Category: college

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Free Speech & Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

President Warren Baker is consistantly on the wrong side of history

CAL POLY–

Why am I not surprised that Cal Poly lost a big case and no one — including the local media here in San Luis Obispo covered it?

In truth, although I tend to view Cal Poly as the bigger problem, it was the entire California State University System that got whacked. It’s like the system has the same sort of drones working at the top, making all of the same sorts of bad decisions over and over again.

So, let’s take a look at what this case was all about:

‘The center ( the Center for Academic Freedom ) recently announced that it had reached a settlement with California State University system officials to eliminate problematic restrictions on student speech at all of its 23 campuses.

According to EP News Service, a federal judge suspended or limited aspects of the CSU speech policy last year, saying it contained serious constitutional problems.As part of the settlement, portions of the Cal State system “speech code,” the San Francisco State University Student Organization Handbook “speech code,” and the SFSU harassment policy will be modified to eliminate unconstitutional restrictions that have been misused by university officials.

“The problem with public universities today is that it’s departed largely from what it was supposed to be—a place to teach students to think, a marketplace for ideas,” Kellum said. “Instead, what we see today is more of a place of indoctrination, an incubator for leftist thought. They have very little patience for any view other than their own.”’

My experience in watching Cal Poly over the years is that they have a tendency to revert to form once they get their hands slapped in court. Regardless of what the court says, they put their own spin on it in practice.

It was nice to see them held accountable, even if it never reached the papers.

Roger Freberg

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A bit of work and Trojan Fun this weekend

Dad and TommyLaura and I don’t often have an opportunity to get on down to Los Angeles… but when we do it is always fun to stay over by USC and catch a game or a film on campus. There is always something to do.

We had a few activities to do… Laura was meeting with some fellow Professors to discuss textbooks and such things, we volunteered to submit Karen’s visa application to the Chinese Consulate, meet up with friends and a few other odds and ends around town.

It was certainly an interesting experience submitting Karen’s visa application. Karen will be presenting at a conference in Beijing and asked for some help with some odds and ends. Isn’t that what dads are for anyway?

Almost everyone I know has visited or worked in China… well… except me. Somehow that’s the way it always works out with me waving them off on holiday! ha!

In any event, Laura and I had an opportunity to drop by and see Karen’s Annenberg School of Communication, my Marshall School of Business and walk on out to the Loker track stadium.

It was fun to see where Karen spent so much of her graduate education… and the track where she set the school record in the Shot Put.

fun and games at USC!
Coach Ron Allice is in the center photo with Laura… and Coach Lang, Lauren and Laura are pictured again on the right. Fight on!
USC farmer's market is wonderful
One doesn’t think of a “Farmer’s Market” in the middle of an urban setting… but here it is! Fresh veggies, thirst quenching juices and other healthy snacks were all for the taking…well… if you paid for them!

Great fun!

Roger Freberg

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The World to Cal Poly, “the Saudis are a Bad Deal!”

Who thought this was a good idea?Unless you have been living in some sort of backwater or under a regime intolerant of diverse opinions, you no doubt have heard that Cal Poly is trying to put together a ‘deal’ with their new friends in Saudi Arabia. Here’s the deal:

Saudi Arabia is looking to mine the high-tech expertise of American universities. The country recently set its sights on Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which would set up an engineering program in Saudi Arabia. But the lucrative contract comes with a caveat: The Saudi university doesn’t allow women in its engineering courses. That doesn’t sit well with Cal Poly students, who circulated a petition demanding further discussion.

The world has also been listening, and they haven’t said “no”… they’ve said “HELL NO!” Here’s what others are saying!

LISTEN HERE to NPR !

3/13/08 — NPR’s Calif report that has a 5 minute segment (really good and wraps up with Stanford’s Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Dr. Charles Hill who collapses Provost Durgin’s propositions in the concluding analysis.


Minding the Campus– American Campuses in the Mid-East:not for everyone.

03/13/08 –“U.S. universities pride themselves on their tolerance – religious, ethnic, gender-based, sexual orientation-based, whatever. But when it comes to lucrative consulting fees for partnering with universities in Mideastern countries where none of the above categories of toleration seems to exist, the campus open-mindedness apparently evaporates, and a strange variety of mulitculturalism takes over.”

Other print media has also been very explicit on their objections to the deal:

Bill Morem’s “the Devil is in the Details!” Don’t forget to check out all the comments.. locals are not happy, either!

Los Angeles Times

Inside Higher Education

United Press international

Fresno Bee “stirring passions in treatment of women”

Cal Poly College Republicans

MSNBC “women get the cold shoulder”

Karin’s Blog at the L.A.Times

… uncoveredslo.com the folks who first broke the deal on the news locally!


Cal Poly students Recent Protest at the Impromtu Senate Meeting with Warren Baker

CLICK Here for PICTURES

News From England on the Saudis. CLICK Do we really want to be them?

The only question remains: where do you stand?

Roger Freberg

PS. Want more fun? Check out what you local campus folks make as a ‘base salary’ !
for example: Dean Mohammad Noori $ 213,036.00

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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UPDATE: Cal Poly & Saudi Arabia

Cal poly Administration... in it for the buck!For those of you who have been following the struggle between Cal Poly Administration’s support for that struggling democracy and beacon of human rights paradise named Saudi Arabia must be scratching your heads and wondering:

If this is so good… what is the big secret? Why has the administration of Cal Poly worked so hard to silence critics and continued to press on with what is so clearly a bad deal?

