"Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts, and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: tenure."
-- What the Wizard of Oz should have said to the Scarecrow
What's happened to our colleges and universities?
Consider the case of the screaming, foul-mouthed, lose-the-pants debate coach from Fort Hays State University in Kansas.
On a video made famous on Internet site YouTube, Professor Bill Shanahan and another "professor" are seen yelling at each other profanely in front of an audience at a debate event at Emory University last March -- before Shanahan suddenly turns and moons the room.
Nice.
Even better: A story in The Kansas City Star reports that "Shanahan had been arrested twice for disorderly conduct and battery between May 2006 and June 2007. The 2006 arrest involved an argument at an eye doctor's office, and the 2007 arrest, also for battery and resisting arrest, involved an altercation at a children's T-ball game."
Is there really a lot to "debate" at a child's T-ball game? You think maybe we need to work on our people skills?
Larry Gould, the chief academic officer at Fort Hays State, says the behavior is inappropriate -- but also defends both Shanahan and his style and actually says what he saw on the video is "not out of character" for Shanahan.
"We understand there is this confrontational, rapid-delivery debate style where people are screaming at one another," Gould is quoted. "Bill is a maverick, a nonconformist and a very provocative professor. He is antiestablishment; for example, he never wears shoes. But he gets excellent marks in the classroom. He does a great job making people think."
Apparently it doesn't matter how.
Fort Hays isn't the only institution of higher learning giving Shanahan a pass: The Star reported he was unavailable to comment for the story because he was on his way back from a summer teaching engagement at Dartmouth.
Yeah, you just can't expose enough young, impressionable minds to that kind of behavior.
Comments
You missed the whole point AC. All this professor needs to do is hate America and love socialism, hate Bush and love todays Democrat party, hate responsibility and love tenure, hate proven fact and love man made global warming, hate order and love anarchy, hate honesty and love imagination. He may not be your choice for a professorship, but the has the attitude that excites academia.
Why doesn't this behavior surprise me?
Guess when he messed up reading the eye chart he got really upset.
Yeah, those hate America, lazy, good for nothing Democrats.
The fool debases all true intelligent academics in the U.S.. It reminds me of comedians who can be funny in an unoffensive and "clean" manner, and those who just punt and go for "dirt". Any fool can tell a dirty joke and get a laugh but it takes genius like Chaplin and those of his ilk that are true comedians-not that I'm against a dirty joke now and then, but you get the drift (there is thought in action). This moron literally showing his [filtered word] is pathetic and only showing his best side. An angry person is not a logical or reasonable person.
One nut and all academics are tools...give it a rest. We know the anti-intellectualism that exists on this op-ed page, from these blogger/commenters...Since PT interjected politics, what ever happened to getting the best and the brightest to do our toughest jobs..."...you're doin' a heckuva job, Brownie..." !!
I might have expected DrGunby to defend the institutions and their policies. The truth of the matter is that most of our institutions of higher learning and the product they turn out have become a blemish on our society. They are no better than most of the politicians we have in government, and I guess they are politicians in their own way. Tenure needs to go, it only serves to keep sorry people in there and puts down the ones that honestly are trying to better things. Tenure punishes the victim and rewards the perpetrator to do whatever he wishes, even if it is wrong and immoral. Perhaps some of the blogger/commenters on this page are anti-intellectual, but most of the time they make a lot of common sense, which is less than a lot of the product coming out of the institutions of higher learning have. I would rather have common sense any day than to be so intelligent that I didn't know to come in out of the rain!
So I guess we should get rid of college. Maybe there is some jealousy here on the part of some who must not have attended college, or did not appreciate it if they did.
Starting with the AC editorial and continuing, of course, with the ever ignorant patriciathomas, and ending with rbk, the tenure issue here is irrelevant. The debate coaching position at Fort Hayes University in Kansas is a non-tenure track job, which the AC and its pathetic fellow travelers could have discovered with a little research. William Shanahan, the coach involved in the inappropriate exchange, would never have gained tenure. What clearly set Shanahan off was the accusation made against him by the Pittsburg coach Shanara Reid-Brinkley that Shanahan's team had "struck" her from the judge pool because she is black, not, as Shanahan claimed, because she had consistently voted against his teams in the past. I do not know who is right here, but I do understand that being called "racist" can be very upsetting. All you conservatives out there judging Shanahan, think about how you bristle when liberals call you racist. Put yourselves in Shanahan's shoes before being so quick to condemn. I do think things got out of hand in this case, but the incident just goes to show how incendiary the race issue remains in this country.
