Comments on: Dartmouth: The Empire Strikes Back

By: Blogengeezer

Blogengeezer — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:12:24 +0000

Roger nothing surprises me in these times. While working on a recent film project here in NM, I had the chance to talk with the young tenured professor teaching a class of 200 per semester. European History is his forte at the University of New Mexico. I came away from the one sided (he is a professor) discussion with the definite impression that this young tenured professor teaches ‘Bush is Hitler’. We never got to my questions about who Vladimir Putin or Ahmadinejad or Hugo Chavez was in relevence to history. This young tenured professor apparently believes that the Executive branch of our US government should be done away with? At least until a ‘worthy’ figure is installed in power? All of these revelations from a tenured professor of European History? Now I know where all of this new-think originates in our society. I believe he needs to study a little more ‘World’ history?

By: Blogengeezer

Blogengeezer — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:11:07 +0000

By: cranquer

cranquer — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:22:01 +0000

Mr. Simon, I am not sure why you think that Robinson, who was nominated by a poll among alumni of an Ivy League institution and elected to a small nonprofit board by its members, was “democratically elected.” I wonder whether your definition of “democracy” would be shared by many others.

I also wonder about your definition of “university,” since you do not appear to be able to distinguish the classroom and the corporation that owns it. Democracy unquestionably has a place in the university as an intellectual enterprise, but it deserves no more consideration inside that university’s boardroom than it does in the boardroom of the Coca-Cola Corporation. Private boards meet in closed rooms and discuss their own matters under their own rules, and anyone who thinks that an educational nonprofit corporation such as Dartmouth’s should become a public place for “free discourse” needs to go back to school. Capitalism and free enterprise depend on property rights that are selfishly private, not in any way “free” or “democratic.” In this country, we don’t generally ask the courts to take rights away from others and give them to us, even though that surely would seem more “democratic.”

Your understanding of the law is seriously deficient if you think that a personal desire for “free discourse” is any kind of reason to support a suit against the Board of Trustees. Instead of accepting the propaganda put forth by anti-Dartmouth organizations with an uncritical ear, you should at least permit the Board, which includes the four petition trustees, all of whom voted on the expansion, to continue to make its own decisions by majority vote. You should do this even if your vast experience running an Ivy League institution (?) leads you to think that the Board’s decision was the wrong one. People disagree with institutional decisions all the time and learn to live with it. The possession of a certain level of anger, especially when it is misguided and based on ignorance and propaganda, will always fail to justify litigation.

By: shockcorridor

shockcorridor — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:58:28 +0000

“I am an openly gay man, a teacher, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, the ACLU, and the Human Rights Campaign…and am currently one of those “Obamaniacs.” To call me anything near a conservative would be a gross misnomer.”
I don’t think “conservative” is quite the moniker that most people would slap on someone proudly touting a resume like this one.

By: David Thomson

David Thomson — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:18:24 +0000

The MSM is quickly being marginalized. The Ivy League schools are next on the list. They are often not worthy of respect—outside of their hard science departments. Roger L. Simon and other graduates of these corrupted institutions are naively trying to reverse their inevitable collapse. The odds are strongly against them. Tenure protects the crazy and reactionary professors. Most parents also don’t really care about the long term destruction. They worry only about the here and now. What is the present and near future value of the credentials granted to their near adult children? That is the only thing that concerns them.

Do you really want to know how we got to this point? If so, I strongly recommend that you read Donald Alexander Downs’ CORNELL ’69 Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University. This books reveals the cowardice of Cornell’s leaders. Their surrender to the radical Left significantly lowered that university’s academic standard. It has only gotten much worse since then.