“Can I swear on your podcast?”. MIT Professor Alex Byrne was recently condemned in an open letter for his work on the philosophy of sex and gender. We asked him how working on this topic is different than working on pretty much any other topic in philosophy.

RT @sfmcguire79: “They were cracking up not simply because grades had gotten so high but because they knew just how little students were do….

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RT @uaustinorg: @sfmcguire79 “C-“ is the middle name of all of our professors.

Link:

25 years ago, Harvey “C-“ Mansfield decided he would “distribute two sets of grades to his students: an initial grade he thinks they deserve, and then a second grade—the one that will go on their transcript—which will be ‘based on Harvard’s system of inflated grades.’”

Catch a bubble!

“The group also offered ‘slashings’ and ‘brickings’ for as little as $10, according to a review of the group’s Telegram channel by WIRED, apparently referencing real-world violence.”.

“Since the swatting spree kicked off on August 21, around a dozen different universities have been targeted with 911 emergency calls.”. “Asked if the swatting spree will continue, Gores simply replied: ‘Yes. 2 months.’”. Read this.

Full survey results here:.

Bitcoin’s on fire at $112K! Time to flip the charts on BTCC!.Exploring Cryptocurrency with Jaren Jackson Jr.🏀.

Graduate and undergraduate students see activism as high on the list of what makes Columbia distinctive. Glad to see the undergrads list the core curriculum near the top, though!

DEI was near the bottom when respondents were asked what distinguishes Columbia. “Student engagement and activism” came in fourth:

Columbia University asked its community members about priorities for its next president. Academic freedom was the second most popular response. DEI didn’t make the top 5.

“And then he asked, ‘what does it take to earn an A in this class?’”

They could’ve listened to Harvey Mansfield decades ago!. But it’s good that they’re trying to fix the problem.

“Now that they know that making college easier doesn’t reduce stress, Harvard administrators are attempting to rediscover a morsel of lost wisdom from the ancient past: School should be about academics.”.

“For all the hand-wringing about student self-censorship, [a junior’s] peers mostly don’t read texts closely enough to form opinions in the first place. ‘I feel like college has become almost anti-intellectual,’ Melani Cammett, a Harvard international-affairs professor, told me.”.

Always curious and full of energy, Beagles turn every walk into an adventure 🐾🎉.

“Without the threat of poor grades, students have largely stopped trying in their courses.”.

“This has created what [Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda] Claybaugh called a ‘shadow system of distinction.’ Students now use extracurriculars to differentiate themselves from their peers.”.

“Without meaningful grades, the most ambitious students have no straightforward way to stand out. And when straight A’s are the norm, the prospect of getting even a single B can become terrifying. As a result, students are anxious, distracted, and hyper-focused on using.

“Outside observers might still think of grades as an objective assessment of a student’s work, and therefore a way to differentiate between levels of achievement. But many professors seem to conceive of them as an endlessly adaptable participation trophy.”.

“In 2011, 60 percent of all grades at Harvard were in the A range (up from 33 percent in 1985). By the 2020–21 academic year, that share had risen to 79 percent.”.