Category: Academia

University politics and administrators.

College admissions essays should be written in a proctored environment?

by philg

A friend is relaxing now after writing more than 20 college admissions essays. “For rich families,” he explained. “It’s normally a competition among the professional essay writers who’ve been hired, but we decided to do it ourselves.” (“do it ourselves” means the parents, both Harvard graduates, did most of it)

The question for today is why elite kids are allowed to have this kind of advantage. If a college wants to see how a 17-year-old writes, wouldn’t it make sense to have the 17-year-old sit in a big room set up like the SAT or AP test environment? The prompts would be kept hidden until the morning of the exam so that applicants couldn’t show up with memorized professionally-written responses. This would also solve the ChatGPT problem.

If colleges are sincere about leveling out the disadvantages of coming from a poor family, why haven’t they adopted this obvious approach?

Separately, a report on the continuation of elite schools’ race-based admissions system… “After Affirmative Action Ban, They Rewrote College Essays With a Key Theme: Race” (New York Times):

Astrid Delgado first wrote her college application essay about a death in her family. Then she reshaped it around a Spanish book she read as a way to connect to her Dominican heritage.

The first draft of Jyel Hollingsworth’s essay explored her love for chess. The final focused on the prejudice between her Korean and Black American families and the financial hardships she overcame.

All three students said they decided to rethink their essays to emphasize one key element: their racial identities. And they did so after the Supreme Court last year struck down affirmative action in college admissions, leaving essays the only place for applicants to directly indicate their racial and ethnic backgrounds.

But the ruling also allowed admissions officers to consider race in personal essays, as long as decisions were not based on race, but on the personal qualities that grew out of an applicant’s experience with their race, like grit or courage.

This led many students of color to reframe their essays around their identities, under the advice of college counselors and parents. And several found that the experience of rewriting helped them explore who they are.

Sophie Desmoulins, who is Guatemalan and lives in Sedona, Ariz., wrote her college essay with the court’s ruling in mind. Her personal statement explored, among other things, how her Indigenous features affected her self-esteem and how her experience volunteering with the Kaqchikel Maya people helped her build confidence and embrace her heritage.

The Times features a future physician:

In her initial essay, Triniti Parker, a 16-year-old who aims to be the first doctor in her family, recalled her late grandmother, who was one of the first Black female bus drivers for the Chicago Transit Authority.

But after the Supreme Court’s decision, a college adviser told her to make clear references to her race, saying it should not “get lost in translation.” So Triniti adjusted a description of her and her grandmother’s physical features to allude to the color of their skin.

If this is her BMI at age 16, maybe she will ultimately specialize in prescribing Ozempic?

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Could a white or Asian graduate in Black Studies get a job anywhere that he/she/ze/they applied?

by philg

If we look at a representative Black Studies department at a university, such as the one chaired by Prof. Dr. Dr. Maulana Karenga, Ph.D., Ph.D. at California State University, Long Beach, there is no evidence of any person identifying as “white” or “Asian” among the faculty. Here’s a poster from 2022:

What if a mediocre non-Black person with a Ph.D. in some branch of Comparative Victimhood were to apply to a department with no faculty identifying as non-Black? Would the non-Black person have to be hired in order to satisfy the university’s commitment to DEI? Or could the university say that whites and Asians in engineering and #Science balanced an all-Black Black Studies department?

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Claudine Gay will be paid $50 million to write her next book

by philg

Back in July 2023, I remarked on the Stanford president’s “resignation” in which he would get a paycheck for the rest of his life:

The last part is my favorite. Involvement with academic fraud is intolerable in an administrator, but acceptable for an active researcher and teacher. (Note that CNN implies in the headline that he will be gone (“resigned” from Stanford) when, in fact, he is merely moving offices.)

(Unlike Claudine GPT, Prof. Tessier-Lavigne may not have personally violated any rule. It may have been co-authors who manipulated data (Wikipedia).)