Most of us who have followed Cal Poly’s Administration over the tenure of the aging President Warren Baker realize that there must be a ‘buck’ or a promise of more bucks to come. After all, the ‘Cal Poly Foundation’ was set up to handle all those things that public universities are not allowed to do… like compete with the private sector. And as everyone knows who has had any dealings with the Foundation will attest… they are not in it to make a better world, they are in it for the buck! Just check out what they charge in their stores and how they treat ‘competition.’

In any event, what could be called the “Emperor Strikes Back!” is a thinly disguised article in the student newspaper extolling the Saudi Deal, underplaying the discriminatory hiring practices and criticizing everyone who disagrees as ignorant, unwashed and in dire need of some Old Spice ( Okay, i exaggerated )

Here’s the link to the article!

Now, the title of the article stresses how Saudi Arabia NEEDS Americas help in improving their educational system. It sounds so ‘altruistic’ to help… but that’s not the Cal Poly Administration’s way. Here in a nutshell is the administration’s basic argument for doing the deal:

1) “… merely attempting to better understand the region and culture.” “I think Saudi Arabia is a country in transition. In the years I have been going there, its become more liberalized.”

Oh please, Saudi Arabia hasn’t changed fundamentally in a thousand years. It’s dishonest of the administration to play the altruism card. Besides, academic studies have shown that being exposed to our western ways doesn’t automatically make folks want to emulate us. Some people — unfortunately — are just as happy living under a dictatorship.
2) We should not apply a “litmus test about what countries…”

Well, we do this all the time and with generally favorable results. This helped to end apartheid in South Africa, for example.

3) “many universities have signed on”

We really don’t know what the deals were, but what we do know is that many more have refused. As a ‘public institution’, Cal Poly’s mandate is to educate Californians and not spend an estimated 1/3 of the department head’s time with the Saudis.

4) “If one is Jewish-American or Christian-American and one is discreet, one should be fine, It’s the same with homosexuality.”

I still don’t know how one could be discrete about being ‘female’? Also, I found the use of the term “Christian-American” to be rather strange.
Finally, the fellow interviewed in the article John Battenberg comes from the English Department at Cal Poly. This department – by the way – is no stranger to being taken to Federal Court on issues of discrimination.

The local media is a communities best hope in addressing big local issues and our local print, radio and television have got the message out… and I for one am very appreciative.

Here’s BILL MOREM’S column in today’s Tribune

The more we hear about the ‘deal’ the more people don’t like it.

Roger Freberg

PS. The picture above so annoys the administration that I have to run it again

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Cal Poly Admin UNLEASHES their Radicals!

the emperor strikes back!

Cal Poly’s Administration likes to market themselves as the ‘conservative alternative to Berkeley’, the truth is far stranger. In the world of politics, most politicians have their ‘hit people’ who do all the nasty things that the ‘elected official’ can disavow, only after the irreparable damage has been done to their opponent.

In Academia, I have noticed a strange relationship at many universities ,a marriage of convenience between the most radical segments of the faculty and the University’s administration. The administration provides ‘protection and resources’ and the ‘radicals’ keep order. It is interesting to note that the infamous Ward Churchill couldn’t be ‘reevaluated’ until the President of the University of Colorado was pushed to resign. After this past Cal Poly Academic Senate impromptu meeting, Cal Poly’ Administration appears to have this same relationship with their radicals.

Cal Poly radicals have been lobbying Faculty Senators and smearing anyone who opposes the administration’s point of view. Truth suffers in these instances. One professor unfortunately plays to the stereotype: America hating, Military eviscerating, Death to Israel, bigoted Iranian. One student on “Polyratings” had this to say about this radical professor:

“(This professor) is the most antisemitic faculty member on campus. She consistently tries to push her alternative views of history on her students who often don’t know better. If you take her class, keep your ears and mind open, and don’t take everything she says for truth without a healthy deal of scepticism.”

Interesting to note that THIS professor has the full support of the administration.

In addition, we suspect that the local newspaper is about to deliver a set of below-the-belt editorials and columns supporting the Cal Poly administration and slamming everyone else. Funny how news travels.

So, Cal Poly President Warren Baker appears to be pulling out all the stops and leaving nothing to chance. I have learned in situations like this, the good guys can win… but there are no guarantees…. even if they are strong with good side of the force!
Roger Freberg

UPDATE:

We have heard that certain Cal Poly Administrators are visiting school student representative groups via phone calls and ‘forcefully’ telling them NOT to participate in the student signature drive to stop the Saudi-Poly Alliance… our tax dollars at work.

Need a place to start to look… check out the School of Agriculture

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

1) Associated Students (ASI) (12 Mar)

(The Details are forthcoming)

2) Cal Poly Student Society of Women Engineers (6pm – 12 Mar)

The Society of Women Engineers having their meeting with the Provost on Wednesday at 6pm in Bonderson Engineering room 104. I am sure the Provost will be able to explain how the separate-but-equal deal between Cal Poly and Saudi Arabia is actually a big step forward for women!