Outrage as faculty caught conspiring to reward less qualified minorities

[dismal]

U-Md. Latino students described as ‘mediocre’ and ‘pretty bad’ in mass email

Latino students were described as “mediocre” and “pretty bad” in an email that was accidentally sent by a professor to students registering for a mock trial class at the University of Maryland.

Mark Graber sent the missive Thursday to students in the class, inadvertently including remarks from Abigail Graber, identified by the Diamondback student newspaper as his daughter and a lawyer who volunteered as an assistant coach for the team. The university then asked the two to resign, which they did, according to an email sent to students.

...

“If I were to rank purely on performance, I would probably only take 1 of them. Should I take 2? All three? None have mock trial experience,” Abigail Graber wrote. “The mediocre one is extremely involved in community activism/organizing (she’s the one I would probably take no matter what, what she lacks in skill she makes up in confidence, although she may be too busy for this commitment).”

So, take that people who claim that Universities are bubbles of leftist identity politics. The school insta-fired these faculty for their efforts to promote diversity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...f46c1e2_story.html?nid&utm_term=.8c640bf85e7e

 

[fromderinside]

- nm

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Thou shalt not embarrass thy boss. Right or wrong doesn't enter into it.

 

[dismal]

Thou shalt not embarrass thy boss. Right or wrong doesn't enter into it.

Well, if you read the article to the end you learn the school's diversity apparatus is treating this like a full on racial incident.

I'm sure with that and the quick firings the are doing what they can to assure white students they won't be subject this sort of race-based discrimination in the future.

 

[untermensche]

On no. Crazy leftists again.

As we know all the law schools are run by leftists.

As we know diversity is bad.

 

[laughing dog]

I read the article. Perhaps someone can help me. Where is there any mention of faculty conspiring (in any way, shape or form) to reward any less qualified students, let alone minorities?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Funny how you skipped the part that provided the important context here:

In the email to students, Abigail Graber wrote that she had a question about diversity. While lamenting that they had “almost no Latino students on team,” she proceeded to say that the Latino students were not very qualified for the class.

“If I were to rank purely on performance, I would probably only take 1 of them. Should I take 2? All three? None have mock trial experience,” Abigail Graber wrote. “The mediocre one is extremely involved in community activism/organizing (she’s the one I would probably take no matter what, what she lacks in skill she makes up in confidence, although she may be too busy for this commitment).”

Which is literally the exact opposite of your OP's title. They weren't conspiring -- or even planning -- to reward anyone at all, they (or rather, Abigail specifically) were ragging on Latino students whom they prejudged as being unqualified because they have no mock trial experience. Which is an all around shitty attitude for a college professor to have, but hardly worth a firing except for the fact that they were stupid enough to send it to all of their students too.

Well, if you read the article to the end you learn the school's diversity apparatus is treating this like a full on racial incident.

Because:

Monday was the first day of classes at the University of Maryland, and students returned to a campus that was fraught with racial tension last academic year. A noose was found in a fraternity house, white supremacist fliers were posted on campus and a coalition of student groups issued an extensive list of demands to the administration, calling for better representation of marginalized communities.

So I doubt this had anything to do with assurance to white students. It's probably just the faculty putting a zero tolerance policy on racially insensitive remarks on the (probably correct) assumption that this kind of thing is only going to piss people off and make things harder.

Hell of a way to start the year, though.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Thou shalt not embarrass thy boss. Right or wrong doesn't enter into it.

Well, if you read the article to the end you learn the school's diversity apparatus is treating this like a full on racial incident.

I'm sure with that and the quick firings the are doing what they can to assure white students they won't be subject this sort of race-based discrimination in the future.

It made the school look racist. That's enough to get him fired, the facts don't matter.

 

[dismal]

Funny how you skipped the part that provided the important context here:



Which is literally the exact opposite of your OP's title. They weren't conspiring -- or even planning -- to reward anyone at all, they (or rather, Abigail specifically) were ragging on Latino students whom they prejudged as being unqualified because they have no mock trial experience. Which is an all around shitty attitude for a college professor to have, but hardly worth a firing except for the fact that they were stupid enough to send it to all of their students too.