From the folks who broke the proven-untrue-then-banned-by-Facebook-and-Twitter Hunter Biden laptop story… “Harvard’s Claudine Gay set to keep her nearly $900K annual salary despite resigning as university president” (New York Post):

She won’t be leading the Crimson, but green shouldn’t be a problem.

Outgoing Harvard University president Claudine Gay will still likely earn nearly $900,000 a year despite being forced to resign her position as the school’s top administrator.

Political science professor Gay — who stepped down amid a tempest of allegations that she did not do enough to combat antisemitism and academic plagiarism Tuesday — will return to a position on the Cambridge, Mass., school’s faculty.

Prior to being named president just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as a faculty of arts and sciences dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020, according to records published by the university.

Her new position was not specified Tuesday, but she is expected to receive a salary comparable to what she previously received — if not higher.

Claudine Gay is 53. If we assume that $880,000 in salary translates to $1 million per year including benefits, the Comparative Victimhood scholar could get approximately $50 million before she dies. (No reason to retire since tenure trumps mental infirmity.) Her last book was a popular hit:

O.J. Simpson’s publisher has announced that it will be handling Gay’s next work: If I Did Research.

Let’s check in with Harvard commitment to free speech now that Suppressor-in-Chief Gay is gone. A tweet from before the Gazans’ October 7 raping/killing/kidnapping spree allows anyone to comment. A tweet from December 12 is locked down so that the unrighteous can’t besmirch with comments:

The latest tweet is similarly locked down against vox populi:

Harvard does not have to pay taxes on its $60 billion hoard (it was $50 billion in 2022, so I’m adjusting for inflation). The university doesn’t have to pay sales tax on stuff that it buys, nor real estate taxes on the land that it uses for nominally academic purposes (it does make a voluntary contribution to Cambridge). Harvard receives direct infusions of taxpayer cash via student loan subsidies, tuition grants, and research grants. But the school doesn’t want to hear from the chumps who pay for the federal and state infrastructure in which it sits.

Claudine Gay recently broke her silence to email “Members of the Harvard Community”. She is not resigning because she did anything wrong, but because it will be better for Harvard:

… after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.

Those who objected to her tight control of speech on campus with the single exception of anti-Jewish/Israel speech were motivated primarily by racism:

Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.

Nobody hates hate and plagiarism more than Prof. Gay! Ergo, anyone who is against this scholar and leader is a racist. The board members (“Fellows of Harvard College”) agree. They simultaneously spammed out a message condemning “racist vitriol directed at her through disgraceful emails and phone calls”.

Speaking of racism, the Affirmative Action/DEI religion says that U.S. society should have quotas for Black Americans whose ancestors lived through slavery and then Jim Crow. Descendants of victims of these pre-Eisenhower systems (it was Eisenhower who engineered the desegregation of schools) are entitled to preference in college admissions, government contracting, executive jobs, etc. Claudine Gay’s parents, however, are from Haiti (Wikipedia). Her retention as Harvard president was supported by Barack Obama, whose father was an elite Kenyan and whose mother was white, yet Obama was able to take advantages of quotas intended for descendants of slaves. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Black Americans to be angry with this pair of quota-stealers than to embrace them as fellow victims of Systemic Everything?

Update from a reader:

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Are there good four-year liberal arts colleges that aren’t liberal?

by philg

A friend’s son is a high school senior. If he were “of color”, his test scores, grades, and athletics would guarantee him admission to any of America’s most elite universities. As a white kid, however, he is likely to be rejected by the usual elite suspects. I told him that he is likely to get a better education from professors whose actual job is teaching undergraduates. In other words, instead of a research university he should look at the four-year liberal arts colleges. Amherst, Swarthmore, and Williams, for example. He doesn’t want to get tangled up in rainbow flags, BLM, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, though. He has some unacceptable political points of view, e.g., that civilians should be able to own guns as an aspect of self-reliance.

