Contemplating a coming collapse

Upon observing a truly disheartening week for higher education (to say nothing about the disarray where I work):

Dreher (emphasis mine):

I would invite journalists, academics, and professional class people to think about what this little campus p.c. revolution so many of you are embracing says to the huge number of people outside your narrow circles of privilege. Houellebecq is speaking to you. You are waging a culture war on the people who are not like you. They know you hate them, and are pulling the ladders up behind you. When the university system collapses — as it will, because we cannot afford it — do you really think they are going to give a damn? Do you really think that they will, in the end, have any more concern for free speech, fair play, and other classically liberal values than you have shown? Here’s a hint: there are a lot more of them than there are of you. And sooner or later, some rough beast is going to come along and inspire them to vote.

"Weary of that flight"

Hee entred well, by vertuous parts,
Got up and thriv'd with honest arts :
He purchas'd friends, and fame, and honours then,
And had his noble name advanc'd with men :
But weary of that flight,
Hee stoop'd in all mens sight
To sordid flatteries, acts of strife,
And sunke in that dead sea of life,
So deep, as he did then death's waters sup ;
But that the Corke of Title buoy'd him up.

It is easy to start well. It is much harder to finish well. I taught this poem the other day as a companion piece to “To Penshurst,” and found myself exercised at myself because I seem to be slipping professionally, spiritually, emotionally, physically. It’s more than just the time of year or the time of semester. It’s also the stage in my life where I’m not sure I’m up to the task.

I tell my students that the hardest thing isn’t the rare act of heroism in a crisis — it’s the getting up every day and doing your job, being a person of integrity, even when the weight of years begins to make your legs shake and your back ache.

Goe now, and tell out dayes summ'd up with feares,
And make them yeares ;
Produce thy masse of miseries on the Stage,
To swell thine age ;
Repeat of things a throng,
To shew thou hast beene long,
Not liv'd ; for life doth her great actions spell,
By what was done and wrought
In season, and so brought
To light : her measures are, how well
Each syllabe answer'd, and was form'd, how faire ;
These make the lines of life, and that's her aire.

Monday Update, October Hangover Edition

With the end of October comes the end of what the Triathelete calls the long slog that starts during the Soybean Festival and doesn’t really end until we’ve sorted the Halloween candy. In most years, the Pig Pickin takes up two weeks in the middle of October and really taps us out. This year we were better prepared than we usually are, but then the end of October gloominess set in earlier than we anticipated so we couldn’t have the event. Now we just have the several weeks before the St Jude Marathon Weekend in Memphis.

The children really enjoyed Halloween, of course. We trick-or-treated in the rain, but they had so much fun it didn’t really matter. Lefty was particularly sweet, having the time of his life shouting out TRICK OR TREAT and THANKYOUHAPPYHALLOWEEN and then announcing what kind of candy he got. It’s fun to watch him do all that, and really fun to remember doing that myself when I was a first grader in the Garden Hills neighborhood in Atlanta.

I say “children,” but of course we are on the cusp of having a tween at my house. Number One goes from child to teen and back again, spending more time with headphones on and being generally secretive. But then this morning he was getting ready for school and singing a nonsense song at the top of his lungs in that high piping voice of his.

I’m going to miss that voice, just like I’m going to miss the husky grunt of Little Red and him scrubbing his bristly hair against me.

I make time for all these things from my boys, because I know they won’t be little boys forever.

Shoe Appreciation Post

Clarks Desert Boots, beeswax, brand new on the left and four (or five) years old on the right. Good for just about every occasion. The old ones are still going strong (they started out looking like the pair on the left), but I got a good deal on the new ones. I have an even older pair in taupe suede that I’m still wearing.

In the department of False Alarms, we have--

ANNNNND, just like that, no more problem. I’ll bet the behind the scenes communications would be fun to read.

Seriously, I’m grateful to both entities for being willing to reach some sort of agreement. I rely on this subscription for basically all my research such as it is.

Well, there goes a major perk

In which the demands of the market and the demands of scholarship collide. This won’t hurt people at the more wealthy institutions, but for those of us at the small ones, it’s a major blow.

