Horowitz nearly creamed

● TIME FOR PIE. You remember David Horowitz. He's an incredibly stupid TV consumer advocate who tests cream pies for their cream content.

Well, yes, but that's not the David Horowitz I'm talking about. The "academic" David Horowitz writes books published by Regnery Publishing. As you know, our own Trustee Tom Fuentes sits on the board of directors of Eagle Publishing, which controls Regnery. Regnery publishes anti-evolution books and books about gun love. (Kill it & Grill It)

Horowitz is most famous, or most infamous, for proposed legislation called the "Academic Bill of Rights" (ABR). Trustee Don Wagner has implied that he supports ABR. According to the AAUP, ABR sucks bigtime. If you're an academic and you don't know that, then you're a knucklehead. Sorry, but it's true.

From Wednesday’s Newslink Indiana: Pie-throwing precedes Horowitz speech:

Moments before speaking to students Wednesday at Ball State University, …David Horowitz was accosted by protestors….

One student quickly approached Horowitz in a doorway…and attempted to hit him with a cream pie. The pie missed and hit Gene Burton, university public safety director and Horowitz's bodyguard for the night.

"There are problems on this campus, quite obviously," Horowitz said….

…After [two protesters] were removed Wednesday night, Horowitz went on with his program about fair presentation in the college classroom…A noted critic of higher education, he challenged several departments at Ball State, including sociology, women's studies and the peace studies program, headed by George Wolfe.

Wolfe made the list in one of Horowitz's most recent books, "The Professors: 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America." The two men are known for disliking each other.

"A professor should be professional in the classroom," Horowitz said. "They can teach about controversial issues, but they shouldn't try to force their students to take their view of a controversial issue."….

That's the trouble with intellectuals: lousy aim.


● ACADEMICS ARE SO DANG CONSERVATIVE. As you know, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur has long been an advocate of urine therapy, and, consequently, he has created the District Urine Group (DUG).

Well, no, he's long been a promoter of distance learning and the like, and so he's created the District Distance Education Task Force (DDETF), which is moving forward with recommendations.

It's no secret that many faculty are skeptical about distance ed, including e-learning.

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed: Growing Popularity of E-Learning:

More students are taking online college courses than ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the concept of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s largest association of organizations and institutions focused on online education.

Roughly 3.2 million students took at least one online course…during the fall 2005 term, the Sloan Consortium said. That’s double the number who reported doing so in 2002….

…The Sloan Survey…shows that 62 percent of chief academic officers say that the learning outcomes in online education are now “as good as or superior to face-to-face instruction,” and nearly 6 in 10 agree that e-learning is “critical to the long-term strategy of their institution.” ….

…The bulk of online students are adult or “nontraditional” learners, and more than 70 percent of those surveyed said online education reaches students not served by face-to-face programs.

What stands out is the number of faculty who still don’t see e-learning as a valuable tool. Only about one in four academic leaders said that their faculty members “accept the value and legitimacy of online education,” the survey shows. ….

...The Sloan report shows that about 80 percent of students taking online courses are at the undergraduate level. About half are taking online courses through community colleges and 13 percent through doctoral and research universities, according to the survey.

…The report indicates that two-year colleges are particularly willing to be involved in online learning….

That's cuz it's cheap.

I'm buyin' some pies.

● HOW DID THAT "BOTCHED" JOKE GO AGAIN? OK, I just couldn't resist. From yesterday’s New York Times: Marines Get the News From an Iraqi Host: Rumsfeld’s Out:

Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch. The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti’s home.

When Mr. Menti answered, a squad of infantrymen swiftly moved in, making him an involuntary host.

Since then marines had been on his roof with rifles, watching roads where insurgents often planted bombs.

Mr. Menti had passed the time watching television. Now he had news. He spoke in broken English. “Rumsfeld is gone,” he told the sergeant, Michael A. McKinnon.

“Democracy,” he added, and made a thumbs-up sign. “Good.”

The marines had been on a continuous foot patrol for several days, hunting for insurgents. They were lost in the hard and isolating rhythms of infantry life.

They knew nothing of the week’s news.

Now they were being told by an Iraqi whose house they occupied that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, one of the principal architects of the policies that had them here, had resigned.

“Rumsfeld is gone?” the sergeant asked. “Really?”

Mr. Menti nodded. “This is better for Iraq,” he said. “Iraqi people say thank you.”

The sergeant went upstairs to tell his marines, just as he had informed them the day before that the Republican Party had lost control of the House of Representatives and that Congress was in the midst of sweeping change. Mr. Menti had told them that, too.

“Rumsfeld’s out,” he said to five marines sprawled with rifles on the cold floor.

Lance Cpl. James L. Davis Jr. looked up from his cigarette.

“Who’s Rumsfeld?” he asked.

See also Slackery, Knuckleheadery, and Abject Doltitude