VCU's Success Shines Light on Towson University's Failures

Shame on Towson University!!!

The Final Four in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament awaits us. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) from the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAC) beat Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State, and Kansas, all major conference teams, some considered national powerhouses to get there. George Mason, whose run to the Final Four elevated the CAC and mid-major conferences to a new, high degree of prestige won their first round challenge then were eliminated by #1 seed, Ohio State. Old Dominion also made the field as a #9 seed losing to Butler, a Final Four team, a #8 seed.

The implication is clear; the Colonial Athletic Conference is poised to be a major competitor in NCAA Men’s Basketball, but not for Towson University, Maryland’s second largest state university close to the same size as George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth. In the new millennium, Towson athletics is a study in failure aside from lacrosse where they’re hardly knocking down any walls. While fielding a competitive football program is a huge investment mindful that this conference contributed Joe Flacco from University of Delaware, quality basketball should be within Towson’s reach. How many other states’ second largest schools or schools with much smaller enrollments thrive in NCAA basketball?

The Towson Tigers did not win a single conference game this past season. Their record was 4-26 overall trailing William and Mary 4-14, 10-22 overall showing Towson pitifully buried in the cellar.

Team Record
2009-2010 8th, 6-12, 10-21 overall
2008-2009 10th, 5-13, 12-22 overall
2007-2008 9th, 7-11, 13-18 overall

Coach Pat Kennedy quit at season’s end after having been sought to be a leader who could advance the team to greater heights when hired for the 2004 season. Kennedy’s biggest contribution was stewarding Florida State into the ACC, coaching there from 1986-1997 with a total 202-131 record, much of it in the highly competitive ACC. Since then, his success hard to find, struggling at DePaul, a solid Big East team from 1997-2002, 67-85, and then Montana, a weak program, 2002-2004, 23-35 record.

The women’s program is not much better for this past season, a 3-14 conference record and 9-21 overall result.

A snapshot of their football program shows a team with only one win, not in conference for the 2010 season. What can be said of one program can be said of the other. Even in lacrosse which had once been a Towson stronghold, they’re buried far from tournament shape, with a 7-8 record.

Towson University is capable of being a competitive team in basketball and one of the nation’s top programs in lacrosse. Looking at the mother ship, University of Maryland, College Park whose football and basketball programs have struggled in recent years, certainly both schools’ struggles surely points to commitment at the highest level of the state university system. Since Maryland’s winning the National Championship in basketball, 2002, they’d reach the Sweet 16 the following year having never advanced past the tournament’s second round since. Of those nine seasons, Maryland made five NCCA appearances, three NIT appearances with little distinction. Their high points were winning the ACC tournament in 2004 and being the regular season champ in 2010. The 2010-2011 season marks a horrible embarrassment for the program not even achieving an NIT invitation after a late season total collapse.

In football, the Ralph Friedgen era began with great hopes for the 2001 season leaping out of the long run of mediocrity winning the ACC championship to reach the Orange Bowl. The following year, 2002, Maryland smashed Tennessee in the Peach Bowl. Since then, Maryland has made its share of lesser bowls but certainly has fallen below expectations.

In the Maryland system, College Park rules and the rest of the campuses are at each other’s throats for what remains. This is especially true in Division One athletics. The Baltimore area has five universities, four which participate in basketball, football far more limited. Towson, Morgan State, Coppin State, and UMBC are all Division One for basketball. Only Towson and Morgan field football teams, but UMBC boasts a dynasty in chess!

Additionally, these schools compete with Loyola Baltimore, a strong MEAC team coached by popular former Gary Williams’ assistant, Jimmy Patsos. The Washington DC area adds Georgetown, American University, George Mason, and George Washington University all competing for local talent with Philadelphia only 100 miles up I-95 to the northeast.

The Baltimore-Washington area is fertile ground for top basketball prospects scouted by top schools nationwide. With significant competition for talent, building a first rate program represents tremendous dedication, but the Baltimore-Washington area is not unique and certainly a state’s second largest university deserves far more commitment than state leadership affords a superb university whose story would be much better known nationwide if it had an athletics program that made headlines.

Today, the reputation of Maryland sports is poor. College Park dumped Ralph Friedgen and Gary Williams’ is dealing with his greatest disgrace during his distinguished tenure at College Park. While #1 gets the bulk of the attention, #2 is a cruel joke that shows nothing to be proud of in basketball and football. They’re an embarrassment, but since Towson seldom has gotten much attention for long standing mediocrity, few notice. Still, they were worthy of a limited radio schedule for the 2009-2010 schedule on Baltimore’s flamethrower AM radio station, WBAL.

Located in the affluent Towson/Northern Baltimore County area, Towson could be a fabulous cite for top sports. Plans move forward for a new arena, a must to be on the same level as George Mason and other CAC schools. We anxiously wait to see who is named the next coach and if they find a proven motivator who can build a program from nothing.

