Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
I had the opportunity to travel with Karen to Venice (California) to get her fitted with the latest in style and technology… GOOGLE GLASS. As Karen was visiting with us, it was a short 3.5 hour trip and it was fun to see the goings on at one of Googles ‘campuses.’
Friends John and Steph Cacioppo hosted a beautiful dinner at L2o restaurant in old town Chicago and it was wonderful!
12 courses over several hours was an epicurean delight! Know for their comfort and service, nothing was disappointing. It was magical!
The finale was a kitchen tour where I explored to my hearts content… A very efficient and innovative kitchen flow!
Thank you John and Steph!
There is some concern that Google is doing more than running a simple search engine and browser. My entire family has had our blogs and web sites ‘black listed’ for reasons we can not understand. We have seen our sites drop from several hundred hits a day… to virtually nothing at times. We have corresponded with Google and their response has been inadequate at best. I can only wonder what the future holds?
Here is a recent quote in a letter to Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Ranking Member Joe Barton, the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group’s John M. Simpson wrote:
“Based on today’s Washington Post, it appears that Google holds classified U.S. government contracts to supply search and geospatial information to the U.S. government. In addition, White House records show that Google executives have been holding meetings with U.S. national security officials for undisclosed reasons. Finally, it also appears that Google’s widely criticized efforts to collect wireless network data on American citizens were not inadvertent, contrary to the company’s claims.”
“As history has repeatedly shown, alliances between the U.S. intelligence community and giant corporations that collect data on American citizens can be a toxic combination where the U.S. Constitution is concerned,” the letter said.”
For now… we will use BING, YAHOO and anybody else and maybe you should, too.
Before addressing the official responses to Brendan Pringle’s recent opinion piece on “inclusive excellence” in the Mustang Daily, I’d like to make a personal note to Cal Poly administrators David Conn and Cornel Morton: I would suggest approaching this and any subject in your public comments by arguing the merits of your side of the case, not attacking the student-author in question, as many view this as unnecessarily intimidating, threatening and unprofessional…. Or as they say, ‘pick on someone your own size.’ After all, universities are all about teaching critical thinking, and the collective power of two Vice Presidents coming down in a very personal way against one student seems unfair.
Getting back to the issues, I wonder how many Cal Poly faculty are aware that the program of ‘Inclusive Excellence’ – as applied by other universities following the same AACU approach – views “selectivity” on the part of elite universities as “bad,” and ignores the SAT scores and grade point averages of certain applicants in order to grant admission. I am sure most faculty do not want to offer remedial education, nor do they wish to flunk unprepared students.
Here’s how Cornell Morton and David Conn spun the Inclusive Excellence discussion in a letter that I could not find on-line and only in the student newspaper hard copy! ( I thought you two would be proud of such a piece?)
Let’s parse one of the bits of illogic used by others in defending this program in the Mustang Daily:
1) …on whether their high schools are wealthy enough to offer AP courses
2) or the advantage of having parents who can afford to pay for SAT coaching.”
These statements border on the absurd. First, many universities ask high schools to send transcripts with the higher grade point averages from AP classes already factored out. Besides, high GPAs are not a problem at culturally disadvantaged schools—quite the opposite. The student with a 4.0 at a poor school might not be as well prepared for college as a student with a 3.0 from a good school. The whole purpose of using a standardized test like the SAT is to control for just that situation. Secondly, SAT coaching does not jump a student’s score from 700 to 1600 and is a much overrated factor, if a factor at all, except to all who are trying to get every last point.
The SAT and the SAT2 (Achievement Tests), like any classroom exams, have been much maligned by those who believe that they are a barrier to entry to whatever they want to do. Sometimes, you have to pass the test to pass the course. The problem, for those who want to ignore their results, is that these tests are excellent predictors for college performance, which is all they were ever supposed to do. The achievement tests (SAT2) measure many basic skills, like competence in math, science, and English, without which any student would have an impossible time of securing a degree in a quality major.
Here are two links that support the value of the SAT and SAT2 in college admission:
2009 SAT scores National by demographic
I do not suppose that we should be developing majors of lower academic caliber for the new arrivals? Doesn’t Cal Poly have enough of those already?
The California Master Plan of higher education was developed to grant admission based on a multi-tiered system: the best and the brightest would have an opportunity to attend a U.C., the next tier was the C.S.U., and for those who still needed to sharpen their skills before trying for the brass ring, there was the community college. Consequently, opening up Cal Poly to accept students who should learn the elementary skills of reading, math and science by first attending a community college is ill-advised.
Cornel and David, we’re all for fair play and diversity, but your comments about “a retreat from a merit system” are too vague. Please give us your explicit promise that you will not deviate from use of GPA and SAT data to meet your goals.
This is a really bad idea. Work harder, Chip.
Roger Freberg
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UPDATE: 03/01/10 … blog up on google… for now. 😉
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I think the Google business plan should be looked at very closely. I find it a bit disturbing and what I hear on the grapevine should concern more than just me. I ‘hear’ that they are strong arming universities into accepting their various ‘services’ all or none. Also a lot has been made about Google banning various web sites, some allegedly for political reasons.
I have noted the off again and on again status of my blog and certain local news with Google, particularly on certain issues concerning Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo. Google appears to be screening out any stories or blogs that paint Cal Poly in a negative light. I know what others are saying about Cal Poly and I know what comes up on Google about Cal Poly…. and there is a difference. Google nicely allows you to set up an ‘alert’ on anyone or anything , so I get ‘alerted’ whenever Cal Poly comes up on the web. I’ve seen nothing on any of the ‘sensitive or potentially controversial issues’ surrounding Cal Poly as of late. I wonder why?
So, you may wonder why should you care? Because the person who controls the flow of information controls power … besides, I don’t trust anyone whose motto is ‘do no harm.’ If they are doing this helpful service for Cal Poly, who else?
Maybe they should change their motto to “TRUST ME.”
Roger Freberg
Personally, I use BING, Yahoo, Alta Vista and virtually anyone else… and maybe, so should you.