OS evidently tweaked a few noses last week when he held forth about a little dust-up at Baylor University in Texas.
He concluded, and still does, that the administration is doing the right thing, and that the world runs better when it is run by the grown-ups.
One of OS's favorite grown-ups is Dean Dad, who administers a community college he has to keep held together with chewing gum and baling wire, because it is flooded with students and less cash arrives from the state every year to do the job.
He also balances that task with his life as a husband and father, which blessedly come first. He writes with humor and elegance about his daily journey of pragmatically addressing ReallyBigProblems with the modest resources of at hand. He's a real grown-up.
(Hopefully, if Dean Dad reads this, he won't be crying in despair that someone like OS pays him such public compliment.)
Therefore, OS scribbles this, and launches it to the digital tides, hoping that the undergrads at Baylor will pause a bit, and consider what the grownups have to do daily to keep the place running smoothly, so the undergrads can complain about just how mistreated they are. Go ahead, click that link above, and read about Dean Dad's day. OS dares you.
Damn, kids! You're at Baylor! One of the gems of Texas! Do you know how many kids at Dean Dad's college would trade body parts to have your opportunities? And how many kids who can't even make it to community college would do likewise for that opportunity? Within a ten-minute walk of your dorms in Waco, OS suspects there are students who need tutors, and public schools who would gladly welcome you in to help some eight-year-old learn how to read English and do his multiplication tables, so he can maybe, in 2021, have the opportunities you now enjoy. Maybe, just maybe, it's a better expenditure of your adolescent energies.
Grow up, and you can be a grown-up like Dean Dad one day. It's a noble goal.
Showing posts with label Baylor University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baylor University. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Baylor University Strikes A Calm Blow For Sanity
The administration did not give in to the hysteria, and didn't allow itself to be bullied by a few undergraduates.
The news story opens, as news stories so often do, with a 'mean old administration vx. the bright-eyed, idealistic, and obviously virtuous students'. Blah, blah, blah.
BAYLOR - For weeks, they've met unofficially on Baylor campus, but so far their efforts to be officially recognized by Baylor University have been unsuccessful.
Students with the Sexual Identity Forum say it's time the historic Texas institution finally confronts its tenuous history with homosexuality.
It's been a constant source of friction between students, faculty and staff. In September of 2010, a national tragedy sparked a turning point for Baylor senior Samantha Jones.
Jones, who is openly gay, says the bullying and suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi served as a wake-up call to gay students around the nation. Jones says Baylor's reaction to the tragedy left much to be desired.
"We didn't get an e-mail saying, 'This is someone who you can approach if you're struggling with this,' ...nothing," Jones says. "And that hurt even more."
Jones decided what Baylor needed was a Sexual Identity Forum, a student group where the topics of homophobia, hate crimes and suicide could be discussed among fellow students. In November of 2010, Jones filed her first request to create an officially recognized student group.
What MizzzzzJones does not understand is: Baylor University didn't owe her that. It's a university, founded to prepare eligible students for professional adult lives. It is not is not is not a therapy group.
And as for its 'tenuous history'--this doesn't sound tenuous:
"Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."
Texas has any number of really great universities from which MizzzzzzJones could have chosen. She chose Baylor, which has been Baptist-To-The-Bone from the day it was founded. If she's uncomfortable, it's not Baylor's job to transform itself into an institution that will make her comfortable.
MizzzzJones is also welcome to announce her discussion group is meeting at any time and place in the world, apart from Baylor University. She can seek the sponsorhip and sheltering wing of any institution in the world, apart from Baylor University.
What she can't have is the fulfillment of her narcissistic fantasy that she is entitled to Baylor's blessing for a course of action that Baylor has clearly stated it will not endorse.
Kudos to Baylor's board and administration. Universities, and the world in general, function better with the grownups in charge.
The news story opens, as news stories so often do, with a 'mean old administration vx. the bright-eyed, idealistic, and obviously virtuous students'. Blah, blah, blah.
BAYLOR - For weeks, they've met unofficially on Baylor campus, but so far their efforts to be officially recognized by Baylor University have been unsuccessful.
Students with the Sexual Identity Forum say it's time the historic Texas institution finally confronts its tenuous history with homosexuality.
It's been a constant source of friction between students, faculty and staff. In September of 2010, a national tragedy sparked a turning point for Baylor senior Samantha Jones.
Jones, who is openly gay, says the bullying and suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi served as a wake-up call to gay students around the nation. Jones says Baylor's reaction to the tragedy left much to be desired.
"We didn't get an e-mail saying, 'This is someone who you can approach if you're struggling with this,' ...nothing," Jones says. "And that hurt even more."
Jones decided what Baylor needed was a Sexual Identity Forum, a student group where the topics of homophobia, hate crimes and suicide could be discussed among fellow students. In November of 2010, Jones filed her first request to create an officially recognized student group.
What MizzzzzJones does not understand is: Baylor University didn't owe her that. It's a university, founded to prepare eligible students for professional adult lives. It is not is not is not a therapy group.
And as for its 'tenuous history'--this doesn't sound tenuous:
"Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."
Texas has any number of really great universities from which MizzzzzzJones could have chosen. She chose Baylor, which has been Baptist-To-The-Bone from the day it was founded. If she's uncomfortable, it's not Baylor's job to transform itself into an institution that will make her comfortable.
MizzzzJones is also welcome to announce her discussion group is meeting at any time and place in the world, apart from Baylor University. She can seek the sponsorhip and sheltering wing of any institution in the world, apart from Baylor University.
What she can't have is the fulfillment of her narcissistic fantasy that she is entitled to Baylor's blessing for a course of action that Baylor has clearly stated it will not endorse.
Kudos to Baylor's board and administration. Universities, and the world in general, function better with the grownups in charge.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Bit Under The Radar, Ken Starr Is Named President Of Baylor University
The Rabid Left will foam at the mouth, without a doubt. Watch for it. The news hasn't come up on their radar.
Ken Starr, the prosecutor who exposed the Clintons, has been chosen as president of Baylor University, in Waco Texas.
Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University. Judge Starr was the unanimous choice of both the 14-member Presidential Search Committee and the 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, and was elected unanimously by the Baylor Board of Regents on February 12, 2010.
Judge Starr will be introduced to the campus community by Regents Chair R. Dary Stone, J.D. '77, at a university-wide meeting in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the Baylor campus at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16.
For those unfamiliar with Baylor, it is a cornerstone institution of Texas, founded by and funded by Texas Baptists.
It is a conservative institution, but any and all attempts to characterize it as a bunch of wing-nuts in the Texas prairie just don't stick. They run a very good medical school, for openers.
OS sees this announcement as a very good thing for the culture, a hopeful sign. Kudos to Baylor.
Here's the Baylor homepage.
Ken Starr, the prosecutor who exposed the Clintons, has been chosen as president of Baylor University, in Waco Texas.
Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University. Judge Starr was the unanimous choice of both the 14-member Presidential Search Committee and the 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, and was elected unanimously by the Baylor Board of Regents on February 12, 2010.
Judge Starr will be introduced to the campus community by Regents Chair R. Dary Stone, J.D. '77, at a university-wide meeting in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the Baylor campus at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16.
For those unfamiliar with Baylor, it is a cornerstone institution of Texas, founded by and funded by Texas Baptists.
It is a conservative institution, but any and all attempts to characterize it as a bunch of wing-nuts in the Texas prairie just don't stick. They run a very good medical school, for openers.
OS sees this announcement as a very good thing for the culture, a hopeful sign. Kudos to Baylor.
Here's the Baylor homepage.
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