No doubt, many will say how can schools afford to upgrade athletic programs when funds are scarce; the economy is bad, and all the usual excuses. Good sports programs, particularly basketball can bring economic benefits to their schools. That a school is seen as a top athletic school where kids would want to wear school jerseys and colors not only helps the school enjoy some marketing funds but also stirs up a buzz that could attract more students to chose a school like Towson over other universities. Sports are one element of creating a stimulating quality college life.

Our message, while we want to see University of Maryland be a school mentioned in the same breath as University of North Carolina and Duke in basketball as they were at the turn of the century and their football team should be challenging for the ACC football title consistently, Towson University must become one of the jewels of the Colonial Athletic Conference. This is within Towson’s reach. Maryland has only one school in the conference while Virginia has five. Okay Virginia’s a larger state than Maryland but supporting Old Dominion, William & Mary, VCU, James Madison, and George Mason is a far more substantial commitment than what Maryland’s devoting to its schools.

Larger problems loom than simply the state’s academic operations that hurt athletics. Certainly, it’s hard to justify FIVE universities in the Baltimore area: Towson, Morgan State, Coppin State, University of Baltimore, and UMBC. Certainly, Towson and UMBC are thriving schools. Morgan deserves its standing as one of the nation’s top black universities, but certainly it would make sense to fold Coppin State within its structure as it would University of Baltimore into either Towson or University of Maryland. On the Eastern Shore Salisbury and University of Maryland, Eastern Shore are just 12 miles apart. Consolidating such resources makes sense. Greater focus could mean better athletic programs where schools like Salisbury and Frostburg could tear up their conferences. While St. Mary’s simply has never shown any interest in athletics and that’s fine, who knows what kind of sleeper Bowie State could be in Washington DC’s eastern suburbs.

It starts at the top. Bold thinking is required. Get University of Maryland where ESPN can’t avoid talking about them. Get Towson to where they’ll be there soon. Who knows what the rest of the system could produce if a spirit of winning sweeps the system?

Right now, it appears that try not to loose would be a step forward rather than the indifference the seems to emulate from Annapolis to the highest ranks of the University System, but the time it reaches the Athletic director’s level and coaching staffs, the damage is done.

Go Tigers!!!!




.

Food for Thought: Tim Pawlenty Talks Up Virtual Classes

The Chronicle of Higher Education, a publication that primarily supports the status quo in post secondary education reports former Minnesota Governor's (and supposed Presidential candidate's) Tim Pawlenty's interesting thoughts about using technology to help cost cuts and expand services for higher education. We appreciate men of ideas in both politics and education where the same-old-same-old seems to be treated as sacred.

Higher Education needs lots of creative ideas beyond the traditional brick and mortar four year undergraduate school. Society needs to cut wasteful spending on all levels. Where creativity envisions concepts that do both everybody's a winner.

SEE ARTICLE:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/tim-pawlenty-testing-presidential-waters-pushes-virtual-courses-to-save-money/30255?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en




.

Columbia University: Elite Asses Heckle and Taunt Disabled Veteran

How should a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, a Purple Heart winner, who was shot eleven times and was disabled as a result expect to be treated an elite university that he now attends?

Anthony Maschek, 28, a native of Idaho, is a freshman at Columbia University in New York, who was in the 10th Mountain division infantry serving in Iraq and spent two years at Walter Reed hospital in rehabilitation from his injuries sustained when attacked by insurgents in Kirkuk receiving wounds to both legs, his abdomen, arm, and chest, had the opportunity to speak about his military experience in defense of reinstituting ROTC programs at the school. He enrolled in the Ivy League school to begin last fall’s semester. Columbia University has banned all activity by the military on campus for 42 years including ROTC programs and recruiters.

When speaking of his experience in Iraq and attempting to present the world situation the US is fighting, Columbia students shouted taunts at him including “RACIST!” This fine living example of sacrifice was jeered, booed, and laughed at.

Maschek’s main point to an audience of elite, well-educated fools, “It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting. There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."

Columbia University has a long history of abusing figures who don’t agree with the prevalent radical ideology shouting down speakers and attacking them on stage. Is this not the very definition of intolerance? Overwhelming those with different points of view and silencing them from speaking to members of the audience who may or may not agree with them still want to hear their views IS intolerance in its most blatant and immoral form.

Individuals with established American values who believe in our Constitution, our culture’s accomplishments, or any notion that the United States is a force of good in the world go to Columbia with targets on their backs. To profess any kind of Judeo-Christian morality or God forbid, a stance against unlimited access to abortion would be treated as thought crimes. The typical charges are that good American patriots or anyone to the right of the most extreme left views of the Democratic party are of: imperialism, sexism, racism, hostility toward Islam, and an assortment of other “isms” of their choosing adhering to the most ideological form of extreme political correctness. Anyone who has the slightest sympathy toward mainstream American values is almost certain to face attack and abuse. In contrast, Islamic extremists, communists, and very any professed adversary of the American way can bloviate endlessly without being challenged.


