How 1960s Radicals Ended up Teaching Your Kids

On the same day ESPN broadcast the Rutgers tape, The New York Post reported that Kathy Boudin, a professor at Columbia University, was named the 2013 Sheinberg Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law School. In 1984, Boudin, a member of the Weather Underground, a violent, oafish association of upper-class “revolutionaries,” pled guilty to second degree murder in association with the infamous 1981 Brinks armored car robbery in Nyack, New York. Babbling in the language of anti-racism and anti-imperialism, Boudin assisted in ending the life of three people, including Waverly Brown, the first black police officer on the Nyack police force, and left nine children fatherless. She was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. In 2003, Boudin was released; by 2008 she had landed a coveted teaching position at an Ivy League university.

Indeed, Boudin’s Columbia University biography doesn’t mention her violent past, describing her simply as “an educator and counselor with experience in program development since 1964, working within communities with limited resources to solve social problems.” Neither does an official NYU press release announcing her new gig, instead explaining that Boudin “has been dedicated to community involvement in social change since the 1960’s.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. (Boudin didn’t respond to an interview request.)

Kick a student on the basketball court and you’ll lose your university job. Spend two decades in prison on radical chic murder rap and you’ll get one.

Expelled for Speaking Out About Rape?

Last February Landen Gambill decided to take action against her ex-boyfriend, who she says raped and stalked her throughout their long-term relationship. Now the 19-year-old is being threatened with possible expulsion from her college for creating an “intimidating” environment for her alleged abuser—and she’s gearing up to fight back.

Gambill was a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she took her case to the school’s honor court—a judicial body made up of five undergraduates—trying to avoid the emotional toll of a criminal trial. At the time, she says, she hoped to simply get a no-contact order to keep her ex-boyfriend away from her. Instead, she says, she endured a hearing that spanned 28 hours, in which she claims she was grilled about why she didn’t leave her boyfriend sooner and was scolded for “showing emotion on her face.” Gambill says she was asked loaded questions like, “Why didn’t you break up with him?” and “Why didn’t you fight back harder?”

“I had really high expectations of UNC as a liberal university,” Gambill says. “[I thought] they were going to support me as a survivor and as someone who’s in a relationship with sexual abuse. I was totally let down.”

What’s worse, she says, a detailed account of the alleged abuse, which she had submitted as evidence, was given to her parents without her permission by a student representative—because, in Gambill’s words, he “ just thought they should know.”

The burden of debt has become the lens through which I see my workplace, and it is rapidly altering my view of my profession. I can no longer fulfill my classroom duties without wondering if the ultimate price, for many of my students, is a form of indenture.

NYU professor Andrew Ross, who last November helped launch the Occupy Student Debt Campaign, in a piece that asks if it’s time you stop repaying your student loans.

College grads and their student debt

[PHOTO: Peter Yang for Newsweek]

humdrumstar:

That’s what Newsweek asks.

Well, that depends on whether or not you actually think it’s a guarantee to a slice of the capitalist dream.

If you go to college expecting the return on your investment to be a home in the suburbs or a job, well, go to trade school.

I never saw college as an investment but as an opportunity to learn.  Whatever came after that was what came after that.

Retool your expectations for education and maybe you’ll get something out of it.

Universities aren’t job factories.

nwkarchivist:

COLLEGE- The Gift That Keeps On Taking 

Newsweek April 26, 1976

And Check Out Our Current Cover: Is College A Lousy Investment?

The more things change…

That’s the question on our cover this week.

These are just a few of your answers (insert Law & Order sound). 

serpentsrose answered: No, never has been never will be. Education is a gift that keeps on giving. One that should be regifted to the next generation.

morgaz11 answered: no! college offers the opportunity for people to be educated about the realities of the world. knowledge is power.the people need more power

rjplab answered: Yes. Just go out and do things. It’s not worth wasting your time so you can spend your time repaying dues for that time. Ouroboros, and all.

mikiballard answered: Yes. Companies only care that you have a degree, not what it’s in. You learn most of your trade once you get your foot in the door.

doctorbornwinning answered: I see college as an investment in myself, expanding my knowledge and worldview. To some it may be a waste but not to me.

buxomly answered: If your long-term goal is to make money, just remember that not every college degree can a) get you a job and b) make you money.

musicforthemusicallychallenged answered: Almost all jobs created since the recession have been for college grads so…no.

xxomrshenao answered: Personally, it depends on the person and what they want for themselves. Honestly school is not for everyone unfortunately.

lafaux answered: It is one of the best investments that we can make. College grads get better jobs, make more money, pay more taxes and buy more stuff.

laptopmnky answered: It depends. Hopefully the tougher economic times are forcing people to make more informed decisions on what is right for them.

garrott answered: As of now, no—or at least not yet; a college degree is almost always necessary for professional achievement.

jhenao89 answered: As a current college student, I would say it depends the field you are studying. It’s worth investing that money on a trade, electrician, etc

Add yours here!

Our cover story asks: Is college a lousy investment?

Did you go to college? Do you think it was a lousy investment? Megan McArdle writes this week’s cover story on the mythomania around getting a degree - sending parents to the poorhouse and saddling kids with buckets of debt and no guarantee of a job to pay it back. There is also a chilling piece about Nazi ties to the drug thalidomide and we take a deep look inside Naomi Wolf’s Vagina. You can get it on iPad today http://bit.ly/b4mv6q and at the newsstand Monday! 

This exists.

(Source: lellxoxo)