Questioning Academics Seen as Racist
Diversity at Colgate University
Colgate Professor Embeds with Iraqi Resistance Groups
College campuses are the most politically undiverse places in America
Colgate University Faculty Politial Analysis
Letters from Parents on Colgate's Curriculum:
December 31, 2004
Dear Mr. Sanford:
We are proud parents of a 2004 graduate of Colgate University. But at commen-cement last spring, our son, Andy, gave us a very telling response to the question, "Are you sorry to leave?" He replied, "My friends, yes; school, not particularly." This should not imply that he was unhappy in Hamilton. On the contrary, he established many fond memories there, which will be with him for the rest of his life. But there was something...
We were aware of a couple of minor philosophical differ-ences he had had with pro-fessors during his time there. We of course also received the very patronizing spin letter revealing the adminis-tration's plan to vaporize Colgate's Greek system (Andy is a brother of Delta Upsilon). I have been a participant in the same fraternity-preser-vation battle at my own alma mater, so this rhetoric was nothing new.
But despite the considerable tuition investment referenced in your letter, we plead guilty to not having invested much interest in the culture at Colgate. Excuses: we per-haps trusted the school's sterling reputation too much to question what is now happening there politically, socially, and ultimately, academically; or, we believed it was Andy's situation to deal with, not ours. After all, effectively confronting adversity is as much a test of maturity as any exam offered in college. In retrospect, we probably could have- and should have- assumed a more active and vocal role in our son's education at Colgate.
Why? This fall, Andy found himself deferred from a graduate program in general education because he had taken no math or science courses at Colgate which satisfied very minimum requisites at the University of Southern Maine. Our $150,000+, decent grades, a degree from a prestigious school like Colgate, and scoring at or near the top on an entrance exam couldn't get him into a local branch of a state university? This was a real eye-opener for us. So, it's more undergrad courses this fall- to finish the job that we believe Colgate's core curriculum should have accomplished. This begs your question, "What exactly is Colgate preparing a student for?"
Your letter struck several chords with my wife and me. Each paragraph we read elicited comments like "This is good," or "He's really nailed it there."
Interestingly, we left our local church a few years back, citing many of the same faults which you have very eloquently exposed regarding Colgate. We (and many like us) found little nourishment in constantly being harangued about artificial diversity and political correctness. Not believing that church was an ideal locale for a fight, though, we simply walked away. While we did give to the offering plate each Sunday, let's just say it wasn't the $40,000/year we gave to Colgate, which I think merits at least some accountability.
In particular, the alumni ratification aspect of the fraternity buyout seems to be cause for hope. Mobilizing the masses is definitely the key.
I've also checked out the website- www.sa4c.com - well done!
In closing, I commend you on your effort, Mr. Sanford. Your distinguished background, proven love for, and commitment to Colgate offer instant credibility to a cause that needed a flag around which to rally. It is people like you who can get the pendulum swinging back in the "right" direction. I am confident in your success and wish you well. If there is anything you can think of that a somewhat removed parent of an alumnus can do to help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Warmest regards,
Jim Rowe
August 25, 2005
Hello, Christine -
Having JUST put my daughter on a plane for her senior year at Colgate brings the subject to mind yet again. I never responded to your note in part because I was swamped at work. However, there was another, lesser reason:
The website to which I was sent about our Colgate dissatisfaction gave me the impression that changes in "Greek life" was the thrust behind much of the expressed dissatisfaction with Colgate. Such was not the case with us.
Our own discontentment is two-fold: Our daughter chose Colgate on the strength of the promise that science majors were given ample opportunity to participate in research work. Now a senior, our daughter has yet to be invited or involved in any kind of research. This can only hurt her graduate school prospects and would have gone a long way in helping her establish her future interests.
That aside, her parents also took comfort early on in sending their child to a school touted to be more even-handed in its political mood on campus. As conservatives, we asked only that our daughter be taught how to think, not what to think. Instead, she came home far more well versed in a liberal viewpoint than having been guided on how to weigh both sides of any issue. She will graduate from Colgate in the spring with a hefty student loan to repay, and while a Colgate diploma SOUNDS good, the reality of her experience has made all of us wish we could have a "do-over."