How ironic is it then that this same university would invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian madman dictator as a distinguished guest going as far as to instruct students how to behave appropriately for his appearance.

To think that Columbia is one of the nation’s most elite Universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton which have also created similar hostile environments of radical tyranny.
These are closed societies so lost in the abstract and theoretical sojourning endlessly in a world of sickly exaggerated, excessively arrogant intellectualism; they’ve lost all grasp of the world of true enterprise, entrepreneurial wisdom, and personal responsibility.

It’s time for the little people they belittle and seek to control through an ever expanding world of the politically correct nanny state to rise up and knock them down to size. For all their wealth, lineage, and academic prowess, the simple wisdom of heartland common sense eludes them that they would have the audacity to taunt a person permanently disabled on the firing line to defend the liberties they abuse so shamelessly. They are not to be revered but ridiculed and perhaps pitied that for all their prestige represents they are blind to the common goodness and immense sacrifice of the American soldier. For that and the influence they wield, we condemn them.

When serious post-secondary education reform is seriously considered, the Ivy League's hegemony over academia must be destroyed.

Reference Article: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hero_unwelcome_Zi3u1fwtRpo87vXAiAQfSN#ixzz1Eff1txnq



.

An Open Letter to University of Arizona, Tuscon Students

Dear Arizona students involved:

Grow up you snot-nosed disrespectful little bastards.  A Memorial Service is not a pep rally, and when you have the opportunity to be in the audience whether it is for elected officials or guest lectures, YOU TREAT THEM WITH RESPECT AND RESTRAINT WHETHER YOU AGREE WITH THEM OR NOT!!!

If you don't understand this, you do not belong in college. You're not mature enough to be in Middle School.  Such forums are not sporting events. You do not whoop it up and scream approval for those you like and you do not boo or interfere with those with whom you disagree (even if that's customary at ivory tower elite campuses in California or the North East -- calling out Columbia University as the prime offender).

Okay, we get the message you still fawn over Barack Obama who has totally led this country to ruin for the past two years, though even though this writer believes he is an awful President, in a setting like last night there would be only one way to react to his presence, polite applause. You don't like Governor Brewer, a woman with the thankless job of looking out for you immature little bastards. The fights she wages are for your benefit and will help keep your tuition from skyrocketing if that matters to you. Ooops, your unlimited ATM, mom and dad are paying for your college?  No wonder you're acting like such little pukes.  Oh, you have student loans?  Live it up but your debt will come due some day sooner than you can imagine.

Oh yes, we know,you believe you shouldn't have to pay for college. You sure as heck don't understand the Federal deficit or financial hell Arizona is facing.  You probably believe it's those dreadful corporations (some of you who learn how to grow up and act responsibly will be working for in 1-4 years) ripping everybody off and we just need to go to the rich people and tax them and tax them and tax them to take care of your sorry little asses and all those silly causes your favorite Hollywood celebrities and pop music stars endorse.  Of course there are plenty of people you'd demonize who are the evil rich in your eyes who are donating huge sums of money to your college, many of whom attended there. They do so not because they have to, not for the tax advantage (which only reduces their tax liability), but simply because they want to. They want to see your school do well. Some of you if you learn how to work hard enough and set meaningful goals for yourself will be "rich" too.

So head back to your dorms, load up the bongs, grab huge quantities of beer, fire up the video games, and party til you puke.

You have taken a solemn occasion and transformed what could have been a very noble and special event and turned it into just another campus pep rally.

It is terrifying to think ungrateful, disrespectful, ignorant little brats like you represent our nation's future. You little bastards have A LOT of learning to do. So why not start with today's classes, challenge your liberal professors to prove their outrageous assertions and work your furry little butts off for the ones who actually have something of value to teach you.

You're so pathetic you almost make Sarah Palin look like a grown-up.

Sincerely,

RMF  (Not to be mistaken for your father because if I were your dad, I'd drive you to the military recruiter as I discontinue my support for your party club and rent your bedroom out to someone who will appreciate a secure roof over his head)



Government Waste in Higher Education: Morgan State Cited

When Pork Is Passed Around, Pigs Will Be Pigs

This is a difficult column to post particularly originating from the upper Chesapeake region. Morgan State University has a long proud history as one of the nation’s top schools serving the African American student, how sad it is that the GAO reports Morgan State along with three other minority-related schools are charged with the misuse of Federal funds allocated by the U.S. Department of Education.

Of $105,000 spent by Morgan State, $80,000 was spent on a leadership program that consisted largely of resort and amusement park visits. $6,000 was spent on office furniture and $4,578 on an aircraft GPS system though the school does not own an aircraft.

