Cassey Bennet University of Louisiana

[tt11758]

It should surprise you fullauto, because you can accuse me of a lot of things, but not having professional integrity isn't one of them. I would turn in by best friend for this, or forcing himself on/taking advantage of or otherwise abusing his trust with a student or intentional plagerism (which for non-academics we view as the equivalent of  grand theft). Some things you just don't do. This is one of them. I'll forgive the implied insult but please do understand that the fact that I'm pissed off about it is representative of the fact that its just not accepptable to the majority of academics. We never promised to be neutral, because thats a lie. Honesty means letting the students know your POV. BUT having a POV, doesn't mean you can't, shouldn't and MUST be OBJECTIVE in dealing with those POVs that differ from your own. There is nothing more pitiful than a forty something with a PhD that is so insecure that they are intimidated by a 19 year old who disagrees with them. Most of my collegues agree with that. I'm sorry you don't have more faith in us, but you really should.
FQ13
PS Just for the record I want to say this. I forgive you for the insult, because you seem like a good and honest guy. We might not always agree, but I'd still like to sit down and debate it with you over a beer. What you just posted though, is the equivalent of telling an honest doctor, lawyer, accountant, cop or contracter that they're a scum bag because you once knew a couple of jerks. Just FYI.

FQ, I think FullAuto's skepticism comes from the "bad apple syndrome".  Much like the fact that 90% of lawyers give all the rest of them a bad name.  While I don't think he was necessarily impugning your credibility, there is a perception that liberals in general, and liberal professors in particular, are less than tolerant of views other than their own.  And as a student of politics, you of all people should know that perception = reality.

[tombogan03884]

http://cdn3.libsyn.com/guntalk/090524guntalkA.mp3?nvb=20090528231621&nva=20090529232621&t=00b366b42c2728297edd6

Integrity, you mean like Ward Churchill ?

[fightingquaker13]

FQ, I think FullAuto's skepticism comes from the "bad apple syndrome".  Much like the fact that 90% of lawyers give all the rest of them a bad name.  While I don't think he was necessarily impugning your credibility, there is a perception that liberals in general, and liberal professors in particular, are less than tolerant of views other than their own.  And as a student of politics, you of all people should know that perception = reality.

You're right. I tend stay pissed about this stuff for minutes anyway. No worries.
FQ13

[Rastus]

The fact that you never heard of it doesn't mean anything. But you not acknowledging it doesn't surprise me either. It has happened, does happen, and is happening. Several of my friends have received threats like this when they were in college. Of course, the wording is intentionally obtuse, but the point and impact is unmistakable.

I cannot read into this any impugned measure of a person's performance or credibility.  I see a comment that refers to a sampling population of one that is statistically insignificant.

I experienced a disproportionate number of bad apples in the Humanities realm of college in the 70's and 80's in both undergrad and graduate work.  Multiple choice keeps profs honest but anything other than an absolute structured response population is an opportunity to punish dissent.  Then there is the problem that multiple choice testing does not provide a good measure of comprehension...unless they are structured in a manner that goes into both depth and conceptual relationships; they can be very poor indicators of anything but the ability to take notes. 

Then there were the football players who rarely passed a test and got C's and all preferential teacher focus in the class time holding the rest of us back....didn't get anywhere with that one either...but I did learn a valuable lesson. 

Integrity does not exist in a vacuum, it is earned by testing and is proven to exist.