American Politics: Campus Crushed

[Jerzylvania]

Why should they do any of that?

Why should small group of students shut down a university especially for a meaningless resolution?

Go back to your studies. If I was a Columbia student I’d be angry my education is being impacted by a bunch of entitled people.

How many people were murdered in the Kent State massacre?

The refrain of Neil Young's 1970 song "Ohio" is... Four dead in Ohio, Four dead in Ohio...

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 2S_iw,st:0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(Cro ... Young_song)

[Haganham]

I put it to the house that any person who would willing pay to attend university in 2024 has demonstrated a lack of critical thinking skills or understanding of the world, probably both.

That’s……not a great picture you are painting of yourself.

I have a cousin who says the same thing. College is a con, blah, blah, blah. He is a dumb fuck.

It is. The paper ceiling is being shredded, as employers are shifting towards more skills focused hiring, and realizing that degrees don't translate to aptitude in the field, so it no longer makes sense to invest a degree on the assumption it will offer a return by advancing your career.
Well alright, but it's not just about money, right? It's about pursuing intellect and learning... except no there's no clear evidence that higher educate makes you any smarter., and if you are genuinely after the education, not the degree you can take Ivy league courses for free, so why would you ever pay?

[The Black Forrest]

That’s……not a great picture you are painting of yourself.

I have a cousin who says the same thing. College is a con, blah, blah, blah. He is a dumb fuck.

It is. The paper ceiling is being shredded, as employers are shifting towards more skills focused hiring, and realizing that degrees don't translate to aptitude in the field, so it no longer makes sense to invest a degree on the assumption it will offer a return by advancing your career.
Well alright, but it's not just about money, right? It's about pursuing intellect and learning... except no there's no clear evidence that higher educate makes you any smarter., and if you are genuinely after the education, not the degree you can take Ivy league courses for free, so why would you ever pay?

Ohhh that’s back? Seen similar things in the last couple decades. Too many companies are still about the education. Far too many bad managers out there for a switch. You also have the “bra” boys who are about it as well, etc., etc.

As to the ivy league. Most of that is pretty soft or not really job related. I mean a course on why medical is right and your facebook friend is wrong?

There are good courses out there. The really “job getting” type courses?…..mainly you have to pay.

Let’s not forget, you have fields where a degree is required. You are not going to see a Harvard educated chemist being overlooked for a lab job for a cool dude with great soft skills.

-edit- forgot to mention the paper link does not work….

[Kaumudeen]

There were allegedly police snipers on the roofs at Ohio State during the protests

American police will literally arm themselves more against people criticizing Israel than they will when trying to stop a school shooting.

[Ifreann]

How many people were murdered in the Kent State massacre?

The refrain of Neil Young's 1970 song "Ohio" is... Four dead in Ohio, Four dead in Ohio...

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 2S_iw,st:0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(Cro ... Young_song)

I wasn't asking for Neil Young lyrics, I was trying to get Lumen to acknowledge a relevant historical parallel to his desperate yearning for police violence against student protesters.

[Spirit of Hope]

That’s……not a great picture you are painting of yourself.

I have a cousin who says the same thing. College is a con, blah, blah, blah. He is a dumb fuck.

It is. The paper ceiling is being shredded, as employers are shifting towards more skills focused hiring, and realizing that degrees don't translate to aptitude in the field, so it no longer makes sense to invest a degree on the assumption it will offer a return by advancing your career.
Well alright, but it's not just about money, right? It's about pursuing intellect and learning... except no there's no clear evidence that higher educate makes you any smarter., and if you are genuinely after the education, not the degree you can take Ivy league courses for free, so why would you ever pay?

I would hold off on saying that soft skills are replacing the college degree. The article specifically notes that part of the drive to remove educational requirements is the current tight labor market, which is unlikely to last forever, and there are still jobs with educational requirements. There is a lot of evidence that having a college degree boosts year to year and life time earnings over not having a college education, though the amount depends a bit on what your get a degree in though not as much as you might think.

There is somewhat of a point to the argument that where you get your degree from maters less than having a degree, with general evidence indicating the important factor is having a degree for most people in most fields.

The point of education isn't to make you smarter, it is to make you better educated. (The link also doesn't work for me) While you can "take" classes for free online, you aren't going to get the full experience without reading the associated books or educational material (which you may have to buy or rent) and then taking tests, engaging in discussions, or otherwise practicing the knowledge you have acquired to make sure you understand it correctly. Which is actually the point of the degree, proof that you actually have gained the knowledge from the classes.

