3 ms·

Alumni here that graduated a few years ago. I'm a brown guy (that matters in this context.) During my time there, the university was super obsessed with being

by t2xc2 8y ago

Alumni here that graduated a few years ago. I'm a brown guy (that matters in this context.) During my time there, the university was super obsessed with being in the top XX list. From what I could see, that obsession wasn't channeled through research but through superficial things like new buildings and multi-million dollar stadium. Why? Because that's what all big and famous universities have! Look at that big lawn. It does nothing of function but boy does it look majestic. The push for fairness and equality etc was REALLY needed. Racism was just a way of life. I witnessed tenured professors in the CS department make very causal racist remarks. There was a black guy who was upset that the professor always chose his project/team to be the "Black team". After he left, the prof casually said "well at least he didn't shoot the place up". Perhaps the most ironic was an Indian prof who seemed to hate all other Indians. If you were black people assumed you were there for sports and not because you really were smart and interested in education. Some of the comments in the linked article will give you an idea of the bubble that Tulsa/Oklahoma lives in. People claiming it's the liberal agenda and "social justice" that was unnecessary and ruined it. Sure, if you're white and born in Oklahoma it's unnecessary. Funny enough after graduating and moving to the west coast I'm not reminded of my skin color every day.

secabeen 8y ago
Interesting. The one thing that I didn't see mentioned in the article at all was the Faculty Senate. At most universities I've been at, Shared Governance between faculty and administrators was the rule, and big decisions like the ones described in this article could not have happened without senate approval. Did TU not have a policy of shared governance?
_bxg1 8y ago
It was weird how the corporatization and the "social-justice agenda" were lumped together like that in the article. Usually the people who criticize the former aren't the ones getting upset about the latter.
- t2xc2 8y ago
  Yes, it does strike me as "remember in the past when things were better before the liberals ruined it?"
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    And yet conservatives are usually the ones writing off the liberal arts as useless pursuits of "liberal snowflakes", not advocating for them as essential facets of civilization. Edit: To be clear, the behavior described by the above commenter is reprehensible. Independently of that, I think it's incredibly sad that universities are being turned into businesses that only care about profit. Obviously that makes the original article a mixed bag.

by t2xc2 8y ago

secabeen 8y ago

Interesting. The one thing that I didn't see mentioned in the article at all was the Faculty Senate. At most universities I've been at, Shared Governance between faculty and administrators was the rule, and big decisions like the ones described in this article could not have happened without senate approval. Did TU not have a policy of shared governance?

_bxg1 8y ago

It was weird how the corporatization and the "social-justice agenda" were lumped together like that in the article. Usually the people who criticize the former aren't the ones getting upset about the latter.

t2xc2 8y ago
Yes, it does strike me as "remember in the past when things were better before the liberals ruined it?"
- _bxg1 8y ago
  And yet conservatives are usually the ones writing off the liberal arts as useless pursuits of "liberal snowflakes", not advocating for them as essential facets of civilization. Edit: To be clear, the behavior described by the above commenter is reprehensible. Independently of that, I think it's incredibly sad that universities are being turned into businesses that only care about profit. Obviously that makes the original article a mixed bag.