Sending a letter to the Batt is exactly what he wants. My guess is that he came to A&M because he wanted to set himself up to be some kind of martyr celebrity after a very public confrontation. keep it out of the Batt. Just write the powers that be.

By the way, here's what he looks like:

http://sociweb.tamu.edu/directory/faculty/Silva.HTM

[This message has been edited by BostonAg74 (edited 1/24/2004 8:08p).]

I agree with Boston, that does sound like what he wants. A formal, polite letter to the higher up powers sounds like the best bet.

Too bad you don't have Murguia (sp?) for this class. I took his class and I have to say it was probably one of the top 2 classes I have ever taken. I actually went back and bought one of the books that we had to read for the class a few months ago just because it was the best book I ever read. If you can change prof's, I'd highly recommend it. Tests were essay, but if you read your stuff, you would do fine.

Sounds like this prof wants you to addopt his views instead of facilitating discussion over a topic in which your views might be broadened, which is what, in my opinion, are profs in these types of classes are suppose to do.

quote:

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This is the kind of thing you are going to face in the real world pretty often.

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not if the person was white and had views the opposite of this clown. a white person that taught like this or expressed these views on the job would be let go pretty damn quick.

NoACDammit:

No, there is no rule stating that poor grades is a perfectly good reason for Q-dropping a course.

You've obviously never tried to drop a class in some of the departments in the college of engineering -- you put your reason as you are doing poorly in the class? DENIED.

My Telecom professor actually had 2 students who q-dropped a class because they were doing poorly put BACK IN the class. A lot of the departments are starting to get a lot stricter about it due to complaints from professors and others that students who aren't always serious about taking a class are taking spots from students who are.

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but doesn't Professor Hyphen look a lot like the guy from Boogie Nights?



[This message has been edited by BostonAg74 (edited 1/24/2004 8:46p).]

First of all, somebody in this thread said it well earlier in this thread. This guy sounds like a grade A a-hole, but guess what? There are many of those out there. He sounds like he just wants to be heard and his cause is probably dwarfed over, because he tries to capture audiences and attention with sensationalism.

In the real world, tons of people (especially those in superior work roles to your own) are a-holes, because they can be. They have huge egos and talk all sorts of crap. You begin to really hate them, but 95% of those people got there because they know their stuff. You might get bad grades for not being a yes man to his ideas, but there will be situations in your careers where the best thing you can do is be a yes man and you'll see it when you are out of school. I'm not saying that you should always go with the crowd, but the fact is sometimes you just have to know when to fall in line and conform.

I know exactly what this guy is doing. He's attempting to incite real thought from people by ticking them off. I guarantee you that if you stick with this class, there will be times when he stews something up in you that will keep you angry, but thinking. The problem is that when you are angry, you don't think logically.

A university needs a guy like this to stir the pot. I don't agree with what he's saying or how he says it, but he's the kind who will keep folks from falling on their heels. He keeps the university's balance from falling into the YCT's lap and their ridiculous ideas of caucasion oppression.

Also, the Q-drop deal is cool. I wish they were stricter in all colleges. I maintained a decent GPR while in school, but I felt like it was too much grade inflation at A&M. Probably due to scantron tests and stuff .

[This message has been edited by ATM9000 (edited 1/24/2004 8:47p).]

A&M has one of the stricter q-drop policies around...

at tu they are practically unlimited...at least they used to be.

From an educational standpoint I don't mind the q-drop policy... But it is kind of annoying when at someplace like UT, you can drop as many classes as you want, whenever you want... Or places like Baylor that if you make an F in a class and retake it and make an A, the F disappears...

