From the ProJo
The Foundation for Intellectual Diversity has assailed Brown University’s hiring of a Nigerian author who the group says is known for denouncing British author Joseph Conrad as a “bloody racist” and says Brown should “rethink” its plans to expand its Africana studies program.
“It is unfortunate that Brown continues to buy into this empty notion of diversity based on race, sex and ethnicity,” said Stephen Beale, the foundation’s president.
There are a few of you out there that follow my efforts in the realm of higher education. I have two news items.
The first is a bit of shameless promotion. Starting later this month, I will be contributing to the Manhattan Institute’s new project Minding The Campus (start praying now for my editor).
The second news item comes from the National Association of Scholars. They have been communicating with the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Health and Human Services regarding the accreditation of social work schools. They have released a report this week.
| The Scandal of Social Work EducationThe Study is Available HERE as a PDF fileReleased 11 September 2007 | |
| Executive Summary | Press Release |
Notable section in report –
b. William FelknerRhode Island College’s School of Social Work, provides another case in which the First Amendmentrights of a graduate student collided with politicized academic requirements in the Master’s Degreecurriculum.In this instance, a self-identified “conservative,” William Felkner, was surprised when he received afailing grade for his work in a course project requiring that students actively lobby the Rhode Islandlegislature in reference to proposed statutory measures bearing on social welfare policies. Althoughthe students, including Mr. Felkner, were permitted to select their individual topics from a list ofoptions provided by the program, they were informed that all lobbying efforts – once again includingsuch inevitably controversial issues as homosexual marriage and abortion – were required to reflect aperspective mandated by the department. Thus, he was not free to analyze one of the suggested billsfrom a different point of view – his own -and received a failing grade for attempting to do so.
Mr. Felkner faced continued obstruction and hostility until January, 2007 when the departmentapproved his master’s project and assigned him a professor to work with on it. The master’s projectshould have been completed from September 2005 through May 2006, however during that time thedepartment refused to let Mr. Felkner work on the topic he selected. At this time, Mr. Felkner is notin his internship placement and not a fulltime student, so many of the resources needed for him tocomplete his masters project are not readily available to him. If his project is not completed thisyear, due to time limits placed on those participating in the program, Mr. Felkner will not receive hisdegree.
In September of 2006, the school agreed to hire a consultant to investigate Mr. Felkner’s claims, but to date, no investigation is underway.
