This account is not very flattering. Any perspectives from those at Brown, faculty or students?
Apropos of Sagar’s wish to foist the A.I. industry by its own petard, this article appeared in print in yesterday’s…
5 responses to “What’s going on at Brown?”
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As a Brown alumnus, I find that embarrassing. Brown has to be one of the most liberal and inclusive places on planet Earth. But I guess no amount of "diversity" is ever enough; nor should that holy and sacred goal ever be the subject of thoughtful critique. What is really galling is that Brown can casually commit $100 million to diversity initiatives without any apparent consideration of opportunity costs. My university has roughly the same number of students as Brown. $100 million would cover our *entire* university budget for three years. I wonder if the Brown protestors ever consider how much they benefit from such wealth disparity.
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These protests are really starting to develop an ugly side to them: http://thetab.com/us/dartmouth/2015/11/14/i-was-proud-to-be-part-of-last-nights-protest-until-it-turned-ugly-978
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I worry about where administrators will find resources for diversity programmes at non-wealthy institutions. I'd hate to see philosophy defunded to make room for new tenure lines in postmodernist "studies" departments. It is imperative to increase the visibility of the rigorous work on diversity carried out in philosophy and other disciplines with primarily epistemic (rather than political) standards. There might a battle to be fought about diversifying the traditional disciplines as opposed to transferring resources from the traditional disciplines to the newer disciplines that specialise in diversity.
In any case administrators are likely to win big after the dust settles. There's a lot of good stuff in the protesters' demands, but precious little about democratic governance of the university, and a lot of requests for more central monitoring, weakening of tenure, and more power to deanlets and the like.
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The professor interviewed in the Daily Beast article neglected to add the pernicious surveillance of departments and professors this new funding for courses in race, ethnicity, and sexuality will bring. Brown's plan calls for several new boards to assess department course offerings and hiring practices, and the protestors latest demands include a voice in hiring decisions and approving faculty training on intersectionality. In either case, departments will cede more of their freedom to students or administrators.
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I'm a life-long lefty, feminist, and currently a visiting professor at Brown. Prior to arriving here, I'd spent my entire career at a Leiter-ranked public land-grant university. Since arriving, I have been utterly shocked (and dismayed) at the culture of political correctness that stifles any rational dialogue concerning issues of race, gender, or sexuality. I'll be happy to return to my home institution and stop tip-toeing on eggshells!
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