I remember how it was -- JR
Monday, January 15, 2024
Snobby Harvard professor issues groveling apology for insulting college's extension school students whom she teaches
Extension is Harvard University's part-time, open-enrollment program, intended to offer courses equivalent in academic rigor to traditional Harvard programs
Hochschild received her undergraduate degree from the frantically Leftist Oberlin College. If Yiddish, her surname means "high shield"
A Harvard professor has apologized for insulting students of the college's extension school where she teaches after discovering that the activist who toppled Claudine Gay is an alumnus.
Jennifer Hochschild was slammed by her students after stating that the Harvard Extension School HES as 'not the same' as the main college.
Her comments came as she attempted to discredit conservative activist Chris Rufo, who was instrumental in exposing plagiarism claims which toppled former president Claudine Gay.
The Professor of Government and African and African American Studies claimed that Rufo had misrepresented his degree from HES.
'On Rufo: what do integrity police say about his claim to have "master’s degree from Harvard," which is actually from the open-enrollment Extension School?' Hochschild wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
'Those students are great - I teach them- but they are not the same as what we normally think of as Harvard graduate students.'
She added: 'Rufo could have proudly and honorably said, "I pulled myself up by bootstraps to prove it I have master's degree from Harvard extension school, along with other smart and gutsy students."
'Instead he used weasel words to try to attach himself to Ivy status and prestige. Insecurity??' she continued.
But days later she was forced into an embarrassing climbdown amid furious backlash from her students and the HES student association.
'I was asked to clarify, and am glad to do so: HES courses are Harvard U courses (often the same as in FAS, as for my courses),' Hochschild wrote.
'HES bachelor’s and master’s degrees are Harvard U degrees. HES is a school in Harvard U analogous to other schools. HES students are Harvard U students.
'On this maelstrom, mainly to HES students/staff: I regret that you got dragged into a dispute with nothing to do with you, that caused distress.
'I endorse and admire HES’s promotion of an inclusive, engaged, ambitious student body. I'm sorry my writing seemed to suggest otherwise. '
However her apology was rejected by Rufo in a response to the post on X.
'This still isn't an apology,' he replied. 'Try this: "I apologize for denigrating HES in a petty, botched attempt to discredit Christopher Rufo. I was angry that Mr. Rufo scalped my friend Claudine Gay. I shouldn't have reacted this way. I had the facts wrong and I'm sorry".'
Rufo was among the most vocal opponents to Gay in the final days of her tenure during which she was dogged by plagiarism allegations and claims she was not doing enough to protect Jewish students on campus amid clashes between Pro Israel and Pro Palestine supporters in the wake of the October 7 attacks.
Gay stood down from the position on December 2 amid the furor and following a disastrous Congressional hearing where she failed to state that calling for the genocide of Jews would be deemed hate speech on her campus.
Hochschild's apology came after HES's student association said it was 'deeply concerned and disappointed' by Hochschild's remarks.
'We urge the community, particularly HES faculty, to reflect on the far-reaching impact of their words,' the group said in a statement.
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Bipartisan Congress wants to defund colleges over legacy admissions — it’s about time
Time could finally be up for legacy admissions, thanks to a bipartisan bill being considered on Capitol Hill.
“The fact that your parents or grandparents happened to have a sheepskin [diploma] from a particular college on the wall should in no way influence your ability to get into that college,” Senator Todd Young told me.
Young is a co-sponsor of the MERIT Act (Merit-Based Educational Reforms and Institutional Transparency) introduced in Congress last November.
The legislation would ban colleges and universities that receive federal funding from considering applicants’ legacy status in the admissions process.
It’s about time that hard work, determination and excellence are valued over wealth, privilege and special considerations in the admissions office.
“My motivation was to restore what most Americans believe in: meritocracy — work hard, play by the rules, develop your talents, and you ought to be able to get ahead,” Young said.
The Indiana senator, who is a Republican, is co-sponsoring the bill with Democrat Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
“This is non-ideological, nonpartisan and highly popular among the American people,” Young said. “Republicans, Democrats, independents, liberals, conservatives — all agree with the notion that rich people shouldn’t be able to buy their kids’ and grandkids’ [way] into elite colleges.”
The MERIT Act would amend the Higher Education Act, which provides federal money to colleges and universities, by changing the accreditation standards.
It would ban any “preferential treatment” in the admissions process in order to receive federal funds.
Scrutiny of legacy admissions practices was renewed last year, when the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions.
If race can’t be considered in the admission process, why should other factors out of an applicant’s control — like how much money your family has or who your parents are — play a role? Legacy admissions is, effectively, affirmative action for the privileged.
Although Young, who himself is a graduate of the highly selective University of Chicago, had already taken an interest in eliminating legacy admissions before the Supreme Court ruling this June, he says the judgment inspired him to introduce the bill.
“I already decided that this was a wrong that needed to be righted, and I felt like there was an opportunity for success in this area… after the Supreme Court decision,” he said.
Legacy admissions is widespread in academia. According to Education Reform Now, about half of schools considered legacy status in the admission process as of 2020. And the practice is most common at elite colleges — 80% of them consider legacy status
Harvard has come under particular scrutiny for its practices, and rightfully so.
