missed my point in my previous comment because you are continuing to generalize an entire state by its political leaders and not the sum total of its citizens.
Political identity should not be the guide to determine how we move forward as a country.
Be well
By saying 40% don't agree with the current state of affairs doesn't mean a thing. 60% like living in a shit hole. They are called democrats and until your side gains a majority and I don't see that happening any time soon, your state will continue to slide into the garbage pit.
Would you be so kind as to share with me the glorious state you call home so I have the privilege of equal footing on smack talking it in return. I'm sure your Republican representatives are doing wonders for ordinary citizens where you live.
And by the way, you're reading comprehension needs some brushing up. As I made clear previously to you, I don't belong to a "side" and a major contributing factor to that is the close-minded nature found the political tribalism you have so obviously embraced.
But I digress yet again because there is no way you're able to grasp any of this since you keep repeating the same thing over and over, "hate the left, hate the left, hate the left", like a broken record.
Change the channel.
Yeah, how do we end the tribal thinking? Can't be done, probably. You can maybe rout it out of your own thinking.
Having said that, umm, I try to be build a bridge when commenting to liberal people but my patience is wearing thin of late. All you receive is insults and repetitive thinking in return.
Meantime our "side" has it's share of compromised thinking as well, people I would prefer not to be identified as "conservatives".
Now that you have taken it to the personal level, I thank you for your kind remarks and commend you on your debating skills I mean insults.
If it weren't for CA, you'd probably be starving.
So is being an incompetent paper pusher. A student body of around 17,000. Around 2,300 professors. And this takes 15,750 administrators? How incompetent and petty are these “administrators” that you need almost a 1 to 1 relationship with students who are supposedly the best, brightest, most responsible, and most self motivated out there? That’s a higher administrator to student ratio than the staff to student ratio at those high schools for extremely violent kids that get booted from the general population! Prisons don’t have anywhere close to that kind of staff to prisoner ratio. But an Ivy League school needs it? It’s nothing but a works project for the low IQ with poor work ethic and delusions of power they take out on the kids who are the only people they have any power over.
Hell, infant daycare doesn't have that kind of ratio.
It is sad but true and the Dems are all for it.
The Dems created it besides being for it
Cornell grad here. I was a shy, inexperienced, sheltered kid with terrible anxiety and should never have gone to such an prestigious, intimidating university. I would have been much better off at a trade school or a "lesser" calibre college. My nephew is a living example of someone who was not cut out for college and has made a great career as a car mechanic. He's brilliant, knows everything there is to know about cars and is thriving. First in our family to NOT graduate from college and perhaps the most well adjusted and successful of all of us. I applaud my brother and sister in law for not forcing him into an impossible, over-rated experience.
The DIEvy league is fully demoralized. Here are the rankings of how woke the “elite” universities are: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-get-into-harvard-part-3
My husband and I are trying to talk our high school junior OUT OF going to a university he wants to go to (because of course it has a robust DEI dept, which scares the hell out of us), and INTO a trade school that specializes in the field he wants to pursue. Never would've thought we'd be doing this. Strange times indeed.
We warned our kids that we would not be able to afford college for them. And we recommended a gap year (working, not playing), even if they decided to go to college.
Our oldest son was not really interested in college; he jumped into employment instead, and now makes more than his dad does at a factory that makes huge tires for earthmoving equipment.
Our middle son took the maximum amount of dual credit classes in high school and picked enough community college classes (mostly through Pell Grants) to get an Associates degree. Instead of going to college, he used the experience he gained working in a factory First Aid office to get an HR position that, again, pays more than his dad makes.
Our youngest daughter is an artist, and she attempted the community college's animation program (a feeder program for a small animation studio in our area). Between working to pay for her apartment, babysitting her roommate, and hating the non-art general ed classes she was required to take, she decided that path was not for her. I don't know what she'll end up doing, but she has a job skill she can always fall back on anywhere (security guard). She's already "woke" enough from Tumblr and high school indoctrination; college would make her insufferable (and undoubtedly 100% intolerant of her family).
One of the things that is truly great about the American college and university system along with trade schools is that you can return for further learning and bridge into another career. A plumber can morph into a CPA, a police officer a teacher, an engineer takes plumbing or electrical classes for fixing up a house and morphs into a contractor with a real estate licenses, and the list goes on. Whether motivated by circumstances like an injury or just a desire for a change, their rich experience and the maturity of their focus can bring them and our communities many benefits.
