I liked "aesthetic of emergence." The praxis of gibberish operationalizes, across affective domains, the metacognitive decentering of the slithy toves.
Btw: you just know that provost Airey (I cannot believe she is not one of the dread Three Name People) was an enraptured peer-reviewer of "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity At Dog Parks" and assigned it as essential reading in her "Brownness, Uber-Misogyny and the Neo-Phallic Backpack in Dora the Explorer" course.
There are certainly classes on 7th century BC Greek Lesbian Poetry, so there probably is. Negatives, the authors are dead and white. Positives, female, L, and French (e.g. foreign language)
Many Many years ago I was thinking about going to college. The Problem is any degree I was interested in was something I had no chance of making a living with.
Mr. Hayward: I am stunned by this post! Sure did not expect you, of all folks, to now be writing for the Babylon Bee. What happened to you? For God's sake and my sanity, please, please tell me that this IS a Babylon Bee article.
Well, the U. of Tulsa Honors College is being replaced, in essence, with a Race and Gender Studies curriculum. That says it all about how far our universities have fallen as of the year 2025.
Infuriating. I had followed her progress as she posted online these last two years, and Jennifer did an amazing job. What a gift to that institution, and they tossed it all away for the sort of rot you cited. Parents, homeschool your kids, and when they reach college age, send them to the University of Austin or one of the Great Books colleges.
Not to worry, insanity is not a foundation on which one, or many, can stand, for long. The 'for long' of course is the problem. Wasted and destructive time. Truly sad to read this.
The good news is that some percentage of college students actually seek out a solid and challenging liberal arts education.
They are interested in learning and are unafraid of the study burden.
The bad news is that certain “adults” have decided that they know best what students want - but they don’t. Yet they can enforce their views on the students who have no recourse other than voting with their feet.
In a sense, it’s another instance of a self-appointed elite telling those beneath them what they want and need without being burdened by asking those affected.
At common law, universities were famously seen as “in loco parentes” but that meant, among other things, they were to be proper stewards of their charges’ intellectual growth. Those days seem to have gone.
But as we are a capitalist society, the market will ultimately dictate the outcome. If a university can figure out the proper balance in supporting a real liberal arts pedagogy, from UT’s recent experience, there will be a large pool of applicants waiting.
The backstory here is that President Carson pursued an expensive strategy to boost Univ of tulsas reputation by attracting National merit scholars. That meant giving them free tuition and this great Honors program.
But this past year more than 1/4 of the class was getting free tuition which is unsustainable.
So I think this is about rejecting his marketing plan as well as embracing mediocrity and wokeness.
My first thought after attempting to read Airey’s “abstract” was that she must have received the latest edition of the progressive thesaurus. I don’t remember ever seeing so many made-up terms! My personal opinion is that she’s quite the “Aireyhead.”
Intentionally absurd, maybe? Immediately thought of one of my favs, the Sokal affair:
“Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity”.
Whatever happened to Alan Sokal? He proved that academic journals publish gibberish so long as it's ideologically aligned, with dense postmodern jargon and flattering references to leftist theorists. BTW, Steve, I read that you've accepted appointment as the Dean of Grievance Studies at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Say 'hi' to Dr. Peter Schickele, the Very Full Professor of Musical Pathology when you bump into him. Another one of my favs. His treatises on P.D.Q, Bach's opera -- the proper plural of 'opus' isn't 'opuses', it's 'opera', but you already knew that -- The Abduction of Figaro, Concerto for Horn and Hardart, and Iphigenia in Brooklyn, each of which represent classic "limning" of the musical structures of the 'youngest and oddest" of JS Bach's many children, are simply the cat's pajamas.
When I see the word "interrogate..."
I liked "aesthetic of emergence." The praxis of gibberish operationalizes, across affective domains, the metacognitive decentering of the slithy toves.
Btw: you just know that provost Airey (I cannot believe she is not one of the dread Three Name People) was an enraptured peer-reviewer of "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity At Dog Parks" and assigned it as essential reading in her "Brownness, Uber-Misogyny and the Neo-Phallic Backpack in Dora the Explorer" course.
My very first thought when reading Prof. Hayward's mostly-straightforward presentation of this pile of gibberish was: UNLEASH THE MAYO-HATER!
Sometimes, my mind meld works!
"Victorian Sélams and Talking Bouquets: Phallic Invasion of the Feminine/Floral Order
Empowerment and Exploitation: Sexual Dynamics in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian
Monuments and Moral Memory: Contemporary Black Women’s Experimental Poetics of Reproductive Justice"
And they wonder why so many people no longer take them seriously?