So UT = Blinn?
(as far as dropping classes go...)

hayden - from the current Texas A&M catalog

A student may drop a course with no record during the first four class days of a fall or spring semester and during the first three class days of a summer term or a 10-week summer semester. Following this period, if approved by the dean of the student's college, a student may drop a course without penalty through the 50th class day of a fall or spring semester, the 15th class day of a summer term or the 35th class day of a 10-week summer semester. The symbol Q shall be given to indicate a drop without penalty. Undergraduate students will normally be permitted three Q-drops during their undergraduate studies. Additional Q-drops will be allowed only in unusual circumstances as determined by a student's dean.

student rules :

1.16.2 A student may drop a course with no record during the first four class days of a fall or spring semester and during the first three class days of a summer term or a 10-week summer semester. Following this period, if approved by the dean of the student’s college, a student may drop a course without penalty through the 50th class day of a fall or spring semester, the 15th class day of summer term or the 35th class day of a 10-week summer semester. The symbol Q shall be given to indicate a drop without penalty. Undergraduate students will normally be permitted three Q-drops during their undergraduate studies; however:

1.16.3 Courses Q-dropped must have approval of the student’s dean or department as determined by the respective College.

1.16.4 Undergraduate students will normally be permitted three Q-drops during their undergraduate studies; however: Q-drops in one-hour courses will not count in the limit of three, unless offered by the College of Geosciences or the College of Science. If a lecture and companion lab are dropped at the same time, this will count as one Q-drop rather than two.


Nothing in there about professor approval.

(btw, you're wrong about Blinn. You can't drop classes whenever you want. There's a deadline that is about the same as A&M's)

[This message has been edited by NoACDamnit (edited 1/24/2004 9:03p).]

As soon as I read this thread earlier this evening, I e-mailed Dr. Gates and let him know that I did not understand why A&M would want someone on the faculty that feels this way about the university.

As for the REAL world, very few companies would keep someone that publicly criticized the policies and culture of the company. You don't have to be a "yes" man, but if you are not able to support the basic "mission" you don't need to be there.

It is obvious from one of the posters that this course can be taught and taught well without this attitude.

Aggiemom,
Agreed. He doesn't really dog the University's actual policies, though. He dogs other professor's methods of testing students, which is really a reflection on that professor and the traditions of Aggieland. While they are important to most Aggies, they have nothing to do with the mission of Texas A&M as an institution of higher learning. They are really carried on by students and professors who can see why they are great. If all of the traditions were to just stop happening all of a sudden, the university would go on as a university. It would take most of what is great about being an Aggie out of the picture, but as a State institution, it would mean virtually nothing.

I have always been amazed at how many people disappear from classes and never drop them.

I don't think this happens so much at A&M, but I've seen it elsewhere.

1.16.3 Courses Q-dropped must have approval of the student’s dean or department as determined by the respective College.



When I said "more or less" it was meant that if the professor really doesn't want to allow you to have the Q-Drop, the dean or department will likely side with them -- hence the two students that got placed back in my telecom class last semester.

BTW, it also says absolutely nothing about "doing poorly in the class" as a reason for q-dropping.

If someone really didn't care that much about what grade he received in the course and who answered the test questions without all the crap about how evil white people are, he could make life miserable for the prof if the prof graded him down for it.

Of course, it might help if he had money to hire lawyers to force the administration to require the prof to justify every single grade he gave in the course, not only to him but to all the other students as well.

Years ago, I knew one instructor who spent 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday, for two or three weeks doing that once. He was so mad that he tendered his immediate resignation immediately afterward.

I have heard that it is even possible for a department head or dean to arbitrarily raise (or lower) a grade with or without the profs permission and that this happens more often than you would imagine.

3 Q-drops? I could've sworn we only got 1 when I was at A&M.

doing poorly in classes is one of the options to check on the q-drop form

Orion -- I feel your comments are somewhat hypocritical imo.

Boston -- I usually don't agree with much that you post on political discussions but your responses on this thread are true to your beliefs. You are against prejudist radicals no matter who they direct their prejudice at.

let me get this straight, you think making this public would be bad? so just what moral ground is he going to have to stand on for making a blatant racial slur in his syllabus? if he was just preaching black rights or white oppression then sure, but nobody any where in public position supports racial slurs and stays on the moral high ground.

what's he gonna say, "i got fired from a&m for making a blatant racial slur about crackers. kill whitey!" you can't seriously believe that would make us look bad publicly for firing that guy.

the beauty of college is that you can q drop these classes with these instructors or even drop them before add/drop period is over. i definitely would not recommend staying in this class to learn how to deal with difficult people. i can't see how this experience would be useful unless you're planning on applying for a job with the black panthers.

