Rutgers prof in hot water over racist statements

Before this thread goes any farther - here's the original NYT piece, from the Education section:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/education/26education.html

 

Must be nice to work in a profession where you can write a book essentially blasting your employer. Hey slapcock, go apply at a Patriot League school if you don't like what your current boss, he who signs your tenured paychecks, is doing.

I won't argue the merits of giving a scholarship to an athlete over an inner-city scholar. But I will say this, whether these eggheads care to admit it or not, a televised college football game is a three hour commercial for the university. When Rutgers came from behind and defeated Louisville last year at home, and the Empire State Building was lit up in red and the students rushed the field, it provided a positive PR moment that one million mailers to prospective high school seniors can't provide. It gains exposure for the school to audience members that otherwise might not consider your school.

Of course, maybe if Dowling would have gone out and got a job after college instead of hiding among the ivy and stone pillars, he might understand the concepts of business and public relations.

 

The depth of your anti-intellectualism is truly quite striking.

 

Clearly, universities exist to be advertisements for themselves.

 

Hold on, I thought they were nappy headed hos over there at Rutgers??

 

I don't know what you mean by better posts. If you mean post something that you'd like to read, forget it. Not everyone is going to like what I write. Not everyone is going to hate what I write.
Instead of trying to demean and show your arrogance, just accept the post that is made.
This is not creative writing. Nor is it a classroom. This is a freaking message board. Nothing more. Nothing less. You are not obligated to respond to every post I make. Why do you respond if the post is so bad? Seems like a big waste of time to me.

 

Just as the professor is correct in his statement so is Ragu.

The reality at Rutgers is that the school is making sacrifices in multiple areas in order to be better at football. New Jersey has a big history in wrestling, yet Rutgers decides that football is more important.

Wow. Now that is a load of bull. Say what you want about that great moment but it didn’t exactly drive the best and the brightest students to say that they want to go to Rutgers.

The only reason the school is even named Rutgers is based on the concept of making it some sort of Ivy League type of educational institution. For whatever reason they jumped on the football bandwagon. Now they have begun dumping money onto the gridiron and societal dregs into their buildings.

Football doesn’t make money for schools. Government funding for research does. It is a simple fact.

 

No he didn't have dinner with Billy Boy.  He was seen dining with Bernard McGuirk.  Imus is still grounded at home. 

Other than Zeke and Boots name calling, it's astounding to me that Dowling let one incident leave a lasting image in his mind (of all crooks and con men, Norm Ellenberger is on the top of list).

This one is a beauty:

Professor Dowling, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was fictional story that was taken from the real-life experiences during that time. Your book is a non-fiction.

It sounds like he would like to see Rutgers play IM sports or drop down to Division III. Nah, he wouldn't like D-III. The Wisconsin state schools offer schollies and athletics are a cash cow for most of the schools in D-III.

Back to the quote in question. There is a sense from him that he prefers intelligent students over students who are struggling or have little education. Not to go bleeding heart here, but there are kids who live in impoverished areas who want to go to college. It's a difficult path when there is not a lot of resources in the schools they attend to provide them the tools to be Mr. Peabody.

I'm under the impression that he feels that poor kids shouldn't deserve to go to college, whether they are athletes or not. If they can't read or struggle to understand the materials, then he's wasting his time.

 

There wasn't a damn thing racist about what he said.

Another cop out by using the race card.

Hell, I'll bet Bill Cosby would agree with him.

 

I just read the whole story, and I have to say I'm more outraged than I was based on just the comments quoted in the AP story.

This guy is an elitist who believes that ONLY the best and brightest should be on the receiving end of college educations, and that is a bigger bunch of garbage than the rest of what he's saying.

The counterpoint, for Dr. Dowling, was the college experience he had savored as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. The bookish and athletic child of a working-class family, he won a scholarship earmarked for “the most promising rural youth” in New Hampshire. On the campus in the mid-1960s, the advent of the counterculture, he befriended jazz musicians and aspiring actors, and spent four years in “a nonstop conversation, staying up till 3 in the morning arguing about ideas.”

So anyone who isn't top shelf intellectually, who isn't able to argue ideas isn't worthy of a college education? Are you kidding me? Dowling is so far removed from real life it's frightening.

 

D-3 -- can we get an English translation to your post? Footnotes?

 

What he said was exceptionally elitist, though, and it's just one more reason I'm glad I didn't go to Rutgers. I live in Jersey and went out of state because I didn't want to go to college with the people I went to high school with, and Princeton was well out of my parents' reach. Not that I wanted to go there anyway.