These findings are presented by The Chronicle of Higher Education citing a GAO report, “Low-Income and Minority Serving Institutions: Sustained Attention Needed to Improve Education’s Oversight of Grant Programs.”

The report goes on to criticize the Dept. of Education for not following up on several recommendations over the past six years designed to better track federal grants awarded to these special need schools.

Among other findings, Wiley College in Texas was cited for spending $2127 on late feels; Riverside Community College in California spent $4,800 on t-shirts; additionally, the University of the Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico spent $27, 530 for contract services and subscriptions that would not be utilized until after the grant expired.

The GAO report indicated Morgan State misused almost one fourth of the $427,180 in Federal Grants received in 2006 during a time the Department did not even have an Assistant Secretary for Post Secondary in charge of that office within the Education Department.

Morgan officials suggest that the leadership expenditures were akin to an “outward bound” type of program including white-water rafting and rock climbing designed to develop leadership and decision-making skills.

We recognize in terms overall wasted money in the Federal government, we’re talking bout chump change here. Most of this points to previous administrations, but huge problems are built one piece at a time. Surely, in an area of need as significant as helping students of limited means get a leg up, we must scream foul when expenditures aren’t reaching the educational purpose for which they were intended. When pigs supply the pork, this is what happens.

UNC Case Makes Right Minded Fellow Clarify Stance on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- We'll Tell You Why

Nobody asked, but young UNC ROTC student

felt she had to tell as a matter of conscience.

x

Sara Isaacson is in the hole for $80,000. Why? She received an ROTC scholarship paid by the US Army for her to attend the University of North Carolina with the intent to become an army doctor, a family tradition following in her grandfather’s footsteps. However, Sara had a personal issue to deal with. Sara is a Lesbian. She enrolled with the intent to follow through with the “don’t ask/don’t tell” pledge. However, over time, she felt that position was morally indefensible. Maintaining her silence she felt was being dishonest and in good conscience she had to be truthful.

The head of University of North Carolina’s ROTC program, noted in receipt of her letter declaring her orientation, that the Army would lose “a great young American.” He was able to offer Ms. Isaacson the opportunity to withdraw her letter since she wasn’t technically in the military.

The more we dive into the moral issues dealing with homosexuality, the more the eternal history of prejudice and exclusion of such individuals becomes morally reprehensible. While it is easy to make sweeping moral judgments that with little more than “that’s the way it’s always been” as a defense when we realize when we talk of homosexuals, we are talking about individual people who have their own aspirations and talents.

The fear and loathing of some members of “straight” society is not only indefensible, it is downright sick. What is more laughable and disgusting than a seemingly alpha male trashing a person for being “gay” as if it would somehow be threatening to him? How many of these he-men have ever been propositioned by someone of their own gender? What makes Mr. Macho Stud think he’d be appealing to a homosexual to begin with?

The bottom line is whose business is it what two adults do in private. While there is some logic, not much, to don’t ask don’t tell, openly sexual conduct of any kind is unacceptable in the heat of military engagement. It should be the military’s business to define what kind of behavior is unacceptable when servicemen and women are on duty rather than categorically eliminating people based on some behavioral preference they might have.

The case of Sara Isaacson is perhaps a perfect defining example of just how absurd our archaic thinking has been.

If this should offend some conservative readers, that’s too bad. Being conservative does not mean one must be bigoted against homosexuals. Instead, the libertarian aspect of conservative values should indicate that this is a matter of personal freedom and any kind of legal restriction of such behavior is excessive government intrusion into one’s private lives. The military can deal with setting proper codes of conduct.

There certainly are Biblical implications to this discussion especially focusing on the Third Book of Moses, in which Leviticus not only denounces homosexuality but prescribes death to those who offend the holy command. The New Testament is not as harsh in its rhetoric but clearly Corinthians makes it clear it is one of several no-no’s that keeps one from “inheriting the kingdom of heaven.”

There’s no winning an argument with someone who subscribes to certain literal interpretations of holy scripture no matter what faith one follows; however, for those who seek to use the Bible as authority of civil law, we must realize that the second amendment provides enough legal guidance that any prohibitions against homosexuality simply do not stand constitutional legal requirements. Clearly, engaging in homosexual behavior does not deprive other individuals of their ability to exercise their freedoms. Additionally, if one sought to use the Biblical concept as the basis of law it would have the effect of violating the establishment clause of the constitution by invoking a religious tenet as a legal restraint. Further, by making such a stance a matter of law, it denies the free expression of behavior that were it not for Biblical sanction established as law, would be permissible. We suspect that the fourth amendment would also come into play as it is the closest we have to a guarantee of privacy in stating, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons…

While this writer is neither a Constitutional scholar or expert when it comes to scripture, while Mathew 7, is often used as the ultimate cop-out for opting out of acting decisively, when it comes to moralizing over a person’s private behavior, “judge not lest thee be judged” makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Sara Isaacson’s case brings forward all the hypocrisy of where our society stands on homosexual issues. Acting from the standpoint of her personal integrity, Ms. Isaacson refused to keep her true nature secret. Her personal integrity cost her $80,000. While in idealistic terms, that’s a small price to pay, but in the real world, this young lady owes a staggering debt, the high cost of higher education, with still much more to accomplish before completing her academic requirements for her career ambitions.