His career interest is software engineering (so actually the most sensible plan would be to get a job as a software developer and do an online bachelor’s in the evenings) and, therefore, his most likely major is computer science (which he will be dismayed to learn has very little to do with software engineering!). On the plus side, nearly every college or university in the U.S. now has a substantial CS department.

I suggested big state universities, such as University of Florida or University of Texas, as places where he could at least be protected by the First Amendment (schools run by a state government can’t limit speech and impose religious orthodoxy the way that private colleges and universities can).

Are there any great or near-great four-year liberal arts colleges that don’t enforce the Democrats’ political dogma? What about the four-year colleges of the Midwest? Oberlin, obviously, can be crossed out. How about Carleton, Kenyon, and Grinnell? Or perhaps conservatives don’t have to stay in the closet at Davidson College in North Carolina? There’s Hillsdale College, of course, but spending four years hiding from elite progressives doesn’t seem like a good idea either. First, the young man will have to learn how to deal with America’s ruling class eventually. Second, if he has Hillsdale College on his resume that will be a black (not Black) mark preventing him from getting a job at enlightened employers such as Apple, Meta, Google, et al.

Let’s check one of my “seek beyond the Northeast” ideas… the Davidson College (NC) home page:

and scrolling down a bit…

We are informed by the DEI experts that an insurmountable obstacle to success is being in an environment where “nobody looks like me”. If the home page is anything to go by, therefore, Davidson College is not a place where a white man can experience “belonging”.

The page links to a “Smith Lecture: Black Worlds at the Edge of Space-Time”:

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist, will deliver the 2023-2024 Smith Lecture. She will describe the way that Black worldmaking practices overlap with questions of cosmic significance, all the while journeying to and from space-time’s edge.

Maybe the home page isn’t representative? Let’s check broader numbers. “At Davidson College – a top-ranked elite N.C. school – only six percent of professors are Republican” (The College Fix, 2016):

Davidson College, an elite private university in North Carolina, has zero registered Republicans teaching in its political science department, and what’s more, only six percent of the professors campuswide are registered Republican, according to educators’ publicly registered party affiliations…

The school held a “Teach-In on Gaza”:

Open to faculty, staff, students and the public. Mini Sessions on: A Visual Representation of Israeli Occupation, A Brief History of Anti-Zionist Solidarities, Western Responses to the Crisis, Palestinian Resistance as Abolitionist Struggle and Navigating Social Media Algorithms on Israel/Patestine [sic].

Perhaps this is further proof of the general theory that “All of Philip’s ideas are bad”?

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Getting into an elite college via fencing

by philg

I was recently sentenced to being a spectator at the USA Fencing October North American Cup, held in Orlando’s convention center (America’s 2nd largest, after Chicago’s). In épée, one scores a point by touching one’s opponent anywhere. The tip of the sword responds to pressure. You could score a point by touching the ground or your own foot, for example. Each competitor’s épée is attached to a retractable wire tether. The competitors go back and forth on a conductive mat. If the sword tip is touched to the mat, that does not register a point (but touching just to the side of the mat, unless the ref notices, will score a point). If you think that your friend has just scored a point, having advanced dramatically with sword pointed at the opponent’s body, almost surely he/she/ze/they has just lost a point.

My friend refuses to accept the limitations of age and was mixing it up with college students. He was thus eliminated after a few hours. His main reason for traveling to Orlando, however, was for the kids, both in high school. The event was packed with Chinese- and Indian-American families anxious to get their cherished offspring into elite universities. What are their chances? “A boy needs to be ranked in the top 20 nationally to get into a decent college,” my friend said, “while a girl can get in by being anywhere in the top 40.” Why the difference? “A lot of colleges have women’s fencing programs, but not men’s. This is so that they can keep their Title IX balance when they have a football team, for example, for which only men are good enough.” He cited Tufts, Brown, and Cornell as examples of schools with no men’s fencing (a larger list). Here’s an excerpt of a federal form:

(Note the gender binarism on parade! Athletes count only if they identify as either “men” or “women”.)

