Apparently common sense is not needed to get a Ph.D. nor to be hired by an elite college.
“A Middlebury College chemistry professor whose written exam question asked students to calculate the lethal dose of a poisonous gas used in Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust has taken a leave of absence.”
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/04/18/middlebury-college-nazi-gas-chamber-exam-question
Just…wow. And he blames it on “hubris and carelessness.” Carelessness for sure. But how does hubris play into this? Excess pride and/or self-confidence explains this HOW?
More detailed article:
https://middleburycampus.com/44073/news/chemistry-test-question-invokes-nazi-gas-chambers-controversy-ensues-after-satirical-newspaper-makes-it-public/
Statement from Middlebury College:
http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/campus-notes/node/617673
Here is the school newspaper article where the test question came to light. Inappropriate humor warning. https://thelocalnoodle.com/2019/04/05/chem-103-students-claim-professor-is-a-real-nazi-about-grading/
I would think a professor of 30plus years makes a high salary. What makes someone sabotage a career like that?
I’d say a stunning lack of common sense.
This is stunning! It’s not like you can even say “oh don’t be so PC.” When is it EVER okay to inset the Holocaust and death into a test unless it is a specific history course or something??
Almost equally appalling is that Middlebury students who work on The Local Noodle feel this makes good fodder for satire. Totally misses the mark.
“I would think a professor of 30plus years makes a high salary. What makes someone sabotage a career like that?”
Hubris.
@PurpleTitan : I admire your intelligence & wit.
Oh thanks, @Publisher.
Great minds . . . go to the same school.
I have never attended NU, but several family members have attended NU undergrad & Kellogg.
^ Oh, close enough.
I wonder how many students took that exam in previous semesters? Because I would be appalled to go through life knowing that I once calculated the specific formula to kill a bunch of human beings with gas.
And I do not agree that this professor’s question is merely the result of hubris. Homing in on such a specific topic tells me the guy is clearly anti-Semitic.
I’m kind of flabbergasted that this took weeks to become public on campus. No student in that class raised concerns immediately? No student refused to answer the question?!
It was actually just dimensional analysis, and no specific knowledge of HCN was required. Part of the question was blacked-out, but it looks like the conversion factors were supplied so it was basically just a math problem. Schrodinger got away with theoretical animal cruelty, but this was over the line. The professor definitely should have known better.
What a crazy exam question! What was the professor thinking? That must have upset many students during their exam.
But about the student publication: satire has its place in society, and the point of satire is that it criticizes serious things. I have relatives who died in the Holocaust, and when I shared the linked article with my family members gathered for Passover today, we all chuckled at the satire’s clever lines. We viewed it as the students’ way of supporting their fellow Jewish students and of challenging the test question, not as trivializing it.
“Homing in on such a specific topic tells me the guy is clearly anti-Semitic.”
Seems like a big assumption there. I’ve known folks on the spectrum who’ve asked all sorts of inappropriate questions. Heck, I’ve known folks not on the spectrum who’ve asked or said things (highly-educated) Americans (in the cultural elite) consider inappropriate because in their culture, it wasn’t inappropriate to ask or talk about those topics.
Is there much of anything elso known about the Prof? Is there any evidence to indicate he might be a National Socialist?
Really? Why? This may be the difference between spectrumy people like me and neurotypical people. The professor shouldn’t have put the question on the test! But I would have no trouble having done the calculation. Let’s say I was trying to refute a holocaust denier and the subject came up; I’d do the calculation and not lose a second’s sleep over it.
The students who took the test and did the calculation are not to blame, and I doubt any of them are losing sleep after making the calculation, nor should they be.