A 2019 analysis of Harvard’s admissions data from 2009 to 2014 by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals just how much of a leg up connected applicants have in the admissions process at elite universities.
While the overall admissions rate at Harvard was just 6%, 33.6% of legacies were accepted and 42.2% of those on an “interest list,” which often denotes a relationship to a donor, got in.
The researchers also found that 43% of white students at Harvard were legacies, children of faculty, donor relatives or recruited athletes — and that 3 in 4 of those students would likely not have been otherwise accepted.
“”There’s a sense that so many of our institutions are rigged in favor of entrenched interests,” Young said. “And in this case, the entrenched interests would be wealthier individuals who are effectively writing checks to their alma maters to get their children, grandchildren or friends of the family in.
“They’re basically overriding considerations of merit,” he added.
If the MERIT Act takes effect, it would jeopardize Harvard’s federal funding. Despite having a $50 billion endowment, the university received $625 million in federal dollars in 2021 — representing two-thirds of its sponsored revenue for the year.
But the tides are turning. Education Reform Now also found that 100 schools eliminated legacy admissions considerations between 2015 and 2022.
Highly selective schools like Johns Hopkins, Amherst College and Wesleyan University have nixed the practice. And MIT has never considered legacy status or donor relationships in its admissions process.
Local lawmakers across the country have also taken aim at legacy admissions.
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Big switch: The Sydney suburbs rejecting public education
Parents want to avoid the chaos of government schools
More Sydney parents are pulling their children out of the public education system at the end of year 6 and enrolling them in private high schools compared with a decade ago.
The growing exodus of students to private schools comes after years of sustained public focus on teacher shortages and debates over education funding.
Department of Education enrolment figures, which track the progression of public pupils through each year of their schooling, show more than 9000 year 6 students left the public system between 2021 and 2022, equating to 21 per cent of the year 6 cohort.
When schools in the rest of NSW were included, the exodus grew to more than 12,000 pupils in 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
In Sydney, the local government areas Canada Bay, Bayside and Cumberland recorded the biggest declines, with the number of students attending public high schools falling by more than 50 per cent between year 6 in 2021 and year 7 in 2022.
NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said public schools perform just as well as private schools in the HSC and other academic tests after socio-economic effects are considered.
“Parents are choosing to send them to the non-government sector because there is a mistaken belief they will get better results, but it is a fact that our public schools perform at least as well as non-government schools,” he said.
Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter said it was important for the state system to make the case to parents that public schools can provide a high-quality education.
“Parents choose school for a range of reasons, one of them is the peer group they’re selecting for their children. Parents from more advantaged backgrounds can seek out schools with children from similar social groups,” she said.
“The consequence of that is the increased concentration of children from disadvantaged backgrounds in public schools, that can create challenges in terms of teaching and learning.”
Anglican Schools Corporation chief executive Peter Fowler, whose organisation oversees 18 schools in Sydney, said successive state governments had not built public schools in growing areas on the city’s fringes.
“There is not as broad a choice for parents, so they’re looking at what the independent schools have to offer,” he said.
On school tours, parents were less interested in the buildings and more interested in the culture and what classes were like. “They liked to speak to existing students about their experiences, they wanted to hear about that, not the facilities in the school,” he said.
Demographer Mark McCrindle said the shift to the private system, replicated around Australia, was in part driven by older millennials (born from 1981 onwards), who were increasingly opting for faith-based schools for their children, despite a declining percentage of Australians identifying as religious.
“They’re not churchgoers or mosque attenders – they’re saying, some of the values which come from that particular educational foundation does work,” he said.
Catholic Schools chief executive Dallas McInerney said his sector had its strongest growth in more than a decade in the past year. “We’re welcoming more and more families from non-Catholic families. It is a vote of confidence in Catholic schools,” he said.
A St Paul’s Grammar School in Cranebrook, which is a non-denominational Christian school in Sydney’s west, principal Ian Wake said parents who were not particularly religious were drawn to the focus on mental wellbeing for their child.
“Across the board, there has been an increase in mental health issues and anxiety. We have appointed a coordinator of wellbeing and a wellbeing framework throughout the school … that appeals to parents,” he said.
Mother of three Liz Henry from Cremorne sent her daughters to the local public primary school. “My experience of public school has been very positive,” she said.
However, she decided to send them to a religious school for their secondary education. She had attended a single-sex private high school and wanted a school for her daughters that went beyond academics.
“It was important to me and to us as parents that there was a code of conduct or a set of values which were going to be instilled into our children … It didn’t have to be religious but there had to be some guiding principles,” she said.
A NSW Department of Education spokesman said there were currently 800,000 students enrolled in public schools– meaning the majority of school-aged children were educated in public schools.
“Through our new plan for NSW Public Education, we are explicitly aiming to make NSW public schools the first choice for young people and their families,” he said.
That plan, released in November, said the Department was addressing staffing shortages in public schools by giving teachers pay rises of up to $10,000 and would bolster student wellbeing via whole-of-school approaches. Success in some areas would be measured via “increasing community confidence in public education”.
“We have taken strides to ensure public schools continue to be the first choice for the majority of families, such as the recent historic pay rise for over 95,000 teachers, making them some of them the highest-paid public school teachers in the nation,” he said.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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