[Rusozak]

There were allegedly police snipers on the roofs at Ohio State during the protests

American police will literally arm themselves more against people criticizing Israel than they will when trying to stop a school shooting.

Oh, that's not even limited to protests. 2 years ago there was a shooting at a 4th of July parade near where I live. Year after that they had police snipers overlooking the parades and carnivals.

[The Black Forrest]

There were allegedly police snipers on the roofs at Ohio State during the protests

American police will literally arm themselves more against people criticizing Israel than they will when trying to stop a school shooting.

Oh, that's not even limited to protests. 2 years ago there was a shooting at a 4th of July parade near where I live. Year after that they had police snipers overlooking the parades and carnivals.

My way it’s standard practice for very large groups which could get out of hand.

[Bronzite]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942

One of the student protest leaders at Columbia has had to "apologize" after its come out that he repeatedly advocated for killing jews. So much for the "none of the true protestors are antisemetic! That's lies and false flags! and outside people!" crowd.

[Saiwana]

the corporate responses are kind of funny here. oh yeah, the presence of regulations that impact our interests are actually hurting the consumer! everyone would have internet if it weren't for these cruel regulations against us! being able to block websites is actually integral to our whole infrastructure!

None of the feared outcomes that people predicted from Net Neutrality ending actually happened or at least didn't with my local cable company/ISP. So net neutrality might not actually be needed or do anything except impose extra costs on the telecommunications industry. This is a step backwards.

No legal websites were ever blocked so far as I can tell, while throttling does happen but not if you're no where near your bandwidth cap for the month which is typically more than enough at 1 TB of bandwidth.

[Shrillland]

Maine Democrats say that if Pillen convinces the Unicameral to eliminate PR electoral votes in Nebraska, Maine's Legislature would do the same to cancel out any possible GOP advantage

[Southland]

None of the feared outcomes that people predicted from Net Neutrality ending actually happened or at least didn't with my local cable company/ISP. So net neutrality might not actually be needed or do anything except impose extra costs on the telecommunications industry. This is a step backwards..

That was because California almost immediately declared that they'd mandate net neutrality when it was undone at the federal level, and so most ISPs had to continue play ball if they wanted to do business in the Silicon Valley state.

[The Black Forrest]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942

One of the student protest leaders at Columbia has had to "apologize" after its come out that he repeatedly advocated for killing jews. So much for the "none of the true protestors are antisemetic! That's lies and false flags! and outside people!" crowd.

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

[Kerwa]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942

One of the student protest leaders at Columbia has had to "apologize" after its come out that he repeatedly advocated for killing jews. So much for the "none of the true protestors are antisemetic! That's lies and false flags! and outside people!" crowd.

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

TBF he said it was lucky that he wasn’t out killing zionists, not Jews, so the précis is somewhat misleading. That said, his poor emotional modulation doesn’t speak well for our future leadership class and he probably deserves some sort of censure.

[The Black Forrest]

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

TBF he said it was lucky that he wasn’t out killing zionists, not Jews, so the précis is somewhat misleading. That said, his poor emotional modulation doesn’t speak well for our future leadership class and he probably deserves some sort of censure.

That maybe.

Still, if we jailed every teenage to 20ish males for being a dumbass?

Americans love a poster child. They now have one.

[Kerwa]

TBF he said it was lucky that he wasn’t out killing zionists, not Jews, so the précis is somewhat misleading. That said, his poor emotional modulation doesn’t speak well for our future leadership class and he probably deserves some sort of censure.

That maybe.

Still, if we jailed every teenage to 20ish males for being a dumbass?

Americans love a poster child. They now have one.

I wouldn’t for a second suggest criminal sanctions, I was thinking maybe more suspension from the college, that sort of thing. Not unreasonable since he’s assumed some sort of self-appointed leadership position and should therefore accept a greater degree of responsibility for his actions.

But anything criminal? Nah, he’s not broken any law.

[Eahland]

How many people were murdered in the Kent State massacre?

The refrain of Neil Young's 1970 song "Ohio" is... Four dead in Ohio, Four dead in Ohio...

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 2S_iw,st:0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(Cro ... Young_song)

Welcome to the soundtrack inside my head lately.