Does not her situation amplify the absurdity of where our culture stands today and show we still have much room to grow?

Stimulus Funds and Big Brother on Arizona Campus

Your Stimulus Dollars at Work: Big Brother Is Watching

Northern Arizona University spent $75,000 in Federal stimulus money to install an electronic surveillance system that will take attendance for large lecture classes on campus. It is programmed to detect student ID cards as they enter large classrooms. Electronic attendance reports would then be available for classroom instructors.

Karen Pugliese, the university’s vice provost defends the action, stating: "It's more than just enforcing compliance with attendance through the proximity readers. We intend to make our classes compelling and attractive."

We see where this is going like so many other things, strict zero tolerance attendance policies. This is one of so many moves in the last decade or so which seeks to treat college students, most of whom are 18 years of age or older, legally adults, old enough to die in battle for their country, like babies.

If such a system is used, what should be of most concern to the administration is what does it say about students who frequently do not attend lecture courses and ace the exams? Obviously, the instructor’s efforts aren’t effective and the student can meet the standards through his or her own devices. Sounds like an advertisement for on-line learning opportunities or correspondents’ courses doesn’t it?

With the Federal deficit skyrocketing and continued reports of more and more nonsense being dreamed up to interfere with a student’s post secondary experience, we firmly denounce this program and hope it does not spread. Sadly, it has all the earmarks of the wave of the future.

Does the Federal takeover of student loans help make more sense of why this is especially unnerving?

The same technology could be moved to places around campus that serve alcohol or monitor other student behavior. A little paranoia makes a lot of sense.

More on "The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008"

We recently reported on an issue raised by former Assistant Secretary for Post Secondary Education, Diane Auer Jones found in The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HR 4137). All institutions of higher education that provide student housing must now report students who are vacant from their dorm space for 24 hours or more as missing. We decided to take a look at this legislation for more outrages. First, this measure was buried deep in Section 488. However, the total measure consists of 431 pages of gobblety-goop micromanaging virtually all aspect of higher education other than explicity addressing cirriculum or tenure.

This shameful prime example of legislative excess was established simply to provide federal support for helping low and moderate income students attend college but in doing so tramples on virtually every square foot of every college campus.

What struck us as most concerning about this law is the depth and range Federal regulation extends its grasp upon how colleges and universities conduct their business simply as the strings attached for the schools accepting students who receive Federal loans or other measures of Federal funding.

Read all about it if you have too much time on your hands or have a real fetish for reading about government abuse. Do you think any of our elected "leaders" read this whole measure. Here it is courtesy of govtrack.us.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4137

These provisions are unbelievably specific in some instances and require tremendous resources to impliment, monitor, assure compliance, and report upon. As such, the overhead to the schools is enormous from having adequate legal counsel either on staff or contracted to interpret the legislation and make sure the school is compliant in every aspect. On top of that, the manpower and resource requirements to manage these requirements is substantial. On top of that, just by the size of the task load imposed by this law, so much administrative and leadership time is devoted to simply following this ridiculous work of bureaucratic interference run wild instead of focusing on the key issues that all schools should be devoted to promoting: quality education and a good learning environment for students; expert, timely, creative, and far-reaching research for the benefit of society, business and industry; and recruiting, developing, and retaining the best, most challenging faculty possible.

Is it any wonder that college costs have gone up so dramtically in the past 30 years far beyond the rate of inflation by multiple factors? Likewise, is it also not surprising that the college environment is being overtaken by personnel on all levels who have no problem with a big government approach to all aspects of the human condition. Is it any coincidence that college faculties have become the bastion of extreme left politics conservatives or those with traditional values need not apply.

American leadership has had quality higher education as one of its key foundations where our institutions of higher education were sought by the best and brightest around the world for their studies. Today, the product is increasingly being compromised, losing its sense of mission, and beginning to lose its lead over what is provided in other countries.

Our colleges and universities must be the best the world has to offer in providing expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics while continuing to provide an outstanding liberal arts education where schooling is not so much as learning the right answers for some master exam but asking the right questions about life in the real world.

Sadly, our great institutions are being reduced to essentially vocational traning facillities where every "i" is dotted and "t" crossed with fervent political correctness blindly complying with the multitude of overregulation by the Federal Government.