Over the last three years, I've volunteered to contact local students who are heading to Colgate to answer any questions they or their parents have. It's become increasingly difficult to muster enthusiasm when my own child's experience has fallen short of expectations. And there you have it. When a college experience is at least 50% of what a student brings to the experience, it would be difficult to prove in a court of law that the other 50% was less than what was expected. Our daughter will take her diploma and run. And I'm not sure what else we can do about disappointments.
Susi Szeremy
Littleton, CO
Colgate’s Liberal
Education –
Promoting Intellectual Diversity?
“A core curriculum must be responsive to…the changing interests and needs of students. Thus, after a decade of experience with the present curriculum, Colgate is revising the core program. Each of the components of the core program is designed to address questions of identity, culture, and knowledge. These courses enable students to address the question of ‘who am I?’”
The New Liberal Arts Curriculum
http://departments.colgate.edu/core
Examples of classes meeting the Liberal Arts requirement
A true core curriculum may be defined as a set of foundational courses, required of all students, designed specifically to provide a general education across the main academic disciplines. Traditionally, the hallmarks of an educated person included courses in literature and composition, U.S. history and government, science, college-level math, a foreign language, social sciences and the fine arts. This is no longer true for Colgate students.
"Sadly, despite its much-vaunted “Core
Curriculum,” Colgate University received an F in the recent 50-college
study of general education conducted by the American Council of Trustees
and Alumni. Only in Foreign Languages did Colgate have an honest core
requirement, i.e., a required course that is suitably general in scope.
In the six other subject areas measured by the study, entitled The
Hollow Core, Colgate fell far short of standards for a true core
curriculum. Some of the reasons for this are revealing. For instance,
Colgate does indeed have a writing course for freshman, but the fine print
reveals that only students with low scores on standardized tests of writing
are required to enroll. All college students can benefit from writing
or composition courses.
Nor was Colgate credited for mathematics by The Hollow Core study
because students can completely avoid math by taking science courses that
fully satisfy Colgate’s Natural Sciences & Mathematics Division
requirement. Likewise, Colgate got no credit for science, since a student
could take math or psychology (a social science) instead of a natural
or physical science. In addition, Colgate’s Scientific Perspectives
requirement may be satisfied by courses too narrow to serve as general
education, such as an entire course devoted to AIDS.
When one looks behind the labels in Colgate’s catalog, there is,
sad to say, little in the way of substance required by this general education
curriculum.” The
Hollow Core, Failure of the General Education Curriculum,
A Fifty College Study, American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Washington
DC, April 2004.
At Colgate University, students can choose among a broad list of courses – many trendy or easy – all of which may satisfy the requirement for “Core” classes, even though they may be specialized or narrow. A Colgate student can graduate without ever studying the great events of history or reading great works of literature. Instead, they can fulfill their Liberal Arts requirements with classes such as these with descriptions excerpted from the Colgate Course Catalog 2005-2006.
• The Challenge of Modernity “This course explores the distinctive features of modernity, asking students to put their own experience as inheritors of modernity into perspective by juxtaposing works from a core period of modernity with works of contemporary reaction and response.” CORE 152 – R. McVaugh, Staff
• Speaking Its Name: Gay and Lesbian Identities since the Nineteenth Century “This course is devoted to two major themes: The first examines the modern emergence and formation of homosexual identities, and the second considers how these are manifested in the creation of homosexual ‘communities.’ ” CORE 303, K. Valente
• Life in the Universe: A Cosmic Perspective “This course examines the historical debate on the concept of whether extraterrestrial life exists. The development of intelligent life and the possibility of contact between civilizations is examined.” CORE 122, T. Balonek
• Scientific Investigations of the Animal Mind “Is it possible to comprehend the minds of other species. Do they have anything to say? We study both scientific and nonscientific approaches to the study of thinking and emotions in animals.” CORE 123, R. Braaten
• The Malleability of Human Memory “We consider the repressed memory debate from scientific and nonscientific vantages, with careful consideration of what it means to say an endeavor is scientific. We read and analyze popular-press books that have repressed memory at their core, covering topics such as alien abduction and repressed childhood and sexual abuse.” CORE 137, D. Johnson