[So uh lab here]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942

One of the student protest leaders at Columbia has had to "apologize" after its come out that he repeatedly advocated for killing jews. So much for the "none of the true protestors are antisemetic! That's lies and false flags! and outside people!" crowd.

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

no not the whole but a percentage of the whole enough to make a change and not a good one

[GMS Greater Miami Shores 1]

The Biden administration is delaying its proposed menthol ban. The reason likely? Political considerations: menthol cigarettes are heavily used by the Black Community, and the fear is that this will decrease turnout among the community and thus, hurt Biden's chances of winning. Of course, enacting the ban can prevent up to 654,000 smoking-related deaths over the next 40 years, including as many as 238,000 deaths among African Americans. That longer delay has been met with criticism.

He is smart. Biden was just on Howard Stern. It was a good interview. Side note: Hillary didn’t go on Stern when she ran. Lost out on a group of people she wouldn’t normally reach…..

Indeed, and I think it will help in the long run. Biden did agree to debate Trump too. I'm not sure if going on Stern's show will result in increase support for Biden (he should do more interviews) but it's a start.

You mean Biden Plays Politics with this issue? Biden Plays Politics with the Gaza Issue and all issues. Does Biden Play Politics? I Say Yes Biden Plays Politics.

[Saiwana]

That was because California almost immediately declared that they'd mandate net neutrality when it was undone at the federal level, and so most ISPs had to continue play ball if they wanted to do business in the Silicon Valley state.

This almost certainly didn't apply because my ISP is based out of Atlanta, Georgia on a regional level. California is so mismanaged that they're going down and not up in importance, massive amounts of people just fleeing that state while the homeless and illegals take over San Francisco and elsewhere as if they'll make up a very good tax base?

[Bronzite]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942

One of the student protest leaders at Columbia has had to "apologize" after its come out that he repeatedly advocated for killing jews. So much for the "none of the true protestors are antisemetic! That's lies and false flags! and outside people!" crowd.

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

The article mentions multiple occasions. Once is a heated moment, but if you make a habit of it the question has to be asked. And being passionately angry is not an excuse to call for the killing of other people. If this situation were reversed, there would be quite an uproar.

Also, I did not say this labels 100% of all protestors. Only that the arguments that "none of them believe this" was, in fact, not true. Folks were treating the protestors as monolithic in claiming none of the "true" protestors were saying such thing. Ofc it doesnt label the whole as antisemitic, but the claim that none of them harbor such views was equally a silly label to cast around. To mark the larger whole as monolithically either is wrong. (granted, generalization in general, is bad, but that's another convo.)

[Uiiop]

Hmmmmmm……….well?….You have to ask.

Was the kid known to say those things frequently?
Was it a case of being overly passionate and angry at what’s going on?

One kids “probable” dumb ass comments does not label the whole.

The article mentions multiple occasions. Once is a heated moment, but if you make a habit of it the question has to be asked. And being passionately angry is not an excuse to call for the killing of other people. If this situation were reversed, there would be quite an uproar.

Also, I did not say this labels 100% of all protestors. Only that the arguments that "none of them believe this" was, in fact, not true. Folks were treating the protestors as monolithic in claiming none of the "true" protestors were saying such thing. Ofc it doesnt label the whole as antisemitic, but the claim that none of them harbor such views was equally a silly label to cast around. To mark the larger whole as monolithically either is wrong. (granted, generalization in general, is bad, but that's another convo.)

People are confused because you're bringing up discourse in other platforms that are going in a different direction than how they're being discussed here.

Just because one holds a nuanced positiondoes not mean we have a clear head toc assess someone else with the overall same opinions who complains about different things.

[Stellar Colonies]

Harvard, Columbia say no to students demanding to sell Israel investments (Business Standard)
"We're willing to risk suspension, expulsion and arrest, and I think that that will put pressure," said Malak Afaneh, a law student at University of California, Berkeley, and a protest organizer

A cause celebre is ringing out across Harvard Yard, Columbia’s South Lawn, Yale’s Beinecke Plaza and UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza: Disclose and divest.

And university students say they won’t stop protesting against Israel until that demand is met.

“We’re willing to risk suspension, expulsion and arrest, and I think that that will put pressure,” said Malak Afaneh, a law student at University of California, Berkeley, and a protest organizer.