This hand wringing that an 18 yo must decide their life destiny is ridiculous, especially when there are so many options available beyond their senior year. It is amazing that children and parents are willing to go into debt to the tune of over 70k per year for destinies to be explored and discovered.
Exactly. My SIL and her husband paid their son's full tuition to George Washington Univ, from which he graduated with an MS in political science. What did he do after? Worked at the local volunteer fire dept for a few years before getting a paid job with the city fire dept. So, basically not using his degree at all, but absolutely LOVING his job.
Love this!
The Panama Canal Company had a great apprentice program. I chose to go to college instead of becoming a tradesman. I often wonder how my life would have been if I had gone to the Canal Zone apprentice program.
As someone that was not a fabulous high school student and had no clear path for my future as an 18 year old, I chose to join the US Navy in 1985 to see the world and have access to the GI Bill. I never bothered taking advantage of that GI Bill. I chose instead to become an electrician, something I had no experience in my 4 years of Naval service. I relished in never working in the same building or city very often and I rather enjoyed building a plethora of unique facilities and buildings. It has been 35 years now and I am the owner of an Electrical Contracting business I started in Southern California in 2004.
I for one can say it's been the ride of a lifetime and has provided for my family and me a comfortable, well-earned life.
College is not for everyone and the idea that it is "the" way for a path to a successful livelihood is a misnomer that needs to be dispelled before it's too late. Most of today's college students leave college with a mountain of debt and fewer prospects in the workforce. How is that meant to be an advantage?
Our daughter does not attend a university as prestigious as Stanford, she is pursuing a nursing degree at a smallish private university that does not mandate the "wokeness" found in campuses across this country, and for that I am grateful considering Stanford's example of intolerance towards students and invited speakers that do not have left leaning principles. I say this as an unaffiliated political party American voter.
I am also grateful for the fact that my decision to not go to college and to become a tradesman has allowed my daughter to go to school without any student loans and debt.
That is something being a tradesman could do for many others.
Well said.
I have two sons who are former Marines, one a current Navy Nuke, all straight out of HS. Husband was a Naval officer. We have for years discouraged a college path unless there was a specific need for a desired career path. I commend you for your clear headed thinking and choice. Told them all, (5), that only a serious degree would get financial help, and only AFTER graduation. One daughter spent 9 years getting a philosophy degree; no help from us. The other went the four year route right out of HS on a full ride for a chemical engineering degree; again, no help needed. Guess which one is a "progressive"? I would not wish college on any kid at this point. Our electricians and plumbers make more money, are more responsible and mature, and have a better earnings path than anyone with a "black women's studies" degree; unless of course they go straight into academic or government service. We need to starve colleges of our progeny to salvage any semblance of a future.
I think you must mean a series of degrees. Otherwise, the problem was with your daughter, not philosophy as an area of study.
Two different daughters. The oldest took 9 years to graduate and settled on a philosophy degree because it was easy. She did not attend school full-time, so she didn't get as indoctrinated as her sister. The younger went straight to a 4-year college on a full scholarship, got her engineering degree and two minors, then went on to get her Masters in machine learning, I. E. Artificial intelligence. She met her English husband while living in France doing a semester abroad. She married a drunk carpenter who spent the better part of his young adulthood traveling around the world and surfing. At their wedding, he said he married her because all his friends were married and he thought he should probably be married too. We were so proud.
Wow. That's quite a tale! And odd for a Brit to become a vagrant surfer.
Well, I'll just say one more thing about philosophy: It's the bedrock of all intellectual inquiry and, at its best practice, bestows and promotes genuine intellectualism—the kind that's so incredibly rare on college campuses today.
Then again you hardly need a degree to do intellectual inquiry, nor do you need anybody to tell you how to do it.
Of course you don’t need a degree. But you absolutely do need to learn how to do it.
99% of people think they can do it. 1% actually can.
Elon Musk designed the Falcon rocket engine on the back of a napkin on a flight back from Russia. He did not have a degree in rocket engineering. He read books. Go figure!
But then Elon may be Sergei Pavlovich Korolev reincarnated...