A Tale of the Canceled Pig Pickin

And so the time of year came in which we would carve the swine, and roast it, and feast our friends, and give thanks for the coming autumn. For 18 years I did just that, both in Chapel Hill (helping the honorable WT) and here in NWTN, and never once were we rained out or otherwise interrupted. Until this past Friday, when the rain set in and would not quit. And so, despite the lamentations of our children, we were forced to cancel our Tenth Annual Hawks Road Hawg Roast.

We stood in the rain and watched the boys play soccer instead.

Monday Update, Preparing for October Events Edition

We are preparing for birthday party #11 for Number One Son. He wants a sleepover. That is not a possibility in our little house unless we have a BACKYARD CAMPING SLEEPOVER! Which seems like a bonus for the boys but actually is just a measure to keep them from destroying our house.

Little Red went to the eye doctor — we were thinking that he would need glasses, based on some of his recent behavior, but as it turns out he just has a mild astigmatism that doesn’t need any treatment yet.

Soccer games continue every Saturday. There have been some wins and some losses — alas, there have been more losses than wins for Little Red’s team, which has a kind but inexperienced coach. Though when Little Red plays defender, he might as well be called The Eraser. He’s better off not having to run during the game (!)

The children are on Fall Break this week from Monday through Wednesday. We’re trying to keep Number One doing his work, and trying to get the children to do some chores. Funny how it’s hard to make that happen.

On not giving credit for good intentions

Unless one is hiding under a rock, it’s impossible to be working in higher ed without running into the burgeoning TITLE IX Industry. We recently faced our own little adventure with “consultants” who came and “trained” us in our role as “mandatory reporters” of “sexual misconduct” . . . not reporters to the police, mind you, but to our campus’s designated TITLE IX COORDINATOR (who I know, and who is an honest man, and who is in the job on an interim basis).

It was an experience remarkably incoherent and Orwellian all at the same time. Some of my colleagues were subjected to an emotionally harrowing testimonial of a “rape” that took place more than two decades ago (!) Some of my colleagues were subjected to a presenter who purported to give advice and coherent definitions, and whose examples included one student looking at another’s ankles (!), and whose advice included allowing a student to opt out of the entire class if he/she/xe/zhe feels too “challenged” by the material. I was in the group that was subjected to a young man whose statements included things like the following:

• “You need to invite people to step outside their comfort box."
• “Students need to know correct policies and procedures to make good decisions.”
• “Tell a troubled student that ‘I’m not going away; I want to have a conversation with you.’"

Ye gods.

I am not convinced that the “problem” being presented to us is anything more than a remarkably brazen power grab on the part of unaccountable government bureaucrats and the academic-administrator power bloc. But even assuming that there is an actual problem with campus rape culture (again, something that has not been demonstrated by any honest measure), my campus has shown that it is unserious about the situation by promulgating a legally binding document that shows essentially no provisions for due process and by hiring consultants (reportedly at $50K) who demonstrably couldn’t find their (or anyone else’s) asses with both hands. The faculty at this institution may not have a University of Chicago pedigree, I’ll admit, but we deserve a serious approach. We have not yet seen one.

How Dante Can Save Your Life

Last night, there was a guest speaker at my institution—Rod Dreher, a conservative journalist. This time around he is speaking in support of his recently published How Dante Can Save Your Life. I am always glad to attend and support an event devoted to a great poem.

As it turns out, most of his talk was autobiographical—focusing on how he, a non-specialist, non-academic, non-fiction reader, found a way out of his own dark wood by reading a poem he never expected to enjoy.

As his talk went on, his descriptions of depression resonated with me. And then he talked about being at his father’s death bed (a mere month ago). It was deeply moving, and if you were listening you could hear him making the implicit argument that these old poems (the things people like me work so hard to preserve and teach) can have a value to any reader ready to approach them.

That kind of advice is the best advice we humanists can give to a public adrift.

I also wept. I miss my dear Mother in Law.

Adventures with Students, Vol. 54

From today’s feedback from my English 250 class, where I did my usual bit on Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier:

I really enjoyed this story because the way you dumbed it down, essentially enough for us all to understand the most important parts.

Gee. I can see it now on my updated resume:

“job skills: dumbing it down"

We have a new policy!

my institution has gotten with the times and promulgated an impossibly broad Sexual Abuse/Dating Violence/Badthink policy, and has mandated formal training for all faculty—no exceptions.