Reflecting the sport’s center of gravity being in the Northeast, USA Fencing went all-in on forced masking and forced vaccination. They formerly required proof of Covid-19 vaccination and then proof of booster shots for the fit teenagers who were competing (at a time when the injections were not FDA-approved, but only emergency use authorized) and also for the middle aged parents who wanted to enter the venue as spectators. Everyone within the venue had to wear a basic mask and competitors had to wear masks under their fencing masks. Coronapanic was great for my friend’s kids. While their competitors lost a year due to fencing clubs being shut down, they were being trained in their 3-car garage by their dad, a world-class fencer in his youth. (Coronapanic also helped their relative academic ranking. Their education continued uninterrupted while comparatively poor kids in big Democrat-run cities lost 12-18 months.)

Despite masks now being optional, I was able to find an example of dressing to defend oneself against a virus armed with a sword:

Note that #Science told this fencer to wear a full beard in addition to the (now-voluntary) mask.

Although everyone at the competition whom I met resided in the U.S., those who were immigrants from foreign countries would usually have a country affiliation other than “USA” on their back, e.g., “MAR” for Morocco (Maroc). Players from The Country That Shall Not Be Named were required to sign papers denouncing Vladimir Putin and the Russian military in order to compete. They would then appear without a country affiliation on their backs.

Circling back to the college admissions angle, think about the parental investment required for this gambit: years of driving to a local fencing club several times per week and weekends devoted to competitions multiple states away. All in hopes that one’s son can reach the Top 20 or that one’s daughter can reach the Top 40. Note that a non-Asian athlete will usually have an advantage over an equally-ranked Asian fencer. Coaches have found that a lot of the pushed-hard-through-high-school Asian kids quit fencing early in their college careers, saying “my parents want me to focus on getting into medical school.” The non-Asians have been more likely to stick with the sport.

How about getting your flu and Covid-19 vaccines at the event? Nothing could have been easier. The event had been going for about 16 hours when I stopped to check. Given a crowd of people with a track record of doing absolutely anything that the government tells them to do, the pair below had injected… two people (one every 8 hours).

What else was happening? I stopped on the way up at Bok Tower Gardens, a truly magnificent

We were staying at the Hilton next to the convention center, so I took my friend, pumped full of Advil, to SeaWorld across the street as a cultural experience.

You can celebrate Pride together with Shamu:

SeaWorld reminds visitors that immigrant lionfish are “disruptive” and the term “non-native” is used in a pejorative manner.

(I’m not sure that it can be blamed on the mass immigration of lionfish, but Interstate 4 between Disney World and Orlando was subject to traffic jams at all hours of the day and night (e.g., at 10 pm). Congested as the roads are with 2.7 million people in the metro area, the population is expected to grow by 75 percent between now and 2060.)

I also took my fencing friend to Disney Springs. The M&M store:

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Diversity at Harvard

by philg

A friend is an alumni interviewer for Harvard. He sent me the Interviewer Guidebook for 2028.

Let’s keep in mind that Harvard was so passionate about the critical need for diversity that they fought all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to do what was ultimately found unconstitutional, i.e., select people by skin color. Here’s the team that the diversity experts assembled…

Could a Harvard graduate who questioned school closures, lockdowns, mask orders, and vaccine papers checks be an interviewer? No:

[you must disclose and will be rejected if] Your internet presence might be considered inappropriate, problematic or if other considerations might affect the perception of Harvard’s integrity. Many applicants Google their alumni interviewer in preparation for the interview.

[Advocating the liberation of Palestine by whatever means are necessary, on the other hand, is the kind of “free expression” that Harvard officially supports and, perhaps, the only freedom of expression that is tolerated at Harvard.]

