University of Colorado at Colorado Springs*
"Preparing the next generation for Climate Change"
“Opening up a debate that 98% of climate scientists unequivocally agree to be a non-debate would detract from the central concerns of environment and health addressed in this course,” the professors’ email continued.
“… If you believe this premise to be an issue for you, we respectfully ask that you do not take this course, as there are options within the Humanities program for face to face this semester and online next.”
If you are a student at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and, for some inexplicable reason, you are interested in taking a course called "Medical Humanities in the Digital Age", you might want to reconsider if you consider yourself a free thinker. My friends at The College Fix have the report.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/28825/
There are many subjects that are not open to debate in our universities. Climate Change is only one. For example, many liberal arts professors believe that America is a racist, imperialistic and evil country. That is not open for debate. Many professors think that Israel is the villain of the noble Middle East and is oppressing the poor Palestinian suicide bombers. That is not up for debate. Many professors totally reject Western civilization and its accomplishments. That is not up for debate.
If this is typical of what is teaching at good old UCCS, one wonders what courses in the humanities are open for conservatives or free thinkers.
There you go.
* Just kidding. That's really Moscow State University. I hope you get the point. If you don't, maybe you should drop this blog.....Just kidding.
Yeah... what they should say is, "Ninety eight percent of climate scientists consider global warming a serious concern backed by well-documented research. If you feel differently, we welcome the challenge, but we will not modify the teaching to save you from feeling unsafe, or give you trigger warnings. You are welcome to submit research papers with a contrary conclusion, but you will be graded on the rigor of your research and presentation. Mere citations from climate change denial web sites that spout opinions without carefully footnoted sources are not acceptable. If you are not sure you can handle this, you may want to ask Instructor Gary Fouse at UCI if he offers a correspondence course on the basics of effective writing in the English language. He disagrees with ninety-eight percent of climate scientists, but he can give you a good framework on how to present your conclusions effectively and have them taken seriously."
ReplyDelete(For the record, my second year in high school debate competition, the assigned topic was "Resolved: Congress should regulate air and water pollution in the Unites States." Conventional wisdom was, that's a foregone conclusion, the way for the negative to win was to attack the effectiveness of the affirmative team's PLAN. I thought that was stupid, even though I agreed. If we're going to debate, let's debate. I assembled a set of file cards with citations from people with all the right degrees saying things like trees put more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than all human industry combined. Stupid, but good fun... the affirmative teams were totally unprepared for it.)
And what is your source for the "98%" claim-Al Gore?
ReplyDeleteDidn't you just say it yourself?
ReplyDeleteNo, wait, you were quoting THEM. Well if THEY believe that to be true, I've just outlined how they should deal with the possibility that 2 percent of their accredited students might also disagree.
Right now, people in Louisiana have direct experience with the reality of global warming, as do a lot of coastal communities out east. Face it Gary, reality is starting to catch up to your delusions.