I read the document. In a 60 page document, this is the only mention of Due Process, which is never explicitly defined:

the “may” is the weasel-word that means, “tough luck, suckers.” And you know this because they never spell out what they mean beyond this (though they go into great detail about what the complainant can expect).

I eagerly await the lawsuits.

Professional Check-up

so, ten years in, how am I doing?

actually, it’s more like sixteen years.

it’s impossible, I guess, to spend a decade and more doing things a certain way without falling into certain patterns, i.e., ruts--

I have no pedagogical method except going in and doing what I do. I wave my arms and yell, enthusing about a set of things in what I hope is an intelligent manner. I try to be encouraging and yet also rigorous. It requires a huge amount of energy and effort. If I ever get to where I cannot stride around and make jokes, etc., I’m not going to do well.

I try to be welcoming and accessible to my students without inviting the familiarity that ends in contempt.

As I get older and they get younger, I have to try even harder to keep my own opinions and general curmudgeonliness from getting in the way. For instance, I see young men in particular for whom I feel some pity . . . I want them to embrace my own silly & archaic brand of Roman/Ben Jonsonesque stoicism . . . even as I know that I’ve always been that way and can hardly expect others to do the same.

I do have the conviction that studying literature is about filling your brain with “stuff,” and the only way to be a learned person is to read everything you can. I do believe that I’m not teaching to shape anyone ideologically, but I am hoping to convince them that the opportunity of free will and choice is a blessing and a burden, one not to be abandoned or ignored.

I read an article by Cary Saul Morson and commented on it earlier this year . . . and in it he asserts that he reads to his classes from their selections precisely because by doing so he can model an intelligent reader’s “voicing” of the parts. I have to admit that, given the examples I had in grad school from Professors S., and G., and especially B., I agree. It’s what I do . . . I have been gently mocked for using different voices while I read, and yet, I think it helps them. They are so uncomfortable reading stuff like this.

The students here like me. I am comfortable in front of the classroom and have the reputation of a tough but fair and inspiring instructor.

This is year eleven. I fear the rut.

Um, I'm taking the Bartleby option

In today’s inbox:

Faculty/Staff Title IX Training

Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence, and Stalking Policy and Procedure – REQUIRED TRAINING

Please choose one of the following sessions to attend:

Monday, September 21, 11:00 – 11:45 a.m.
Monday, September 21, 2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
Tuesday, September 22, 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Tuesday, September 22, 2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
All sessions will be held in Watkins Auditorium in the University Center.

Who is required to attend?
Training is required for all Faculty, Exempt Staff, Non-Exempt Staff who supervise, Graduate Teaching Assistants, Supervisors, GAs/Others serving as Academic Advisors. Training will fully explain the Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence, and Stalking Policy and Procedure and provide clarification of your responsibilities as a Mandatory Reporter.

Trainer information: Katie Koestner with Campus Outreach Services - Katie is a national expert and has been a leader in the movement to end sexual violence since she took her own solo stand as the first survivor of date rape to speak out nationally at age 18. Subsequently, she has appeared on nearly 50 national television programs and spoken at more than 3000 college and school campuses. She assisted the U.S. Department of Education in developing and providing programs to women in high-risk communities. Her testimony on Capitol Hill was instrumental in the passage of federal student safety legislation.
Two team members from Campus Outreach Services will assist with the trainings.

Oh boy! National Expert! First Survivor! Television Programs! Testimony on Capitol Hill! Team Members to Assist!

I’m sure this is a lucrative business for Campus Outreach Services, and I’m happy for Ms. Koestner, but I wonder why we need an outside consultant to come read powerpoint slides to us. I wonder why we need to pay whatever is required to have Ms. Koestner come read powerpoint slides to us. I wonder why faculty cannot be trusted to read a document for themselves, seeing as they are professionals in knowledge fields, after all.

I will believe it’s a financial crisis when the people telling me it’s a financial crisis act like it’s a financial crisis.

And yes, I know what this is. It is 100% CYA. Calling it a “Training” is a stretch for even the most credulous. I just wish they would be honest about what is actually happening here: they have to demonstrate that they have made everyone attend a training so that lawyers etc. don’t get involved. Or any more involved.

Bonus: will the utterly bogus “1 in 5” statistic get trotted out? You bet. How soon? I’m thinking within the first 3 minutes.