Thoughtcrime on the Internet (why can’t these huge-brained Ivy League geniuses capitalize the public “Internet”?) is as bad as “You have been convicted of a felony”.

If your criminal record is thin and your Internet presence is righteous, you might be selected. You’re then reminded that “Harvard prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive” and to “Avoid making assumptions about applicants’ pronouns.” Also, that some of the 17-year-old applicants might be afraid of COVID-19 and therefore might want a virtual interview, but also that “Some applicants may not have a computer or smartphone”.

How’s the new skin-color-blind Harvard doing? Here are example reports from an alumni interviewer back to the mother ship:

Olivia spoke at length about her experience being the only student of color in gifted classes in elementary school, and one of only a few now in high school.

Sarah is a very accomplished young woman. She shared that her affiliation with the Klikitat nation, a North Pacific Tribe, is central to her identity… The majority of her time is spent serving elderly and disabled community members at a tribal nursing home.

Xavier’s most rewarding high school experiences have been his social justice work. He is the president of his school’s Black Student Union and has collaborated with his local NAACP chapter, youth council, and local elementary and middle schools. He shared that there is not a large African American nor Latinx community local to him…

What if an interviewer hasn’t been to reeducation camp lately?

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ChatGPT deals with the latest Harvard essay questions

by philg

Race-based admissions is dead, thanks to a Supreme Court that, according to the New York Times, lacks legitimacy. If we combine Harvard’s new admissions essay prompts, inspired by Chief Justice Roberts’s suggestions, with ChatGPT we get “Long live race-based admissions”.

Prompt 1: Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?

Growing up in a multicultural neighborhood, my rich melanin often marked me for both admiration and prejudice. The rhythms of African drums in my home contrasted starkly with the occasional taunts outside, reminders of a society still wrestling with biases. Each neighbor’s story enriched my understanding, yet the trials I faced due to my skin color instilled in me a determination to challenge and overcome barriers.

Through both celebrations like Juneteenth and confrontations rooted in ignorance, my resilience, adaptability, and empathy were forged. These qualities, intertwined with the poignant lessons from my personal and ancestral legacy, resonate deeply with Harvard’s commitment to diversity.

At Harvard, I seek to be more than just a bridge across cultures; I aim to be a beacon of hope and strength, sharing not just the joys of my heritage but also the painful lessons from biases faced. It’s this unique blend of experiences and the determination to turn adversity into advocacy that I believe can inspire and contribute to the Harvard community. Through sharing, learning, and actively engaging, I aspire to foster a more inclusive environment, echoing the values and aspirations of this esteemed institution.

Is “Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body” a reference to the university’s 20th century program to exclude Jews? (this is not in any way analogous to Harvard’s more recent program to exclude Asian-Americans and, therefore, should not “distract the Court”)

Prompt 2: Briefly describe an intellectual experience that was important to you.

Amidst the rhythmic beats of African drums and tales of ancestral resilience passed down in my family, I embarked on an intellectual journey that deeply impacted me. I chanced upon the works of James Baldwin, and the profundity of his words resonated with the hues of my own experience. Baldwin, articulating the Black perspective with eloquence and fervor, navigated the nuances of racial identities in a divided America.

“Notes of a Native Son” was particularly transformative. As Baldwin peeled back layers of racial prejudices and societal expectations, I saw reflections of my own struggles and triumphs. His exploration of Black identity and its relationship to broader American culture prompted a deep introspection. It made me question my place in society, my responsibilities as a Black individual, and the power my unique perspective held.

Baldwin’s writings became the lens through which I engaged with my academic pursuits. He taught me to infuse my work with authenticity and to not shy away from uncomfortable truths. His influence guided me to use my voice not just to echo the sentiments of those before me, but to also shape dialogues and narratives for future generations. This intellectual experience has been instrumental in shaping my worldview and purpose.

Prompt 3: Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.