She and her fellow pro-Palestinian demonstrators want universities to cut their investments in everything tied to Israel and weapons that fuel the war in Gaza. That means funds run by BlackRock, Google as well as Amazon’s cloud service, Lockheed Martin and even Airbnb.

It’s a long-shot demand — university administrators and lawmakers have for decades rejected the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel, viewing it as antisemitic because it calls into question the legitimacy of the Jewish state and singles out the policies of one country.

What’s more, acting on the BDS concept is discouraged by laws in more than half of US states, including New York and California, and is fiercely opposed by many donors and alumni.

Yet it’s gaining proponents, especially among students at elite universities since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and sparked the conflict in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

They’re chanting on college grounds, waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyehs and beating drums. Encampments have sprouted on campuses, including at Harvard where about 30 tents currently stand in front of the John Harvard statue, according to the Harvard Crimson.

Some protesters, including at Columbia and Berkeley, have threatened Jewish students and expressed support for Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US.

All that has left universities struggling to balance the right to free speech with the need for maintaining order and ensuring the safety of students. But on the question of divestment, they are unmoved.

Harvard, which has the largest US endowment at almost $51 billion, made clear this month it “opposes calls for a policy of boycotting Israel and its academic institutions.” Brown refused to acknowledge BDS demands while students led an eight-day hunger strike. Yale this week wouldn’t even consider a proposal to divest from weapons makers and instead police rounded up protesters outside of the Schwarzman Center, arresting more than 40 students.

BDS supporters take inspiration from the drive to isolate South Africa during the apartheid era — including actions taken at the time by Columbia, Michigan State and California universities — and recent pushes for colleges to address fossil fuel holdings.

This time at Michigan State, where groups of students are camped in tents in People’s Park, there’s no appetite for severing ties with Israel.

“Divestment would conflict with stewarding the institution’s financial health, would increase investment risks, and limit returns and jeopardize the assurance resources will continue to be available now and for future generations,” said Sandy Pierce, chair of Michigan State University’s board, speaking earlier this month at a Board of Trustees meeting.

Columbia in February declined a proposal to withdraw financial support from Israel, months before students set up tents on the Morningside Heights campus and created a standoff with the university that resulted in more than 100 arrests.

Ray Guerrero, 27, who’s studying for a masters in public health, helped pen the divestment proposal for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition. The group has a litany of demands, including cutting ties to Israeli academic institutions, defunding public safety and reparations for the indigenous people of New York. Guerrero understands the goals are lofty for the immediate term, but stresses the main focus for now is disclosure and divestment around Columbia’s $13.6 billion endowment.

Layla Saliba, a 24-year-old studying for a masters in social work, is part of CUAD’s research team, which she said has been studying the school’s financial disclosures, including its tax forms and 13Fs disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We were only able to get about 0.6% of their investments as public information,” she said.

The latest 13F discloses just $47 million of its holdings, with the vast majority stock in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. That leaves billions of dollars undisclosed.

“That’s really concerning because our endowment, yes, it’s funded by benefactors, it’s funded by donors, but a portion of that is also funded with our tuition dollars,” Saliba said. “And we feel that as students, we need to have more transparency on that.”

Universities say the protesters’ claims aren’t accurate.

College endowments are almost always funded with donations and investment gains, not necessarily tuition revenue. What’s more, they fund financial aid for students and other operating expenses such as teacher salaries.

And the challenge isn’t just ideological. Endowments typically don’t hold large concentrations of single stocks as they used to decades ago, when activists targeted companies operating in South Africa.

Endowments have long relied on external managers, including private equity firms and hedge funds. Almost 700 institutions hold about $840 billion in endowment assets. They also use ETFs, index funds or mutual funds that pool hundreds of stocks and bonds.

With private equity, a school’s money may be locked up for several years, without an option to withdraw, while hedge fund managers can rapidly move in and out of securities without disclosing their trades to investors.

“These active strategies are not buying stocks to hold on for the long term,” said Philip Zecher, chief investment officer of Michigan State University’s $4 billion fund. “They’re looking to make money off trading. It’s not like your grandmother buying AT&T stock and sitting on it for 50 years.”

The fight against fossil fuel investment, a cause championed by students for decades, also shows how hard it can be to implement divestment. Universities largely haven’t switched strategies to sell holdings, which are frequently tied up in long-term private equity funds, even as they’ve committed to policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campuses.

