I don't think it's that simple here. In minnesota the academic world
has a very strong pull in politics. It's not right, but it's still
there. These things happen without knowledge of the general public
for some reason.
The institution I speak of offers both iBooks and PC laptops, but ALL
students MUST have a laptop, and it has to be rented for $500 per
semester from Winona state.
There is also an issue lately with the local UofM. They want to
boost their research status at the expense of teaching standards.
Students are in an uproar about this since they get little student
teacher interaction as is poor, and the UofM likes to hire otherwise
intelligent and skilled professors, but still, the breed of professor
they do hire are either unable to teach effectively, or unable to
communicate in a fashion that the students can understand (i.e. hire
a PHD who is from another country and has meager to poor english
skills).
The academic power here is powerful that attitudes like this are
common and encouraged. Many have tried to fight it, but to no avail.
This is one of the problems that Jesse ventura had. He didn't make
nice with the U of M, which was a bad thing for him, as they went
straight to the media and legislature and began a slander campaign.
The guy may not have been perfect, but he was far from the school
hating monster he was portrayed to be.
Brian
On Jun 12, 2005, at 9:02 AM, Pacer wrote:
My Fellow PowerBook-philes,
In Georgia we'd revolt against such concepts. There would be
lawsuits and legislation overturning such "requirements."
Firstly, unless it is itemized as part of the overall required
tuition we'd have activists, both liberal and conservative, having
a field day with the "hidden and discriminatory costs of attending."
Secondly, since it is a public instituion, this institution is to
be held to higher standards of equality, fairness and liberty.
There would be howls from, once again, both liberals and
conservatives about the inability of students to "choose" and the
violations of liberty forced upon these students and their families.
The only way this would fly is if these computers were not only
itemized as, specifically, a part of the actual tuittion (the
required tuition to attend) AND they were subsidized.
I think the citizenry of Minnesota might need to begin letting
their feelings be known on the matter.
I'm disapointed in Minnesota. The home of the best Public Radio
programs yet they ignore some basic and fundamental freedoms of the
right to make your own decisions.
Still, I imagine they likely had high-speed internet for all
students before the University of Georgia was able to do so. (I
think we got it in ... 2000?) At least we have an extensive
wireless cloud.
Sincerely,
Pacer the Loon
"Liberty over all!"
themacuser wrote:
Mabye we should get the addresses of these institutions, and if
each one of us sent them an email complaining, their email server
would be completely flooded into the ground.
On 12/06/2005, at 3:07 PM, Brian wrote:
Winona State University (a public university here in Minnesota)
has a program that bans use of any non-winona owned laptop on
their campus. In other words, public schools are not immune to
this behavior.
Brian
On Jun 12, 2005, at 12:29 AM, Pacer wrote:
My Fellow PowerBook-philes,
Dude! Where does your daughter go to school??? Holy cow. Is
this college or high school? America? Europe? Somewhere else?
I hope it is a private school -- we'd be all over a public
school doing this in my state. They'd have so many lawsuits
from so many corners before they even thought of it ... well...
And as for the fascism of Universities ... have not really
experienced that myself. My State's flagship University is not
too shabby on that front. Not so hot at some others, though.
Like having a falling out with its Alumni fund-raising
foundation.... Oops.
Sincerely,
Pacer the Loon
P.S. My father is a Professor at one of the larger public Us
and he does quite a bit more than research. Your cousin is
lucky. Wait till he gets picked to be head of a department or
some other admin+teaching+research-or-you-lose-your-tenure
position. Ah the state of Academia! :-)
Tom Ethen wrote:
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