:- ) she was always a smart girl. Her younger sister is completely brilliant (except at doing everyday life), so she felt she was in her sister's shadow. She is a much more pleasant person to be around.
Great success story. I hope your left wing daughter comes to her senses and stops supporting a vicious, destructive vile Dem/Soc Party who is driving this country into the ground.
I pray for that every day. She currently lives in France with her socialist husband and my two grandchildren, taking advantage of French "social programs" to have a "better standard of living". In other words, they're cheating the French taxpayers instead of US taxpayers. Not only can I not have a conversation with her about her political beliefs, her husband has said to my face, and I quote"fu*#ing Christians" in reference to my husband and I being strong traditional Christians. Nothing else to be said.
I'll bet he is anti-American also. The next time this asshole confronts you, ask him what country pulled his sorry ass country out of the fire in two world wars. Ask him how many Frenchmen are buried in military graveyards in the US.
Ask him if he is such a diehard communist, how come he won't live in any one of the workers' paradises like Cuba, China or North Korea.
Very sad.
What do you expect? He is French. Aren't they all socialists and atheists?
He is actually English. It's like French, but with a better accent and alcoholism.
This is a generalization, but I thought the English were unbearable snobs until I met the French.
It is in their DNA.
You can still ask the same questions. The US saved not only Western Europe but civilization. The left will never admit this no matter what history says.
Panama is a corrupt hell hole; even worse than the US. We spent a month there in December, got a real education on many levels dealing with their bureaucracy in order to take a vessel through the canal. Be happy you avoided it.
I was raised in the Panama Canal Zone. It was owned and run by the uS government with Us police, courts and schools. After the Army and college I went back and worked there, all toll 40 years.
Panama is a shit hole of corruption and dangerous.
Cornell alum here '98. I can't recognize what has happened to a place I used to consider a force for good. Thanks for the posting the link.
Cornell '72 here. NPS '89. Retired Navy. Retired from teaching engineering at USNA as a civilian. None of them are getting my recommendation to attend / join. Nor bequeath. Absolutely disgusted with them. Especially after the way non jabbed Mids / Cadets were & are still being treated.
My son was USNA '19, so I share your concern. Here is the latest from Annapolis -"COVID-19 Vaccination Update February 23, 2023 - Students applying for admission to the United States Naval Academy or participating in Office of Admissions-sponsored outreach programs are not required to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. This includes candidates applying for admission, Candidate Visit Weekends, Summer STEM, Day Tours and Summer Seminar."
'74. There were out-of-control protests, the school was shut down spring 69 and 70, and the student senate was a progressive joke, even back then. But the patients were not running the asylum. It has always had too much NYC influence, and see what that has produced.
'72. I lived through the madness.
I believe those were the protests that drove Thomas Sowell, perhaps the greatest living economist, out of academia and into the Hoover Institute on Stanford’s campus.
Ah, I was a freshman for the 1969 takeover of Willard Straight. An amazing time and I don't think Cornell ever really recovered.
Love Mr Sowell!❤️
Sowell's contribution to this country cannot be measured.
I was ‘89. Not only would I never give them a penny, I am no longer proud to tell people I graduated from Cornell. I have two son’s currently in small private colleges in the south. It is better, but far from perfect. This is systemic in academia, professors and administrators. Some are better than others, but impossible to completely escape in college today.
I used to think it would be great if I spawned a Cornell legacy with all the kids I popped out. I really loved my time at Cornell. Now that my oldest child is 13 and just barely beginning to think about her future, I strongly recommend against going to Cornell. Which breaks my heart, to be honest. A person would have to be nuts to go ivy (or other "elite" schools) at this point in time.
The more "elite" a school is, the bigger a stalinist hell hole it is.
I would ask an even Bigger question. Why go to College At All? Unless someone wants to be A Doctor, Lawyer, or in the HARD Sciences, why go to college? And if someone does feel The Need, may I recommend waiting a couple of years. Where does it say You HAVE TO go to college right after High School?
Exactly. In addition to trying to talk our high school junior into going to a trade school that specializes in his desired career field, we're also encouraging him to take a year after high school to travel the world (on our dime, even), such as backpacking Europe or Asia, through which he'd get a MUCH more meaningful education than in university general ed classes. As a kid, he loved traveling with us, so he's actually considering it!