Seriously taking the Bartleby option.

"Vindictive Protectiveness"

"Therapy often involves talking yourself down from the idea that each of your emotional responses represents something true or important."

An important new article at The Atlantic — I know, stop laughing - discusses how the campus atmosphere in the US right now has major consequences for freedom of speech, liberty of consicence, and mental health.

I disagree with the authors’ too-kind characterization of speech control as motivated by laudable and compassionate impulses that have gotten out of hand. I think instead that speech and thought control are totalitarian in their genesis, so it should surprise absolutely no one when they are applied in destructive ways. BUT, the general tenor of the article is accurate and welcome, and couched in the kind of language that makes the points in an unobtrusive and “objective” way. And because it is being published in a faux-highbrow publication like The Atlantic, at least some people (the sort who take NPR seriously too) will take it seriously.

The list of recommendations at the end of the article are particularly useful, especially the first one, which calls for the de-escalation of the DOE’s currently insane application of the term “harassment.” Alas, despite the well-modulated and undoubtedly useful thoughts of Lukianoff and Haidt, the perverse incentive structure of the 21st Century campus will stymie any meaningful reform.

Men make plans; God laughs.

“But some will say, Whence has this fellow got the arrogance which he displays and these supercilious looks? I have not yet so much gravity as befits a philosopher; for I do not yet feel confidence in what I have learned and in what I have assented to. I still fear my own weakness. Let me get confidence and then you shall see a countenance such as I ought to have and an attitude such as I ought to have; then I will show to you the statue, when it is perfected, when it is polished.”

Excerpt From: Epictetus. “A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/fM8jE.l

Which way: Horace or Juvenal?

Thus life is indifferent: the use is not indifferent. When any man then tells you that these things also are indifferent, do not become negligent; and when a man invites you to be careful (about such things), do not become abject and struck with admiration of material things. And it is good for you to know your own preparation and power, that in those matters where you have not been prepared, you may keep quiet, and not be vexed, if others have the advantage over you.

—Epictetus

There is an argument to be made (but not in the space of this forum) that a satirist is an idealist/romantic/conservative who finds himself confronting knaves and fools where he hoped to find saints and heroes. When one finds that the world is made of brass, and one finds that one’s expectations are dashed, what is there to do if one is not willing to succumb to indifference or worse? You confront the wrong! Attack!

I find myself tending toward Juvenal . . . but the problem is that his approach leads to some pretty harsh reprisals. When I see years’ worth of fecklessness coming home to roost, and consider how it affects people and institutions I care about, it’s difficult to keep my trap shut. I’m just irascible enough to not be able to pull off Horace’s gentle but piercing judgments. And so—-I guess I know how much my righteous indignation is worth.

So I try to take the advice of the Stoic instead.

SLO-mo

I am currently listening to a committee of my department colleagues work to develop a list of properly formatted SLO’s (Student Learning Objectives) so that we may meet SACS and other administrative mandates. We have even been given a book by the new Title III office to help us properly phrase the SLO’s so that they use appropriate action verbs and what-not.

It is no doubt quite useful to talk about why we are teaching what we teach, and what we hope to accomplish. Useful merely to us, though, and mainly for the sake of meeting the demands of the bloated academic-administrative class.

The same class responsible for this kind of nonsense, and for this, and for this.

In which Piers examines his moral formation

But if thou think, trial unsought may find
Us both securer than thus warned thou seemest,
Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;
Go in thy native innocence, relie
On what thou hast of virtue, summon all,
For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.

I wonder what it says about me that a good portion of my moral reasoning is filtered through the words of John Milton.

Laurence J. Peter, Vindicated

This article has been making the rounds recently, and it speaks to the greatest problem facing institutions of higher ed in this country.

It’s no secret that any educational institution is a bloated mess; the layers of regulatory oversight and legal ass-covering are so manifold and intertwined that they are impenetrable to the average citizen. Which is how these institutions get away with it; the layers upon layers of administration seem professional and competent because their actions are generally filtered through a dense screen of verbiage.

Still, a report like the one above has the virtue of highlighting unfortunate realities so that they are hard to ignore (as has been the case with other recent revelations in the news). I could cite several examples from the two institutions I’ve been most recently affiliated with, but that seems like piling on at this point.