Despite the setbacks and opposition, some pro-Palestine protesters are undeterred.

“It seems like a no for now, but students will keep pushing,” said Lumisa Bista, a junior studying astrophysics at Yale, who was among protesters at the university who slept overnight at Beinecke Plaza this week. “I’ll keep pushing.”

As pro-Palestinian protests sweep campus, student journalists are rushing to the big story and exams (CNN)

CNN — Arianna Smith is juggling a lot right now.

Smith is editor-in-chief of The Lantern, Ohio State University’s student-run newspaper, which has scrambled in recent days to cover pro-Palestinian protests roiling the campus.

It’s also finals week, and in the coming days the newspaper’s staff will transition to the next year’s staff. But the news doesn’t account for exams.

“We have had reporters and editors drop everything they are doing [to cover the story], even though they have finals that they should be studying for,” Smith told CNN.

As universities across the country crack down on demonstrations over Israel’s military actions in Gaza and police arrest hundreds of protesters, student-run newspapers have quickly become an essential source of news coverage for both the campus communities and nation at large, providing crucial transparency and scrutiny of authorities.

And, for many of these student journalists, it’s becoming a seminal moment in their nascent careers.

“It’s so important to have journalists that care about being objective, and to have journalists that really know the power that their writing has,” Smith said of her newspaper’s reporters.

When demonstrations broke out on the Columbus campus this week, resulting in multiple arrests, the Lantern’s staff reported from the protest scenes, detailed actions of the police, and investigated Ohio State University policies barring encampments.

“We’re not only covering the protests, but we’re covering and getting the opinions from these people that are involved in this protest,” Smith said. “And we’re also making sure that we’re analyzing the legalities behind all of these policies that the university is enforcing.”

At the University of Southern California, nearly 100 people were arrested this week as protests swelled on campus and university leaders imposed restrictions on demonstrations.

Anjali Patel, editor-in-chief of the university’s newspaper, The Daily Trojan, immediately recognized the student-led publication had an advantage over the national press as they raced to cover the story.

“Given that we’re student journalists, we know the campus and the students here. That gives us a different angle than professional news outlets,” Patel said. “We’re also completely student-led, so the way that we approach work and reporting is different, but I think that’s to our advantage.”

The tension at USC has been boiling since administrators canceled its Muslim valedictorian’s commencement speech — and, on Thursday, the main graduation ceremony — citing safety concerns. As pressure mounted on campus, the newspaper mobilized a handful of writers who worked together to cover the protests. But, as police were deployed on campus, The Daily Trojan increased the number of assigned reporters to cover events.

When officers moved to make dozens of arrests Wednesday at a protest encampment, it was “all hands on deck,” Patel said, adding that The Daily Trojan deployed at least five photographers and eight other staff members to cover the demonstrations.

These young journalists, while juggling classes and the stress of exams, are also intimately involved with the student community, translating the student body’s mood on their campus for the rest of the nation.

At the University of Texas at Austin, dozens of protesters were arrested Wednesday after pro-Palestinian demonstrators were met by state troopers “in full riot gear with batons,” Amelia Kimball, associate managing editor of The Daily Texan told CNN.

Kimball reported that there was a “physical clash” between students and police on campus with numerous students taken into custody and “put in squad cars.”

The arrests came as Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned that “antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas” and called for students participating in the protests to be expelled.

“I think there’s a real feeling of betrayal on campus and I think there’s a lot of anger [after students were arrested],” Kimball told CNN’s John Berman.

“State troopers were on campus before students even began to gather,” Kimball added. “And so things just escalated far beyond what students had expected at all, and so yeah, I think students feel betrayed by the university and by our state government.”

Large protests and finals week, a stressful combo if there ever was one.

[Corrian]

Maine Democrats say that if Pillen convinces the Unicameral to eliminate PR electoral votes in Nebraska, Maine's Legislature would do the same to cancel out any possible GOP advantage

I feel like that was basically inevitable, I'm not sure what the Nebraska Republicans thought was going to happen.

[Uiiop]

Maine Democrats say that if Pillen convinces the Unicameral to eliminate PR electoral votes in Nebraska, Maine's Legislature would do the same to cancel out any possible GOP advantage

I feel like that was basically inevitable, I'm not sure what the Nebraska Republicans thought was going to happen.

That they could force the maine elections runners to reveal their fraud in 7 months? /s