Sykes. Yikes.

Calling Out the Professoriate
(Inside Higher Ed)

Author of the 1988 book Profscam, conservative talk radio host Charles Sykes, discusses his new book that again takes on higher education.

Q. The book calls for a shrinking of overall college enrollment. Why? And aren't there downsides to rolling back the access gains of recent decades, which women, minority groups and low-income students largely drove? 

A. We should make access to higher education as open as possible. But the reality is that the “college for all” mantra is a delusion that sets too many students up to fail. Far too many students enter college without adequate academic preparation; far too many end up dropping out. The real irony here is that the students who are most likely to be hurt by the higher education complex’s indifference to undergraduate teaching are precisely those vulnerable student groups who need more attention.
      Of the 1.8 million students assessed for college readiness in 2014, ACT found that only 26 percent met college-ready benchmarks in all four subjects (English, reading, math and science). Charles Murray notes that an SAT score of 1180 will give a college freshman about a 65 percent chance of maintaining a 2.7 grade point average. But that is a score only about one in 10 18-year-olds could achieve. “So,” writes Murray, “even though college has been dumbed down, it is still too intellectually demanding for a large majority of students.” Even so, in recent decades, 30 percent of students with C grades in high school and 15 percent with grade point average of C-minus or lower have been admitted into four-year colleges. That has consequences both for the students and for the institutions, which often have to adjust their standards to the new demographic realities….

The Danger of the Right's Noise Machine: Years of Misinformation Led to Trump's Rise
(Alternet/Salon)

Charlie Sykes

…And today, for the first time, some conservatives in the #NeverTrump camp are seeing where their decades-long attacks on the mainstream media and the “reality based community” have led. Right-wing radio talk show host Charlie Sykes from Wisconsin gave an interview lamenting the situation with reporter Oliver Darcy who put up an excerpt on twitter. Sykes also appeared on MSNBC’s “All In” last night where he said this:

Over the years conservative talk show hosts, and I’m certainly one of them, we’ve done a remarkable job of challenging and attacking the mainstream media. But perhaps what we did was also the destroy any sense of a standard. Where do you go to have any sense of the truth? You have Donald Trump come along and the man says things that are demonstrably untrue on a daily basis. My experience has been look, we live in an era when every drunk at the end of the bar has a Twitter account and maybe has a blog and when you try to point out “this is not true, this is a lie” and then you cite the Washington Post or the New York Times, their response is “oh that’s the mainstream media.” So we’ve done such a good job of discrediting them that there’s almost no place to go to be able to fact check....

Fear Not the Parking Lot: The Show Must Go On

Shakespeare by the Sea's "Cymbeline" at Soka University

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, 
Nor the furious winter’s rages; 
Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages: 
Golden lads and girls all must, 
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

                                           -  from"Cymbeline"

Last night hundreds of community members converged on the IVC campus for "Cymbeline," yet another terrific and otherwise well-supported production by Shakespeare by the Sea, a regional theatre which travels throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties. IVC has been fortunate enough to play host the last few years and the result has been a terrific event which finds community members of all ages enjoying quality theatre for free on our lovely campus. Last night's production was spirited and the full moon rose over the actors on the stage and the audience, which included a few faculty and students picnicking among the community members.

In past years, the plays have been staged in the Live Oak Terrace with free parking nearby in the lots. This year something went wrong. The audience arrived to discover that the Live Oak Terrace was empty and were directed to the front of the Student Services Building where the stage was being erected along with the lighting, sound system and the portable backstage dressing rooms. This reporter arrived too late to conduct a full inquiry but, along with  the audience, was told that the Live Oak Terrace was "double booked," and thus the production had been forced to move to the much less suitable quad. This assertion seemed to defy facts as throughout the evening Live Oak Terrace remained completely deserted.

There was also some kerfuffle about parking. In previous years, as for most venues used by the exceedingly non-profit theatre company, the parking was offered for free. But yesterday, reports varied about whether this was true this year until show time when the audience was assured that parking was indeed, gratis. Also, concerns were expressed from the stage, apparently as directed by IVC police, about how exactly the audience should exit the campus. Much was made about not slowing down in the roundabout when exiting the campus. Much.

It should be noted that the audience members seemed entirely able to exit the campus without incident, owing no doubt to the fact that the majority of them parked in the lots by the Live Oak Terrace and had to slog their picnic baskets across campus, avoiding the Charybdis-like maelstrom of the IVC roundabout completely, and noting at the evening's end the mysterious and complete desolation that was the Live Oak Terrace.

Despite hitches, the show, fulfilling proud theatrical tradition, went on. Funded by every sort of County grant and Arts commission out there, esteemed and celebrated regionally, the troupers performed winningly, though it was clear their extremely accommodating director was justifiably puzzled by the logistical snafu and passive-aggressive administrative reception. She hoped to return, she said and we believed her. Most institutions welcome visitors, make it easy for them to park, roll out the red carpet in hopes of showing off their commitments to visitors, community. We wonder what went wrong last night.

Really bad photo taken by really bad photographer.

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