ATM9000, I don't really care if he likes or dislikes the traditions and it doesn't bother me that he expresses that in or out of class. His remarks about teaching at a REAL university does. Traditions are great, and anyone that comes in contact with me knows that I have been converted to everything Aggie. The main purpose of A&M, like any university. is to educate. I know there are areas that need improvement, but a degree from A&M has always and continues to be something to be proud of. If the only option he has is to teach at an institution he does not respect, then I feel sorry for him. Obviously those REAL universiites don't want him. Well, neither do I. If his only reason for being here is to gather material for his next book, he should be paying US (I speak as a taxpayer and parent) for the research opportunity rather than us paying him to teach.

I can't think of any other reason why the guy would be at A&M other than to create a situation where he might hit the publicity jackpot. Trust me on this one: he would like nothing better than to be made a public target by a group like the YCT. He's probably wetting his pants just thinking about it. The best way to deal with a publicity hound is to deny him any publicity. Work aggressively behind the scenes, but don't play into his hands.

And yes, regardless of what the guy said, there are plenty of people sitting on the sidelines that will leap to his aid and try to paint A&M as a racist institution. The recent blow up over legacy admissions should tell you that. Any public airing of this will hurt A&M. Count on it.

DC - how so?

It just seems that this guy has prejudices against and sterotypes about certain types of people and someone who has experienced racism should be against that no matter what. I might have read a little too much into your "Mr. being YCT" comment though. I skimmed a bit so I apologize if I missed something.

[This message has been edited by AgDC (edited 1/24/2004 10:50p).]

"Mr" the poster is a member of YCT. I, personally, find the actions of YCT as offensive as this idiot prof. The difference being, this prof can be written off as an individual nutcase, and not necessarily as a representative of Texas A&M University whereas the YCT are sometimes painted (incorrectly) by the media as being representative of a large portion of the student body.

I'm still not sure I understand the hypocracy comment, though.

Send a copy of the syllabus to Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity.

They'll know what to do!

YCT is portrayed as representative of Texas A&M students because that is what they claim to be every chance they get and the media runs with it. That aside, this prof is completely out of line. As others have said, he doesn't have to like traditions (I do have a problem with him intentionally disrespecting them though), but to say that this is not a REAL university is way out of line. If you don't want to be here you have a choice. I tend to agree that he may be looking for a shot at publicity. I'd say it is a safe bet that his next book is not a glowing endorsement of Texas A&M.

Uppity Like Me was one of the most influential books I have ever read. It truly showed me how to be a successful black man in a world full of Crackers trying to keep me down.

quote:

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You've obviously never tried to drop a class in some of the departments in the college of engineering -- you put your reason as you are doing poorly in the class? DENIED.

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CPSC must not be one of those departments. IIRC, I put "doing poorly in class" as the reason for both my Q-drops, and I got them approved with no questions asked.

I think BostonAg nailed it. I bet he is intentionally drumming up hatred and controversey in order to gain a high profile dismissal. I also feel that A&M's white majority is going to be the topic of his next book...Or at least a major focal point. Why would he have come here? Because he wanted to find one of the whitest public universities and tear it a new one on the national level.

For the record, I am not opposed to increasing diversity (although I am not sure to what extent the university's sacrifices should be) but I do feel this person is ignorant and only here for trouble.

dp

[This message has been edited by Mr. Hombre (edited 1/25/2004 1:32a).]

I think BostonAg nailed it. I bet he is intentionally drumming up hatred and controversey in order to gain a high profile dismissal. I also feel that A&M's white majority is going to be the topic of his next book...Or at least a major focal point. Why would he have come here? Because he wanted to find one of the whitest public universities and tear it a new one on the national level.

For the record, I am not opposed to increasing diversity (although I am not sure to what extent the university's sacrifices should be) but I do feel this person is ignorant and only here for trouble.