Nationally Respected Educational Reform Spokesperson Identifies Nanny State Extremism in the Name of Higher Education

The Honorable Diane Auer Jones, President/CEO, The Washington Campus; former Assistant Secretary for Post Secondary, Department of Education

The insane onslaught of the Nanny state continues out of control. Here’s an example of the over-reach of the Federal Government thanks to the clowns on Capitol Hill that not only represents an outrageous waste of money and resources, but it also intrudes into areas that the government has no business invading. As this story unfolds, the “nanny” concept couldn’t be more appropriate. Why this outrage hasn’t made it to the talk show circuit or been covered in the media is alarming.

Former Post Secondary Chief for the Bush Administration from August 2007 to May 2008, Diane Auer Jones reports of this outrage in her article in “Minding the Campus” where in passing The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, educational institutions which receive federal student aid assistance must track all residential students who are “missing” from their residence for 24 hours. Ms. Jones does such a brilliant job exposing this issue, we need explain it no further. Please read this. It is not only outrageous for what it is but for the thinking it represents and just how far the nanny nonsense extends under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry (I need a laxative) Reid.

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/01/missing_the_point_about_missin.html

Does Ms. Jones say it all as it pertains to this issue? We will be on the look out for and report other examples of this kind of insanity which illustrates what life in Obama-Nation will be like if these fools continue such outrageous intrusion into citizens’ private lives and through the unfunded mandate cost society millions by forcing them to pay for unnecessary and insane programs.

Diane Auer Jones is possibly the nation’s leading authority on the state of post-secondary education today. She resigned her post in as Assistant Secretary of Education for Post Secondary in reaction to how the Department sought to “vocationalize” liberal arts programs essentially reducing the function of a college education to simple vocational training. She has spoken out assertively about the escalating cost of higher education and inequities in the admissions process. Ms. Jones was also a major proponent of The American Competitiveness Initiative while serving as a senior White House policy advisor. She is also a tremendous spokesperson for an expanded roll for community colleges and alternative education options.

Ms. Jones recently was a featured speaker at the annual conference for the National Association of Scholars. Her address was to address what she learned serving as Assistant Secretary with the Bush Administration and what lessons she learned should the incoming administration consider. Her address amounts to a brilliant state-of-the-state of the post secondary experience and a blistering indictment of its short-comings.

Here’s a link to her remarks:
http://www.nas.org/Diane_A.cfm

A much longer presentation, here is Diane Auer Jones in one of her last presentations as Assistant Secretary addressing the College Savings Foundation on the runaway escalation of the cost of post-secondary education and the problems students and families face trying to finance a traditional four year degree.

http://blip.tv/file/981599

This is a long presentation and her remarks begin after a brief introduction, but her insights are very disturbing for families with potential college students.

We applaud Diane Auer Jones’ efforts to bring much needed attention to the many challenges that are threatening the quality of a college education and the financial burders one faces trying to achieve such an education. Be familiar with her name. She is rapidly becoming the voice of the future of quality post secondary schooling.

POLITICAL BIAS IN THE CLASSROOM: No Excuses!

Pictured: Metropolitan State University: Denver Colorado. Does its faculty share the left-wing herd mentality?

Intolerance on the College Campus: Students FORCED to Knock Palin

x

x

World Net Daily and Fox News among other news sources have reported today that a Denver area college professor assigned his English students to write an essay to "undermine" Sarah Palin. The professor, Andrew Hallam, at Metropolitan State College, a new instructor at the school, assigned the assignment as a close-ended assignment specifically to criticize the candidate without an option to present an contrary point-of-view.

World Net daily report: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=75426

This kind of instruction is unacceptable, period, but at a state college supported by taxpayer funds, this conduct is even more distressing. Education, especially at the college level, is not indoctrination, yet the arrogance and condescension of far too many of today's college faculty shows a complete detachment from the mission for which they were hired.

Lively debate on current issues should be encouraged where students are encouraged to examine all sides of an issue, the pros, the cons, the irrelevant, but the insistence on having to conform to one side of the issue as assigned contradicts the very skills and values students should be developing in their academic world, those of analytical reasoning and critical thinking.

In Mr. Hallam's class, the students are simply assigned to be mindless drones, to do their instructor's bidding, to eliminate the consideration of many possibilities in favor of the dogma promoted by the teacher.

The problem is left-wing attitudes and beliefs permeate higher education from the highest levels at Ivy League institutions and trickles down through the whole educational system. Examine how many of the most radical adherents from New York Times columnists to Barack Obama himself hail from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

Surveys of college faculty have shown again and again, the vast majority of the population indicates they are registered as Democrats or identify their political thinking as "Liberal."

Gone are the days when a student would have to navigate a series of courses taught by professors whose backgrounds and beliefs came from all over the political spectrum.

Now, even mainstream Liberals like Larry Summers, are in for a fight for survival if their words stray from the orthodoxy of political correctness and left wing dogma.