Since it does not appear English is your first language, the quote you have highlighted is entirely consistent with my comments.

In that passage she is asking her father how much she should put her thumb on the scale in favor of less qualified latinxes to achieve diversity.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

That article website won't let me view the article. Here's another one on the topic:
http://www.sfgate.com/arts/article/University-of-Maryland-teacher-quits-over-email-12169566.php

 

[barbos]

I think they should make mock trial about this, 3 mediocre latinos against professor and his daughter.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The professor's daughter was volunteering for this thing and did not have the experience or knowledge of how schools ought to implement affirmative action. Her ignorance was also coupled with crudeness, referring to people as if they are racial pegs to fill holes. That said, she still was asking questions, not conspiring, nor taking action without asking her father who was a professor and knowledgeable about how it is supposed to work.

The first part of the email seems not to appear in the newspaper articles but it is in the "mediocre" one's twitter feed:
https://www.circa.com/story/2017/09...mediocre-and-pretty-bad-in-a-professors-email

 

[Derec]

So, take that people who claim that Universities are bubbles of leftist identity politics. The school insta-fired these faculty for their efforts to promote diversity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...f46c1e2_story.html?nid&utm_term=.8c640bf85e7e

They only got fired because they exposed the scam. And it is perfectly logical extension of the logic of "affirmative action". I wonder what the endgame is. Giving preferred racial and gender groups points not only in admissions but also on tests and assignments?
And after that? Who knows ...

 

[Derec]

Her ignorance was also coupled with crudeness, referring to people as if they are racial pegs to fill holes.

Isn't that the whole point of AA?

 

[fromderinside]

One need be sensitive to likelihood. The likelihood that particular students may not be experienced, for any reason, needs be accommodated as far as reasonably possible. That's more like affirmative action.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The professor's daughter was volunteering for this thing and did not have the experience or knowledge of how schools ought to implement affirmative action. Her ignorance was also coupled with crudeness, referring to people as if they are racial pegs to fill holes. That said, she still was asking questions, not conspiring, nor taking action without asking her father who was a professor and knowledgeable about how it is supposed to work.

The first part of the email seems not to appear in the newspaper articles but it is in the "mediocre" one's twitter feed:
https://www.circa.com/story/2017/09...mediocre-and-pretty-bad-in-a-professors-email

I don't think that it's fair to call it crude. The comments were meant to be personal between her and her father. We all temper our language/express ourselves more pointedly or not depending upon the relationship we have with that particular person. The goal is getting your message across, more so absent face to face interaction.

Nolasco wasn’t persuaded. She said Graber apologized for the students seeing the email, not its content.

Why do you think that is Ms. Nolasco?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

How is this anything but standard fare affirmative action thinking exposed? From a pro-minority point of view, what exactly did they do wrong? They were concerned about getting more latinos into the program, and considering letting some in who they felt were less than qualified, but because they are latino they were getting special consideration.That's wrong, but its biased in favour of latinos, not against them. It is the individuals that were being called poor students, not latinos in general.

 

[dismal]

One need be sensitive to likelihood. The likelihood that particular students may not be experienced, for any reason, needs be accommodated as far as reasonably possible. That's more like affirmative action.

But in this case it seems they broke the Fight Club rule: the first rule of diversity hires is you don't talk about the fact they are diversity hires.

 

[Derec]

I think they should make mock trial about this, 3 mediocre latinos against professor and his daughter.

Maybe they can do what the colleges did with collegiate debate to help black teams win - turn them into shouting matches (mostly just yelling "nigga" over and over) and rap battles completely unrelated to the topic they were supposed to be discussing.

To help out Latinos, maybe mock trials can become narcocorrido battles or something.

 

[laughing dog]

The information in the article can reasonably be interpreted that this assistant is telling the professor why there are no latinos on the mock trial team. There is certainly no information available that the professor was demanding or asking that standards be lowered, so the conclusion that there was some sort of "conspiracy" is unsupported by the OP article.

Yet we have the usual alt SJWs jumping to the usual alt-SJW conclusions.