Shanahan is the director of forensics and teaches debate. Basically a long haired hippy type fellow (much as myself except I cut my pony tail decades ago). Regardless of the circumstance losing one's temper will always end with you losing an argument even if you are absolutely 100% in the right (I speak from experience and a lesson well learned). Always try to keep your cool.
FFH, thanks. You said it right for a change.
Gummy, this isn't he only fool we have seen in academia-Ward Churchill and his little Eichmans comment comes to mind, among others. It is a proven fact that American academia leans to the left/socialism and indoctrinates our young people with their leftist leanings.
rbk said it well imdstuff. I agree and am as well educated as "Dr" Gumby.
Dang Jack I agree again it is a proven fact that academica leans to the left, so no wonder that our youth are heading that way. It is called indoctrination and under the guise of "modern" or postmodern. I also agree Ward Churchill is a disgrace, a liar, a cheat, a fraud, and a nut. He has a MA degree and honorary Ph.D.. He was fired for misconduct, he is not indian, etc, etc. etc. He also claimed that people killed in the World Trade Center attacks were involved in provoking the attack-what a sick piece of sucking fhit!!!!!!
Great...all GA repug men are right leaning, gun toting, trailer dwelling, terbacker chewin', cousin marryin', pickup drivin', beer belly havin', wife beater wearin', NASCAR watchin', confederate flag wavin', minutemen wannabee, rednecks.. OH, my bad. That is a stereotype. All people descibed above are republicans, therefore all republicans are as described above. Generalization fallacy...never judge any group of people or an ideology by its extremes...
Very true Gunby! Even the majority of christians believe in evolution and many are democrats, but fundamentalist extremist (which are a minority) seems the label applied to most christians nowadays. Just like all the african-americans indignant about the CNN news special report (I believe or was it NBC or ABC) on the black race which typified them as inner city gangsters instead of hard working productive citizens as most are.
The You Tube video of last March's mooning incident is disturbing, but don't try to turn one academia nut into a symbol of higher education. And don't underestimate the tough resilience of "young, impressionable minds." Most college students would consider the professor's behavior to be not only astronomically inappropriate, but also just plain stupid. If you watch the entire video, you'll see cooler heads at least try to prevail, even as the professor continues his howling "communication" (now, that's ironic); a couple of times, he even calls himself a particularly suitable name, all things considered. The guy won't last long in the grueling academic world, at least in any meaningful capacity, unless he cleans up his act. Most young people will see that. At least he gave a small sup-group of rabid anti-intellectual boneheads something to draw strange little false analogies from. Just a small amount of college education was enough to teach me that you educate yourself in a broader sense by learning to think for yourself. Memorized canards and jingles have no place in real education.
Just got back to the computer to read the comments since my comment this morning. For the information of the ones that questioned my education and suggest jealousy, I am a Jr. college graduate and I have diplomas from several technical schools. I also completed Nuclear Power School in the navy and operated the Nuclear Powered Propulsion plant on a nuclear submarine for 6 years and on a nuclear cruiser for two years. My adult daughter and adult daughter-in-law are also attending ASU now, and I can see the direction academia is headed in, and it is not good. You can make all the excuses, point your fingers, and play the blame game, but our "Great Society" (The late Lindon B. Johnson who was one of the sorriest presidents we had ) is fast going down the tube.
Hmmm, RBK, if you would honestly like to list some ways in which academia, ASU in particular, is headed in the wrong direction, please do so. But do so in a straightforward and explicit manner, not with vague or unsubstantiated references to such things as the "Great Society" and Lyndon B. Johnson. Emotional words are all right sometimes, but they are not in themselves sufficient for making a convincing argument. Back up what you assert with more than just other assertions. I appreciate your highly technical education, believe me. Now lay off my kind of education until you can genuinely criticize it. Same goes for ASU, a fine institution.
One knowledgeable concerning the level of civility in contemporary American K-12 and postsecondary education classrooms might be surprised only that one of the teachers, rather than one or more of the "students" in attendance in them, were the miscreant.
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