Steve, I think your comment should be bronzed and posted in EVERY HIGH SCHOOL in the country. WTF do we need sociology degrees and "Studies" degrees for? To train professional parasites?
I can't take credit for it. That goes to Mike Rowe.
Haha, love Mike Rowe!
Work smart AND hard.
Well, without all those "Studies" degrees, how will companies staff their woke and racist personnel departments? Schools and teachers unions need unqualified "Studies" majors to teach our kids. Stanford and other schools of learning need them to run greeks and conservatives off campus. And don't get me started on all the government jobs that depend on "Studies" majors. /s
I agree actually. In an effort to be completely self aware, I am writing huge checks for a piece of paper that is supposed to be valuable in our society. In the meantime, my sons are having fun, putting off adulting for 4 years and hopefully learning something academic and some valuable life lessons both positive and negative. By negative, I mean learning how to navigate a system, deal with sometimes unreasonable professors and administrators and unfortunately learning how to keep their mouths shut and opinions to themselves at times. I will say that in the colleges they are at in the South, I have seen conservative opinions being tolerated by the students, although not always the "adults" in the room.
I get it. My youngest is a freshman and wanted to apply to Cornell. He is a really good student but I told him he didn’t have a chance but I would pay for the application fee, and on the off chance he got in, he was not going and I wouldn’t pay a penny for it. I told him he wasn’t going somewhere I would not want to visit. It is sad, because I did enjoy my time there and used to be proud of where I went to college. My sons are having relatively good experiences where they are. My 26 year old daughter went to GWU before I knew how bad it was there. Wish I could get that money back. She did survive it though, although rocky at times, with values intact.
I went to GW when JFK was Pres. Wouldn’t go near the place today
Ginsburg said that we needed to have nine females justices to make up for the historic wrong of having male justices.
I'll bet she would never say the Dem Party should be dissolved because of its racist history.
On a side note, where is the woke movement on canceling the racist Dem party?
Dear Lonesome, a plea: cease patrolling all these comments with your tireless (and tiresome ) diatribes a against your demons, and either offer something constructive (hint: how can we make the place better) or give over the space to those who are trying to do so. You are self-indulgent.
Who died and made you the chief censor? Are you now the sole arbiter of what should be posted on this BBS. Why should I bow to your "standards" of what is right and what is wrong?
I have been posting here for a year and have a good relationship with most of the posters. I think of them as friends. I have had spirited debates with them but we come out of just fine.
If you don't like my posts, don't read them. Maybe you would like to join the ranks of comprof. He is a pariah on the BBS. Nobody replies to his snarky posts.
I don't mind you criticizing me. I'll just ignore you.
Adding context, Ginsburg said that at Georgetown University Law School, and her friend and fellow jurist Antonin Scalia was a Georgetown alum. They clearly had a history of tweaking each other:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/justice-ginsburg-enough-women-supreme-court
Their history of friendship, respect, and adversarial positions are well documented. I certainly don't agree with every decision of Scalia or Ginsburg, but I miss the era of talking through issues. Even the LA Times used to comment on "common ground": https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-na-court-odd-couple-20150622-story.html
For the record, I have an Autistic son, and Ginsberg's decision and opinion in "The Olmstead Decision" set up the path to his current life where he lives independently with support rather than an institutional setting - https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-536.ZS.html We are building it today - https://www.endeavor21.org
Worse - she said that South Africa's Constitution was a better model than our own.
Why this nitwit is worshipped escapes me.
She’s only worshipped on the Left.
Some are besotted by Trump and some by Hillary or Obama. The parties are different, the psychosis is the same.
However, no reasonable person “worships” another human being, whether they’re on the Right or the Left. We have a lot of unreasonable people it seems.
You are 100% correct. Why worship politicians? Very uninspiring people for the most part.
She was a traitor and scumbag in 1,000 different ways. A devoted evangelist of the dipshit ideology that has us where we are right now. Beneath contempt.
Maybe we can build a statue of her right next to the statue of Joe Biden showering with his daughter.
Kevin: that was beneath you. Take a deep breath and consider your responses
Don't be such a self-righteous twit. I like Kev's posts. He's funny and on point.
You've done it once again Kev, made me laugh. Have you considered stand up?
Hell, I'm considering a career as his straight man.....
Tell me what club you two are opening at so I can be there.