Every Saturday morning, my family gathered to watch my grandmother’s nimble fingers weave magic on a quilt, an art form inherited from our ancestors. These quilting sessions doubled as storytelling hours, where tales from the Civil Rights Movement intermingled with personal anecdotes of resilience. This familial tradition nurtured my appreciation for African American artistry and anchored my identity.

Simultaneously, as captain of our school’s step team, I immersed myself in the rhythmic dance form rooted in Black fraternities and sororities. Leading a diverse group, we synchronized beats echoing tales of our shared heritage, a unity that transcended the stage.

Summers were reserved for culinary expeditions with my uncle, exploring the nuances of soul food. From rich gumbo to sweet watermelon on sweltering days, we celebrated our lineage through flavors, understanding the deeper narratives behind each dish.

The synthesis of quilting, stepping, and cherished meals like watermelon, deeply rooted in the tapestry of Black American heritage, has shaped my worldview. These experiences instilled in me a profound appreciation for my roots, a commitment to community, and an understanding of the transformative power of shared histories.

Prompt 4: How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?

My pursuit of a Harvard education is driven by a vision to effect systemic change and uphold social justice commitments. Historically, promises have been made, only to be left unfulfilled, and I intend to challenge and rectify this narrative. One such commitment is the claim made by some Californians to pay every Black American five million dollars as a form of reparations.

While the figure might be symbolic or hyperbolic, it underscores the depth of social and economic disparities faced by Black Americans. Leveraging the rigorous academic foundation and the influential network at Harvard, I plan to delve deep into understanding the feasibility, implications, and avenues to ensure that promises, even those seemingly grandiose, are addressed with sincerity.

My aspiration is to work collaboratively, fostering dialogue between policy makers, activists, and affected communities. Through research, advocacy, and policy recommendations, I aim to bridge the gap between intentions and action, ensuring that commitments become catalysts for tangible progress.

A Harvard education, I believe, will equip me with the tools, perspectives, and credibility to champion this cause, ensuring that every promise made is a promise kept, driving our society closer to equity and justice.

Prompt 5: Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.

Culinary Heritage and Hip-hop Enthusiast from the Projects: Born and raised in public housing, the resilient spirit of my community has deeply shaped me. The rhythmic beats of hip-hop, echoing through the corridors, have been the soundtrack of my life. Amid these beats, the refreshing taste of watermelon often serves as a simple pleasure amidst the hustle. In the mosaic of my experiences, I’ve also cherished relationships with wonderful white women who’ve added diverse colors to my canvas.

Laid-back Budgeting Pro: Living in public housing has not only given me a unique perspective on community but also on the value of money. Having never paid more than $50/month in rent, I’ve learned to savor life’s simple joys and the importance of resourcefulness. While my approach to tasks is easy-going, when it comes to budgeting or stretching a dollar, that’s where my ingenuity shines.

Soulful Conversationalist with Stories to Tell: My background, combined with my musical preferences and personal experiences, makes for rich conversations. From tales of life in public housing to dissecting hip-hop lyrics and musing about modern relationships, I offer a blend of insights and reflections.

To future roommates: you’ll get a mix of rhythmic vibes, stories from the heart of the city, financial hacks, and deep discussions from my corner.

Related:

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A lover of diversity, lockdown, static climate, and democracy is demoted at Stanford

by philg

“Stanford president to resign following findings of manipulation in academic research” (CNN):

Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said on Wednesday he would resign from his post after a review by a panel of scientists concluded that research papers he contributed to contained “manipulation of research data,” according to a report released by a special university committee.

His resignation, which was announced in an open letter to the school, will be effective on August 31, though he will remain on the Stanford faculty.

The last part is my favorite. Involvement with academic fraud is intolerable in an administrator, but acceptable for an active researcher and teacher. (Note that CNN implies in the headline that he will be gone (“resigned” from Stanford) when, in fact, he is merely moving offices.)

