College Credit to Harass Republicans?

By Professor Doom

     What defines a college course? In times past (and on a few legit campuses today), a college course was put together by a scholar, possibly a team of scholars. The material in the course was assembled with a specific purpose in mind, usually preparation for even more advanced material.

      Once the course was put together, it was then reviewed by other scholars, to determine its legitimacy. Despite the age of our higher education system, we still have new courses appearing on a regular basis. I’ve done the “legitimate new course” thing a few times, and it’s not easy…you only go through the trouble if you honestly believe you’re adding value to education.

     The system I’ve lightly described above is somewhat antiquated, from a time when our universities were run by scholars. Most of our educational institutions are controlled now by plundering administrators. Under the “new system” education is irrelevant, the only thing that matters to these guys is “will it sell?” Thus we have courses on Lady Gaga, Game of Thrones and other topics that honestly have minimal educational value at best.

       Even if the course is legitimate, academic freedom means the professor running the course (not necessarily the designer of the course) has wide leeway in what he or she will do as far as course material. This is why supposedly academic work like “don’t shave” can count as much as a letter grade in a course.

     I sneer too much perhaps, as the “don’t shave” exercise does at least involve the student writing about her experience of not having shaved armpits or whatever. I hardly know what to make of this:

University of Southern Maine Offers College Credit to Travel to DC and Harass Susan Collins

     Senator Collins is, of course, a Republican. I…do not understand how admin can tolerate this, academic freedom notwithstanding. I don’t care if there’s some huge push nowadays to get ever more violent against non-Democrats. That’s wrong,  I do care, I find it vile and reprehensible.

      But how is this even remotely of educational value? How does acting like an ill-mannered thug possibly prepare a student for more advanced academic work? Why isn’t this question being asked?

      Perhaps the headline is sensationalizing things?

The University of Southern Maine if offering credit hours to students if they travel to Washington DC and harass Senator Susan Collins in the hallways and elevator.

Students will receive one credit hour for their political action.

      Wow, a full credit hour for being a thug…so this qualifies as a college course. A typical college degree is around 130 credit hours. We only have a mere 100 senators, so at least you can’t get a whole degree in thuggery.

      Of course, why not extend the program to Congress? 200 credit hours is generally enough for a Ph.D., so extending things would allow students to get doctorate degrees In thuggery by harassing our duly elected representatives throughout Washington DC.

      Ok, it’s clear college credit would only be offered for harassing Republicans…but I suspect this is because many schools have few, if any, Republican faculty.

However there’s a catch.
Only anti-Kavanaugh protesters will be rewarded the extra credit hour.
Pro-Kavanaugh students need not apply.

      I know it’s a little dated quoting the above but…we really do have a problem on this campus.

     Mercifully, this “1 credit hour course in Thuggery” was cancelled:

The University of Southern Maine briefly offered students an accredited “pop up course” that consisted of traveling to Washington, D.C. to protest Senator Susan Collins in an effort to dissuade her from voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Glen Cummings, the president of the university, said Wednesday the course was posted without his knowledge, and was immediately canceled when he learned of it. He added that no university money had yet been spent to organize the Wednesday night trip.

     It’s good that reason prevailed here, but the gentle reader should take heed: on this campus, and likely many others, the Leftist lunacy is so dangerously close to taking over that wildly, wildly inappropriate behavior is now being considered as legitimate college material. Much as the Left is weaponizing baseless allegations, they’re also trying to weaponize our higher education system.

      The time honestly draws near where an overhaul, if not outright tearing down, of many of our campuses becomes the only reasonable thing to do.

       Another short post, as my head spins from another day of cancer surgery. I ask the reader to take the time to consider the implications of the above “course,” especially compared to what it used to take to create a college in the past.

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