5 ms·

This is an amazing takedown by one of Columbia’s own professors. Wow

by robinjhuang 5y ago

readthenotes1 5y ago
[flagged]
- ryan93 5y ago
  Columbia should not be ranked 2nd in US news college rankings
  - gargarplex 5y ago
    Maybe rankings should be organized through preferences of applicants admitted to several schools.
    - ryan93 5y ago
      i was answering his question
- bee_rider 5y ago
  For a TLDR, skip to the conclusion section. Generally for a paper if you don't actually care to see the author back up their arguments (which is not a great way of fully ingesting a paper, but lots of things don't need to be fully ingested) you can just read the intro and the conclusion. > §8: CONCLUSION > No one should try to reform or rehabilitate the ranking. It is irredeemable. In Colin Diver’s memorable formulation, “Trying to rank institutions of higher education is a little like trying to rank religions or philosophies. The entire enterprise is flawed, not only in detail but also in conception.” Got to appreciate an essayist who'll enter the conclusion section guns a'blazing.
- MandieD 5y ago
  For an academic paper, it was really easy to read, and I say that as someone who has noticed that my own attention span has become alarmingly short.
lofatdairy 5y ago
I can't speak for the math department, but I've noticed that there are general contentions between Columbia's faculty and administration that seem somewhat unique to the school. Professor Martin Chalfie has noted how cramped and run-down his lab is in an interview, which seems like soft-spoken criticism at the way Columbia has failed to use its enormous endowment towards acquiring more research and teaching spaces. Perhaps someone at Harvard or MIT can chime in with whether such contentions exist outside of Columbia, but I'm not too surprised to see a professor criticize the school for somewhat blatant wrongdoing.
- ericd 5y ago
  I can tell you that the student body at MIT generally had a pretty dim view of the admins when I was there, always trying to kill the things that make MIT an amazing place, while building stupidly overpriced vanity buildings. Not to mention the incredibly shameful way they handled the Aaron Swartz case.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    I think there were a mix of cases when I was there, with admins sometimes supporting the wonderful weird and other times not. Often when they did, it was because the weird was only a background level of annoying/risky and when they didn’t, it was often that the level of cacophony had exceeded that admin’s tolerance for it.
    - Throwawayaerlei 5y ago
      It got worse: while the admissions office and museum were using MIT hacking culture to attract applicants and advance its brand, the school changed both the type of officers hired for the campus police which is necessary due to its inner city location and started arresting students for attempting to pull off harmless hacks. I also heard some reports they got generally more aggressive towards the student population. When I was there they hired older, very experienced police officers who were looking for a good, not normally intense final job for their career. So they were generally understanding and fit into the culture. Aaron Swartz was an entirely different thing. Instead of hammering JSTOR from his own institution of Harvard to the point it blocked the whole campus, he disguised himself demonstrating mens rea, a guilty mind, let himself into a machine room and left behind the laptop to do his act of civil disobedience or whatever. And then proved chronically depressed people have no business committing such crimes. From beginning to end he demonstrated ill intent towards MIT.

This is an amazing takedown by one of Columbia’s own professors. Wow

readthenotes1 5y ago

[flagged]

ryan93 5y ago
Columbia should not be ranked 2nd in US news college rankings
- gargarplex 5y ago
  Maybe rankings should be organized through preferences of applicants admitted to several schools.
  - ryan93 5y ago
    i was answering his question
bee_rider 5y ago
For a TLDR, skip to the conclusion section. Generally for a paper if you don't actually care to see the author back up their arguments (which is not a great way of fully ingesting a paper, but lots of things don't need to be fully ingested) you can just read the intro and the conclusion. > §8: CONCLUSION > No one should try to reform or rehabilitate the ranking. It is irredeemable. In Colin Diver’s memorable formulation, “Trying to rank institutions of higher education is a little like trying to rank religions or philosophies. The entire enterprise is flawed, not only in detail but also in conception.” Got to appreciate an essayist who'll enter the conclusion section guns a'blazing.
MandieD 5y ago
For an academic paper, it was really easy to read, and I say that as someone who has noticed that my own attention span has become alarmingly short.

lofatdairy 5y ago

I can't speak for the math department, but I've noticed that there are general contentions between Columbia's faculty and administration that seem somewhat unique to the school. Professor Martin Chalfie has noted how cramped and run-down his lab is in an interview, which seems like soft-spoken criticism at the way Columbia has failed to use its enormous endowment towards acquiring more research and teaching spaces. Perhaps someone at Harvard or MIT can chime in with whether such contentions exist outside of Columbia, but I'm not too surprised to see a professor criticize the school for somewhat blatant wrongdoing.

ericd 5y ago
I can tell you that the student body at MIT generally had a pretty dim view of the admins when I was there, always trying to kill the things that make MIT an amazing place, while building stupidly overpriced vanity buildings. Not to mention the incredibly shameful way they handled the Aaron Swartz case.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  I think there were a mix of cases when I was there, with admins sometimes supporting the wonderful weird and other times not. Often when they did, it was because the weird was only a background level of annoying/risky and when they didn’t, it was often that the level of cacophony had exceeded that admin’s tolerance for it.
  - Throwawayaerlei 5y ago
    It got worse: while the admissions office and museum were using MIT hacking culture to attract applicants and advance its brand, the school changed both the type of officers hired for the campus police which is necessary due to its inner city location and started arresting students for attempting to pull off harmless hacks. I also heard some reports they got generally more aggressive towards the student population. When I was there they hired older, very experienced police officers who were looking for a good, not normally intense final job for their career. So they were generally understanding and fit into the culture. Aaron Swartz was an entirely different thing. Instead of hammering JSTOR from his own institution of Harvard to the point it blocked the whole campus, he disguised himself demonstrating mens rea, a guilty mind, let himself into a machine room and left behind the laptop to do his act of civil disobedience or whatever. And then proved chronically depressed people have no business committing such crimes. From beginning to end he demonstrated ill intent towards MIT.