Time and time again, when colleges invite guest speakers whose views reflect anything other than the true ultra-left perspective, their goon squads are at the ready to shout down or even physically attack such figures.

How can those who practice such shameful behavior call themselves "progressives" when such behavior is right out of the playbook of Facism?

It's interesting that this story should arise so quickly after attempts of the Obama campaign to block Stanley Kurtz from being interviewed on Chicago radio station, WGN-AM. In today's episode, the radical left is putting their left-wing perspective in their students' mouths and compelling their to parrot that viewpoint according. In the WGN scenario, the left attempts to keep its opposition silent.

How ironic it is that left-wing sympathizers constantly talk about the severe oppression of the Bush Administration as if they are actively persecuting and prosecuting those who criticize their activities. If so, where are the emenies' lists or the inappropriately obtained FBI files that Mrs. Hilary Clinton could simply not explain how she got a hold of?

Also look at the ongoing efforts to muzzle and discredit the Fox News Network for they dare to let other perspectives beside that of the extreme left go public with their beliefs.

From the left's perspective, any dissent against their position is just plain wrong but they'll ascribe other labels to those views as well as being "hate speech," reactionary, bigotted, sexist, or just simply ignorant. As such, any assertion against their ideology to them is like someone who might assert the sky is green and the grass is orange. There is no other side to an issue if the other side is nonsense as they would contend. As such, there's no need to mention it.

Further, the left, getting back to the issue of Sarah Palin, stops at nothing to smear and obliterate the standing of good people through vicious personal attacks and scandalous assertions to ruin a person's reputation so thoroughly, anything that person might have to say has no standings.

The Colorado situation must be resolved immediately. The instructor in question must be disciplined and if the behavior is as widespread as as reported, he must be terminated. Further, the hiring practices of Metropolitan State's faculty must be investigated and principles of a fair open-minded approach to instruction must be reinforced.

Perhaps the Truest Statement of the Whole Political Campaign

Education is the civil rights issue of this century

-John McCain (Acceptance Speech, St. Paul, MN, September 5, 2008)

Education might not have the the ability to invoke fear the way a weak defense policy would. We don't feel poor education in our wallets the way we do rising gas prices. Education doesn't provide the shock that a $800.00 prescription a patient must have has on a family budget.

The most widely highlighted issues are National Security and Defense, the attempts to develop a sound Energy Policy that reduces America's dependence on imported petroleum, or the Health Care Debate as so many factors interfere with each person's ability to obtain the health care every family needs.

How many young black men were murdered in inner city neighborhoods tonight? Why are there more young black men in the criminal justice system than college? African American communities around the country that are failing have one overriding problem in common -- terrible schools with no options for parents to help provide their children with a pathway to a well educated future.

The response all too often is blaming the victims suggesting that African American parents don't care about their children's schools; otherwise, they'd demand something.

Question: how many of those parents experienced good schooling? For that matter how many of their grandparents had access to good education?

Face it folks, where will you find parents who send their kids off to school each morning hoping their kids will perform poorly. Moms and dads want their boys and girls to have a good day in school each day -- not to be browbeaten by poor teachers, not to be threatened by the thugs and bullies who pray upon the school yard, not by administrators who just see them as cogs on the assembly line. There are plenty of good black citizens deprived of an education when they should have been educated are raising their children and showing up for their jobs while attempting to make up for lost times attending vocational schools, community colleges, and church based programs in their 20's and 30's.

Right Minded Fellow believes firmly that children of all backgrounds are capable of learning if the educational programs they attend adequately understand their background, their cultural issues, and needs then develops a cirriculum that provides rock solid fundementals presented by effective teachers who know how to work with their students.

Perhaps the days of Jim Crow laws and hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan are largely a thing of the past, the new agency of oppression is the public school where even in the best of situations, a good decent African-American student may never reach his potential because expectations are so low, the weapon of oppression is the teacher who thinks Black Little Johnny is doing pretty good for a black kid.

How many African American children who could be tomorrow's corporate executives, scientists, government leaders, entrepreneurs, and top salesmen will never aspire to anything close to that because they have teachers who pat them on the head and say nice job because they accomplished nothing more than being a "C" student?

The horrors of inner city schools might not exist where black children attend suburban schools with more balanced enrollments and higher socio-economic backgrounds. Still, in a more average school where maybe the total population might be 20% black children, how many of those black kids are held back because expectations aren't as high as for their white and Asian counterparts?

We can't go through the challenges and solutions here. However, quality schools for all students are within every family's reach. Lack of political courage and way too much influence from forces that fight real reform on every level such as teachers' unions must be overcome by a stronger desire by those who insist things work.

