If she’s not resigning as co-master, really there’s no victory for the students. Given what most lecturers are paid and that she’s probably got other ways to keep busy in the short term. Seems like a good thing to do.
However, it s a loss to students who benefit from her classes. So no victory for protesters, but the protestors have hurt the academic scholarship at Yale. Seems counterproductive to me.
Aside from EC taking a break, I wonder what the repercussions will be in terms of attracting new lecturers and professors going forward?..
If she doesnt feel comfortable teaching any more, would she be comfortable being the associate master of the RC where all the ugliness and resentment have manifested? I have a feeling she’s waiting on her husband’s decision on their next destination. Not to teach is the least or the most she could do at this point. But good luck finding an elite college that is more welcoming to her ideals since the PC culture is systematically wide spread and lacking of thoughtfulness of elite school students is as well. In that sense, I don’t think whatever the outcome will impact the future faculty hiring at Yale that much because again it’s not a one school problem.
Looks like Nicholas has decided not to teach next semester either:
^^This is a sensible move by NC. Clearly signals a desire to mend fences without actually severing ties with the university.
This is backwards. They should teach but not be masters. What a circus! They are distracting by resigning from teaching. What they should resign from is their mastership. Academics welcome controversies but not administrators. EC’s letter was not an academic discourse. If it were, it should have been sent to the entire university community. From the beginning they’ve been framing the issue as academic freedom when it is about administrative ineptness. They are disingenuous.
If I were them I would leave Yale and take a job somewhere else. They have been vilified. By all accounts, they are both extremely intelligent and have spent their lives teaching young students. I think this is a very sad day.
@Iglooo I’m struck by the harsh judgments laid on EC based on ONE slightly (in the normal scheme of things) controversial email sent to the members of her residential community. Let’s keep in mind that the other half of this blow-out of anger and resentment was an unfounded accusation that a fraternity was excluding women because they were black. Neither claim of racist intent seems to be based on much real substance, even if the underlying issues are real (and I think they are). If you want to address the systemic racism that played into the students’ reaction to each event or to continue to encourage dialogue about the way language can unintentionally hurt, that’s one thing; but fire someone from her work or claim that she is an inept administrator because of the way pieces of a single email were worded? The plank in my own eye is way too large to go there…
The Christakises are well-respected professionals in their fields who doubtless have many opportunities available to them. I’d like to see them stick it out, fight the good fight, etc.–but if they choose to move on to better opportunities, then is their decision that much different from the faculty of color who choose to go elsewhere? In each case, Yale could perhaps do better; in each case, the faculty have the luxury of freedom to choose more congenial (safer if you will!) environments to work.
1667 Would not surprise me if he (and she) went elsewhere. Not sure how Yale wooed them away from Harvard.
NC is a Yale undergrad, and he always wanted to return and be a Master. Here is a link to his 35 page CV.
http://nicholaschristakis.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Christakis_CV_1-13-15.pdf
@classicalmama What infuriate me is not so much that she sent the email. It’s her and NC forever denying that it was a mishap and that it could have unwittingly hurt some in their charge. From the beginning, they were framing the issue in terms of academic freedom. By that, they are doing two things;one, not admitting the hurt some may have felt, the other, they are propelling themselves to a higher intellectual plane while marginalizing the objection to a half brain sort of thing adding insult to injury. By resigning from teaching position, they are just furthering their position. They are not intellectually honest. It looks to me EC was wearing an administer’s hat when she sent out the email un-banning offensive costumes. She didn’t call on the entire university community to think about freedom of speech. Sending it to only Stillman, she seemed to address practical matter of dressing up on Halloween. But then she changes her hat to an academic one when objection broke out.
Has anyone posted this? http://www.pennlive.com/news/2015/12/naming_of_lebanon_valley_colle.html Students at Lebanonm Valley College in PA want the name off a building changed because it’s named after Clyde Lynch, who was president of the school form 1932-50. Are students looking for something to make a stink about?
Yes, it’s in another thread.
Investigation finds no evidence of discrimination at Yale frat party that sparked protests
http://fox61.com/2015/12/10/no-discipline-for-yale-frat-accused-of-discrimination/
The interesting piece is not so much the result as how differently the two investigations (SAE vs. the Buckley spitting incident) were handled. The Yale Daily News article on this topic is well worth a read–it’s an excellent piece of journalism:
@classicalmama
Yes a very interesting read as are the comments that follow it. I find it a fascinating snapshot…
I assume some contributors are students.
Somethings are just not worth commenting on, but are very instructive to listen to and view. Pretty much all you need to know about a strain of college students that exists today. They have no clue it means shutting them down as well.
Re Yale:
Here is a thread discussing the Yale video. I think there was a lot of editing going on here.
One of the first comments I read when this popped up was “did anyone notice that the people he actually spoke to about the First Amendment were not shown signing the document? And the ones who did sign there was either no audio or the things he was saying did not directly reference the First Amendment.”