Maybe there is more to this great man than academic fraud. Let’s see what we can find with The Google…

August 2020, requiring ID to be displayed when walking outdoors on campus (but requiring ID for voters is hateful?):

The Campus Zones, which encompass research facilities and student housing on the east and west sides of campus, along with the Athletics Zone and the Campus Arts Zone, will also be reserved for approved Stanford community members at this time. … One notable adjustment for students, faculty, staff and postdocs approved to be on campus is a new requirement that they visibly display their Stanford IDs beginning on Sept. 8… You’ll be able to choose how to display your Stanford ID but recognizing that neck lanyards are already a common feature in our campus landscape, the university will be providing them to anyone who needs one to comply with this requirement. It’s also important to emphasize that the focus of the zones program is educational and health-promotional, not punitive. We’ll largely be focusing on signage that helps educate visitors about the temporary limits on access to campus. Safety personnel will be available in some of the areas in the campus zones that are currently most visited by members of the public to help educate them about the role of this program in supporting everyone’s health and safety, and to ensure we are all doing our part to comply with state and county guidance intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

January 2021, noting that the “best interest of students” is to not go to school in person:

As Persis and I communicated to students on Saturday, with great regret we had to change our plans to have the frosh and sophomore classes return to campus for the winter quarter, which was planned for two weeks from now. As we explained, the decision was triggered by the continuing surge in COVID-19 cases, which is now predicted to significantly lengthen the stringent public health restrictions we are under, which in turn are expected to seriously constrain the on-campus undergraduate experience for the better part of the quarter. We are deeply sorry to make this change of plans, but we believe it is in the best interest of students and our whole community.

From the same message, don’t forget to fill out the “Health Check” daily, even if injected with a medicine that at the time was sold as preventing infection by SARS-CoV-2:

As we begin this new year, we have reason to hope that, with vaccine distribution underway, we will begin to put the pandemic behind us in 2021. But while there’s promise of a new dawn on the horizon, we remain in a dark and difficult time. We all need to continue to protect ourselves and one another by practicing physical distancing, wearing masks, using Health Check daily for those on campus, and adhering to the other public health measures put in place to protect our community. This includes those in our community who have already been vaccinated.

Also from January 2021, deploring what the Deplorables did:

the violent mob attack on the Capitol Building was shocking and deeply troubling for all who respect our country’s democratic traditions and the peaceful transfer of power. It is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of our democracy, and the need for each of us, as citizens, to rededicate ourselves to upholding and defending our democratic values, norms and institutions.

Less well known, perhaps, is that the statement explains that this promotion also involves, in words so apt to the current moment, “… teaching the blessings of liberty regulated by law, and inculcating love and reverence for the great principles of government …”

In the same message that says paying students are not at liberty to show up on campus, he celebrates “liberty regulated by law”.

June 2023, in which it turns out that following the “law” is actually bad, e.g., if the law prevents you from discriminating on the basis of race:

I am deeply disappointed by today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upends the long-standing practice of race-conscious university admissions to help achieve a diverse student body. I know that many of you in our community are disheartened. Now, our task is to respond in ways that allow Stanford to continue expanding opportunity and fulfilling our mission in a diverse and changing world.

Stanford has long supported race-conscious admissions as a means of obtaining the educational benefits of a diverse student body.

He’s proud to have been doing something for a long time that was found unconstitutional! And he further promises to violate the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling if it can be done in a way that doesn’t violate the letter:

Stanford will continue seeking, through legally permissible means, the broadly diverse student body that will benefit your educational experience and preparation for success in the world, and that will benefit our mission of generating knowledge.

September 2021:

Stanford is launching its first school in more than 70 years. This year has brought catastrophic weather events around the world, including another record-breaking fire season here in California. The extreme weather has underlined the urgency of the climate crisis, which has the potential to transform not only our planet, but also the health and well-being of humanity.

(But it isn’t an “existential crisis” as Joe Biden and the NYT say?)