• The Good Life: Perspectives from Psychological Science “What is the nature of human happiness, joy and pleasure? Students are helped to recognize the unique strengths and limitations of the scientific method for approaching questions such as these, and students are encouraged to articulate their own emerging views on what constitutes a life worth living.” CORE 146, R. Shiner
• The Scientific Study of Willpower “This course is devoted to the study of this unique human capacity to regulate our own behavior.” CORE 149, R.Conti
• Kinship and the New Reproductive Technologies “ ‘What is a mother?’ ‘What is a father?’ ‘What is a family?’ ‘What is kinship?’ What is reproduction?’ The course examines the ways in which the new reproductive technologies (artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, amniocentesis, etc) and the recent emergence of institutions such as infertility clinics and surrogate motherhood are transforming the ways in which we experience, understand and represent human relatedness and reproduction as well as the kinship we share with non-human primates and certain types of cybernetic organisms. Reading material includes the work of novelists, social critics, historians, sociologists, and physical and culture anthropologists, as well s the contributions of scholars in the fields of cultural studies, women’s studies, gay and lesbian studies, and science and technology studies.” CORE 305, M. Peletz
• The Relational Self “The course focuses on conceptions of the self in relation. We read theories of feminist psychology and philosophy…Two things are at work in the dynamics of relationships: the specific definition of self, which has to include race, sexual orientation, class and gender; and the dynamic of how a person lives in relation to, and responsible for, known and unknown others.” CORE 309, D.K. Johnson, M.Thie
• Women, Work and Family “Issues to be explored include: the definition of productive work; the evolution of women’s ‘natural’ roles as care-givers to children and others; women’s impact upon the paid labor force and resulting reevaluation of the domestic division of labor; how governments’ family policies are impacted by the changing composition of the work force; and whether professional ‘have it all’ in terms of family and career – and at what expense. Students are asked to think through their expectations for career and family beyond Colgate.” SOAN 215, M. Moran
• Men and Masculinity “Issues addressed include: the symbols and practices through which masculine identities are created; the evolution and forms of male dominance, patriarchy, and fratriarchy; the relationship between masculinity and violence; maleness and the cultural construction of emotion; male heterosexuality and alternative modes of sexuality; the relationship between masculinity, production, and social status; and the impacts of feminism on masculinity in Western societies.” SOAN 217, N. Ries
• Gender and Environment “Specific issues addressed include examination of the social construction and of nature, ecological feminisms, and the gendered dimensions of development, the global economy, and political space.” GEOG 304, M. Hays-Mitchell
• Critical Analysis of Health Issues: AIDS “Students examine their perceptions about AIDS by collecting and analyzing arti8cles from their local newspapers after obtaining the demographic breakdown of the AIDS cases in their hometowns. Students develop public policy statements for the prevention and treatment of AIDS in their hometown.” CORE 116, J. Yoshino
• Introduction to Peace Studies: Violence and Nonviolence “This survey of key issues in the study of war, violence, peace ideas, and actions, including nonviolence as a philosophy and as a technique of action and social change, starts from the problems of aggression and nationalism as well as globalism and communal cooperation.” PEAC 211, N. Ries, staff
• Philosophy and the Social Sciences: Science, Rationality and Morality “The course explores the related question of the status of moral norms. Can an outsider ever legitimately make a moral judgment concerning a social practice? Is so, under what conditions? If not, what does this imply as regards the status of our moral judgments?” PHRE 310, E. Witherspoon
• Politics, Consent and Legitimacy “This course examines the success of contract theories in resolving these issues and considers in depth the legitimacy of the assumptions grounding such theories. Students read works by major political philosophers, both past (Hobbes, Rousseau and Hegel) and present (John Rawls, Charles Taylor.)” PHRE 317, D. McCabe
• Philosophy of Mind “Issues addressed include min-body dualism of various types, materialism, eliminativism, modes of psychological explanation (fold psychology, behaviorism, functional, eliminativism), the language of thought hypothesis, the natures of consciousness, intelligence, and intentionality, as well as the possibility of artificial intelligence and its implications for our view of ourselves.” PHRE 341, U. Meyer