That a black man is running for President does not mean the end of racism whatsoever. It shows the myriad possibilities for people of all backgrounds who are well educated. Overt forms of prejudice have been seriously reduced. Today's challenges are harder to detect and sincc so few people ever get close to failing Black school systems, few even have a clue what's going on.

Back to School

From Kindergarten to Doctoral Programs and Beyond, American Education Is In BIG Trouble

Right Minded Fellow will have lots to say about the current affairs in education from Kindergarten to post-graduate. On all levels, the American education experience is in trouble. The kinds of difficulties, their causes, and their solutions are quite diverse not necessarily having any common themes. However, two things are obvious: parents are not presented with the kinds of choices they deserve in determining their children's' future. Schools are failing miserably on all levels to provide appropriate instruction that will result in well-educated students who've been nurtured in a caring, moral environment early on and then are presented with the kinds of challenging alternatives to develop the knowledge, thinking skills, and values to be prepared for a rewarding well-rounded future. Meanwhile, for many families the cost of a college education is the single most expensive investment they will face. A student could require a thirty year loan that if the student is paying the loan could be saddled with that debt when into the college years of his or her own children.

These are just some things that come to mind this evening:

1. The failure of the public education and lack of alternatives for parents who are dissatisfied with what their local schools provide.

2. The failure to deal with exceptional children appropriately whether a child is exceptionally gifted and talented, has some alternative learning style, or exhibits some noticeable "at risk" qualities, the assembly line nature of public education is failing these deserving kids miserably.

3. Science, technology, math and engineering are all fields that need serious attention. All students need to have necessary computational skills, understand scientific issues as it affects their day to day lives, and be competent in utilizing the technology of the future which is becoming more a part of day-to-day life. As a matter of National Security, the United States must maintain its leadership in all facets of these domains whether it's maintaining our lead in weapons technology to defend us from hostile elements around the world, being on the cutting edge in introducing life-saving medical technologies, or being the chief innovator in product development. Additionally, science needs to defend its turf while being respectful and accommodating to faith-based beliefs without compromising scientific methodology.

4. The Teachers Unions are one of the most powerful enemies of meaningful educational reform. It's fascinating to see how they whine, whine, whine about teachers not being paid enough money while urging its members not to shop at Wal-Mart. HELLO!?!?!?

5. The high dropout rate and unsuccessful achievement scores of African-American students cannot be tolerated. Whether its the dreadful chaotic mess found in many urban school systems where any kind of meaningful instruction is close to impossible to the "polite" racism of, "Oh he's doing pretty well for a black kid," millions of deserving kids are being failed by a system that is making them failures. More young black men are involved on the wrong end of the criminal justice system than attending college. We cannot tolerate that.

6. Home schooling, private and parochial schools, charter school programs, privatization, and new technologies all need far more attention to replace and enhance the public school of the second half of the 20th century.

7. College education is not synonymous with vocational training. While the job market needs far better options for preparing students about the join the work force and retool workers who need new skills and perspectives later on, the intellectual and spiritual benefits of post-secondary education must not be compromised by more utilitarian concerns. While it would be outrageous if accounting or nursing students, as two examples, were not totally prepared to master professional examinations in their field, this approach is not appropriate for most liberal arts and other more creative or spiritual domains. The notion of some kind of national scholastic test for philosophy, the fine arts, divinity, or classic literature would be beneficial is totally absurd. These kinds of programs are vital to help the developing mind learn critical thinking abilities, to work outside the box, and to appreciate the moral and ethical consequences of where the world is heading today. Just recently, the Bush administration's attempt to make the accreditation process more vocationally oriented including the possibility of imposing standard exams for liberal arts programs drove out a brilliant assistant secretary for post-secondary who seemed to really "get it" on the whole big picture of where the post-secondary world is headed. All aspects of educational endeavors after high school need much work. Community colleges are a tremendous resource able to respond quickly to the needs of their localities and economies. On-line universities are prospering. The traditional four year university and its graduate programs are failing in so many ways. First, the escalating cost must be reigned in. Second, the political climate where extreme left wing dogma is censoring the free flow of diverse ideas has become overwhelming in many academic communities. These schools need to be the world's leaders in Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering. They're starting to lose their grip.

8. Education on all levels should be fun! The educational experience should enrich the individual, develop meaningful relationships, and create the kind of appreciation for the gifts of freedom and knowledge that as citizens of the United States, we are so lucky to be able to pursue.

9. Locally, it is unacceptable that Baltimore COUNTY Public Schools have a school board consisting of political appointments chosen by the Governor of the STATE of Maryland. Baltimore County schools provide a classic case study of the decline from excellence in the third quarter of the 20th century to pure mediocrity as the new millennium gets under way.

x

x

These are just a few of many themes and concerns, we look forward to discussing in the weeks ahead. From the political to the philosophical to the practical, the discussion is wide open. Let no stone be unturned. Every person from preschooler to retirees are involved.

x

x