I often jokingly refer to 16th century French Lesbian Poetry. Now I'm thinking there might actually be a course on this.
There are certainly classes on 7th century BC Greek Lesbian Poetry, so there probably is. Negatives, the authors are dead and white. Positives, female, L, and French (e.g. foreign language)
Many Many years ago I was thinking about going to college. The Problem is any degree I was interested in was something I had no chance of making a living with.
I reach for my gun.
Mr. Hayward: I am stunned by this post! Sure did not expect you, of all folks, to now be writing for the Babylon Bee. What happened to you? For God's sake and my sanity, please, please tell me that this IS a Babylon Bee article.
I wish.
Easy give away. Babylon Bee articles are half as long as this abstract.
Thank you, Doctor Belzer. I was truly worried that Dr. Hayward (your compatriot in brain surgery) had left us for humor writing o the BB.
We are different surgeons. He uses anesthesia.
"on"the BB
You cannot hate academia enough, either. I felt rage reading this.
Laughter is the best medicine.
My eyeballs rolled so hard they actually got stuck. What stupidity. What a waste of a fine program.
Give me Greeks or, failing that, geeks. But don’t give me shrieks.
Well, the U. of Tulsa Honors College is being replaced, in essence, with a Race and Gender Studies curriculum. That says it all about how far our universities have fallen as of the year 2025.
Saboteurs work out poorly as new hires. Which main decision-makers intentionally brought this set in, and what were their own backgrounds?
Infuriating. I had followed her progress as she posted online these last two years, and Jennifer did an amazing job. What a gift to that institution, and they tossed it all away for the sort of rot you cited. Parents, homeschool your kids, and when they reach college age, send them to the University of Austin or one of the Great Books colleges.
Hillsdale.
🤡🌎🐂💩 strikes again!
I just thought of a unique phrase that fits this situation perfectly.
Go Woke Go Broke
I know… you’re welcome 😁
Not to worry, insanity is not a foundation on which one, or many, can stand, for long. The 'for long' of course is the problem. Wasted and destructive time. Truly sad to read this.
The good news is that some percentage of college students actually seek out a solid and challenging liberal arts education.
They are interested in learning and are unafraid of the study burden.
The bad news is that certain “adults” have decided that they know best what students want - but they don’t. Yet they can enforce their views on the students who have no recourse other than voting with their feet.
In a sense, it’s another instance of a self-appointed elite telling those beneath them what they want and need without being burdened by asking those affected.
At common law, universities were famously seen as “in loco parentes” but that meant, among other things, they were to be proper stewards of their charges’ intellectual growth. Those days seem to have gone.
But as we are a capitalist society, the market will ultimately dictate the outcome. If a university can figure out the proper balance in supporting a real liberal arts pedagogy, from UT’s recent experience, there will be a large pool of applicants waiting.
From a tulsan:
The backstory here is that President Carson pursued an expensive strategy to boost Univ of tulsas reputation by attracting National merit scholars. That meant giving them free tuition and this great Honors program.
But this past year more than 1/4 of the class was getting free tuition which is unsustainable.
So I think this is about rejecting his marketing plan as well as embracing mediocrity and wokeness.
Yeah, as overjoyed as I was to read Dr Frey’s description, including the small seminars, I couldn’t help wondering who was paying for this.
But talk about the baby and the bathwater!
My first thought after attempting to read Airey’s “abstract” was that she must have received the latest edition of the progressive thesaurus. I don’t remember ever seeing so many made-up terms! My personal opinion is that she’s quite the “Aireyhead.”
Even as this happens time and again, I am freshly appalled at every example.
Intentionally absurd, maybe? Immediately thought of one of my favs, the Sokal affair:
“Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity”.
Whatever happened to Alan Sokal? He proved that academic journals publish gibberish so long as it's ideologically aligned, with dense postmodern jargon and flattering references to leftist theorists. BTW, Steve, I read that you've accepted appointment as the Dean of Grievance Studies at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Say 'hi' to Dr. Peter Schickele, the Very Full Professor of Musical Pathology when you bump into him. Another one of my favs. His treatises on P.D.Q, Bach's opera -- the proper plural of 'opus' isn't 'opuses', it's 'opera', but you already knew that -- The Abduction of Figaro, Concerto for Horn and Hardart, and Iphigenia in Brooklyn, each of which represent classic "limning" of the musical structures of the 'youngest and oddest" of JS Bach's many children, are simply the cat's pajamas.
The most annoying, self-righteous, and deliberately obtuse people who were in grad school twenty years ago now, apparently, run everything.