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| Fifth Column |
| Get your degree in Activism (by the Bay, but you knew that already) |
| 2003-08-12 |
| Edited for brevity (and reduced nausea). San Francisco’s New College of California is offering something for the socially conscious this fall that they’d never get marching in the streets: a college degree in activism. For $5,500 to $6,000 a semester, the 32-year-old Mission District school is offering bachelor’s and master’s humanities degrees with a concentration in "activism and social change." While schools from Vermont to Santa Cruz boast versions of do-gooding curricula, degrees in activism are hard to come by. "Students can shape their own (activist) program at other schools," said Michael Baer, senior vice president at the American Council on Education and former provost at Northeastern University. "But to have it all together -- the theoretical and the practical -- under one roof and labeled as such is somewhat rare." Almost as rare is New College’s eclectic lineup of activist instructors, a progressive all-star team that includes tree-sitting environmentalist Julia "Butterfly" Hill, "ecofeminist witch" and author Starhawk and San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly. Baer called the program instructors at the 800-student school accomplished and "as competent as any you’d see at a similar-sized school. The difference is, at at a larger school, you’d be exposed to wider array of different perspectives." But New College wears its progressive stripes proudly -- Hill once delivered a commencement address via cell phone from her tree perch in the Humboldt County wilderness -- so school officials said it was unlikely that conservative instructors would be on hand. It’s high time to counter with the University of Rantburg, if you ask me... |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #4 Yipes--I'm an ass--I forgot to credit Buzz Machine for the tip. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-8-12 7:06:36 PM |
| #3 I'll bet Stanford is positively green with envy. Will prolly change their "mascot" from The Cardinal to The Phrog. Gotta hurt to be one-upped by this little upstart - man, what a roll-call of professional phools. Phunny. |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-12 6:47:06 PM |
| #2 Time to educate the protestors because they are still using 60's era cheers and those massive protests during the runup to the Iraq war seemed to help George W. Bush's approval ratings. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-8-12 3:55:35 PM |
| #1 One of the goodies the Army has is an M-167 Vulcan cannon mounted on a tracked chassis. It's primarily used for close-in air defense. I have always wondered how well one of those would work as an anti-activist weapon, and how much trouble activism would be after the first time it was used. I see NOTHING in the Constitution of the United States that supports the legality of law by activism. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-8-12 3:54:29 PM |