What does the fraudster say about matters 2SLGBTQQIA+? It’s tough to know. The university’s main Twitter feed seems to have been silent on the subject of Pride all through June 2023. Instead they did things like celebrate the notorious hater John McEnroe:

Why is McEnroe a hater? State-sponsored NPR pointed out that Serena Williams was, as a purely factual matter, the best tennis tennis player in the world. McEnroe responded, “if she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.” There was some backlash… (Vox, for example)

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UC Davis applies UC Davis research to create unsuccessful physicians

by philg

Econ nerds at University of California, Davis did a huge study across hundreds of years of history and came to the conclusion that success was heritable, just as intelligence and conscientiousness tend to be genetically determined (see “The heritability of conscientiousness facets and their relationship to IQ and academic achievement”). I summarized this research in the following blog posts:

How is UC Davis applying its own research? “With End of Affirmative Action, a Push for a New Tool: Adversity Scores” (New York Times, July 2):

The scale rates every applicant from zero to 99, taking into account their life circumstances, such as family income and parental education. Admissions decisions are based on that score, combined with the usual portfolio of grades, test scores, recommendations, essays and interviews.

In other words, if your parents were unsuccessful, UC Davis wants you as a medical student!

The NYT article actually confirms the UC Davis economists’ conclusions:

There is also a family dynamic. Children of doctors are 24 times more likely to become doctors than their peers, according to the American Medical Association. It’s hard to know why the profession passes down from generation to generation, but the statistic drove the association to adopt a policy opposing legacy preferences in admissions.

The tendencies to enjoy sitting in biology lectures, studying for tests, and slicing up cadavers are “passed down from generation to generation” but the Followers of Science at the New York Times can’t come up with an explanatory mechanism.

Separately, let’s have a look at UC Davis’s most famous recent pre-med major, Carlos Dominguez. KCRA:

Dominguez came to the U.S. near Galveston, Texas in 2009 from El Salvador.

A U.S. and Immigration and Customs Enforcement official confirmed to KCRA 3 that ICE has placed a detainer with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, which means the agency would take custody of Dominguez should he be released from local custody.

Detainers are requests to state or local law enforcement agencies to remove non-citizens arrested for criminal activity once they have been released from their custody.

The ICE official referred to Dominguez as Carlos Alejandro Reales-Dominguez and said his immigration case had been closed in April 2012. He had come to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor from El Salvador in 2009 near Galveston, Texas, and was transferred to a family member at the time.

Mr. Dominguez thus will qualify for preferential admission to UC Davis Medical School due to the adversities of (1) being an undocumented immigrant, and (2) having an encounter with our racist criminal justice system.

The good news for folks who actually live in Davis, California, is that their health is guaranteed to be excellent because the town is rich in (“essential”) marijuana:

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How did the legacy admissions scheme last this long?

by philg

Nominally “private” colleges and universities get so much money from taxpayers that they are essentially part of the government. Taxpayers fund tuition grants that go straight into the colleges’ pockets. Taxpayers subsidize student loans that boost revenue by letting students pay more. Taxpayers fund research grants from which universities extract “overhead”.

The Equal Protection Clause:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

College admission isn’t exactly a “law”, but various cases have been decided in which this clause was applied to government programs generally, e.g., forcing states to allow same-sex marriage (and, eventually, throuples?). It wouldn’t be okay for the FAA to say “Your mom held a pilot certificate so therefore we’re going to let you have a pilot certificate at 35 hours instead of the usual minimum of 40.” Nor could the FAA say “We’re cutting you slack on the practical test because you paid $1 million in federal income tax last year.” Why is it okay for government-funded schools, such as Yale and Stanford, to say “We’re going to lower the bar for you because your parents attended and/or donated”?

Is the answer simply that no high-scoring-but-rejected-by-Yale applicant ever sued and obtained discovery showing that (1) second-rate legacy kids got admitted instead, and (2) Yale is firmly entrenched underneath a shower of government money?

Related:

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