Academia in the past month

[VaporTrail]

An Indiana medical school professor got reprimanded and had to issue an apology for having a question with the phrase "I can't breathe" on an examination. This is a common complaint that patients will have, but apparently this combination of words is now forbidden.

Source: https://reason.com/2020/06/17/indiana-university-i-cant-breathe-medical-exam/

Petition signed by 500 students and academics calling for the firing of Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, a guy who's made an academic career out of using data to tell you why things aren't as bad as the headlines are telling you. He stands accused of saying "Police kill too many people, black and white," and of describing Bernard Goetz as "mild-mannered."

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard.html

This is a petition signed by hundreds of students and professors at Princeton calling for significant changes to be had in the name of anti-racism. Some of their recommendations include extra sabbatical, summer salaries for faculty who are "persons of color" as well as preferential status and monetary benefits to those who demonstrate work with black students. 

Source: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPmfeDKBi25_7rUTKkhZ3cyMICQicp05ReVaeBpEdYUCkyIA/viewform 

A Princeton Classics professor wrote a response to the above petition, saying, whoa pump the brakes, maybe it's not a good idea to favor people based on race. He was denounced by his department in a public statement that has since been taken down from their website. Their response said that he was putting black people at risk.

Source: https://quillette.com/2020/07/08/a-declaration-of-independence-by-a-princeton-professor/

 

Freedom of inquiry seems to have taken a back seat to finding racism where it doesn't exist. Also, I cannot believe that there are people who are unironically advocating for fixing the problem of systemic racism by adding more systemic racism.

[htownbrown]

15 minutes ago, VaporTrail said:

 

Freedom of inquiry seems to have taken a back seat to finding racism where it doesn't exist. Also, I cannot believe that there are people who are unironically advocating for fixing the problem of systemic racism by adding more systemic racism.