• Philosophy and Feminisms “This study of primary feminist, womanist, mujerista analyses from a variety of political and philosophical frameworks gives special attention to the categories of difference and other(s), as these have affected marginalized people. Topics explored include interconnections among oppressions (e.g. race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age), violence against women in relation to other forms of violence (e.g. militarism, contemporary colonization, and rape of the earth,) barriers separating women and embodiment.” PHRE 360, M. Thie
• Commitment vs. Cynicism: Modern Experiences of Faith and Despair “The alternatives of cynical despair and religious faith are invoked by studying both literary-dramatic works and ethical-religious analyses. The courses considers examples of contemporary reconstructions of faith that address cynicism through specific attention to genocide, racial-sexual-economic injustice, and ecological devastation.” RELG 231, staff
• Religion, Science and the Environment “Until the 1960s, Christian thinkers considered it the great glory of Christianity that it alone among the world’s religions had permitted purely secular science to develop in a civilization which it was dominate. Today the very fabric of life is threatened and the future of our world hangs in balance as nature is threatened by destruction caused by an environmental crisis that has gone unchecked for several centuries. Discussions include views from various religious traditions concerning nature, concept of the human, notions of progress and destiny, faith and science, ecological theology, ecofeminism, justice and sustainability, and spirituality.” RELG 236, H. Sindima
• Contemporary Religious Thought “The course begins with selected historical perspectives on the connections between religion, violence, and power…Most of the course focuses on liberation theologies, with their emphasis on hope, empowerment and right relationships. Voices of liberation theologians include womanist, mujerista, Latino/a, Asian-American, African-American, Jewish, homosexual and feminist groups.” RELG 332, H. Sindima, M. Thie
• Queer Studies Meets Religious Studies “Queer studies enters the discussion not seeking inclusion into religious communities or to be affirmed by religious texts. Instead, it claims that those communities and texts construct and the reify heterosexual desire and practice as normative, labeling and condemning other sexual desires and practices.” RELG 369, staff
• Relationships and Sexuality “This course explores a variety of issues surrounding relationships and sexuality. Topics include: body image, gender communication, contraception, STDs, violence in relationships, homophobia and heterosexism, and religion and sexuality.” 024, Meets some of the Physical Education requirement
• “Ism” of Society “Discussions focus on common societal ‘isms’ from a personal and analytical perspective: racism and ethnicity; sexism and gender differences; classism and socioeconomic status; and heterosexism and homophobia. Students are expected to engage in reflecting about the hows and whys of these issues.” 047 Meets some of the Physical Education requirement
• Social Inequality “This course analyzes social structure and social stratification, emphasizing economic class, life styles, differential prestige and inequality. …the emphasis is on the American class system.” SOAN 312, R. Levine
• Globalization, Culture and Everyday Life “What does ‘globalization mean, and what does it mean for societies and people facing the onslaught of global corporations? SOAN 337, C. Hsu
• Kinship and Marriage “What is family? What is kinship? and What is marriage? The class analyzes …the myriad of ways in which systems of kinship and marriage are informed by ideologies of gender and vice versa. The class evaluations some of the recent classics on kinship in America as well as selected aspects of contemporary theoretical debates bearing on kinship and class, lesbian and gay kinship, and the new reproductive technologies. SOAN 301, M. Peletz
• Psychology of Women “Students examine the ways research and theory in psychology have or have not dealt with ‘the woman question.’ Topics discussed include gender roles socialization, women and mental health, and psychological aspects of work, sexuality, achievement, and violence against women.” WMST 201, staff
• Women’s
Lives: Introduction to Women’s Studies “This course
explores women’s present circumstances and envisions future possibilities.
Issues of gender are analyzed in relation to social change, and the students
work toward developing a feminist framework for understanding the world
and their place in it.” WMST 202, M. Loe, S. Wider
•Life in the Universe: A Cosmic Perspective
“This course examines the historical debate on the concept of whether
extraterrestrial life exists. We examine what astronomy and physics tell
us about the origin and evolution of the Universe, the production of elements
that make up living matter on Earth, the evolution of stars like the Sun,
and the formation of solar systems. We examine the astronomical, geological,
chemical and biological conditions that were responsible for the origin
and evolution of life on earth, and speculate about the possibility of
life on other planets in our solar system or on planets around other stars.
How would we detect the presence of life on other planets in our solar
system; in our galaxy? The developments of intelligent life and the possibility
of contact between civilizations is examined.”