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New Mines President Wilson Not LGBT-Friendly

The Board of Regents last week named former New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson the new president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The Regents tout her public-sector experience, even though she is mostly a creature of government. Wilson has never worked in higher education, but she is smart—she is a Rhodes Scholar, like Larry Pressler.

Unlike Larry Pressler, Wilson actively opposes marriage equality and (pay attention, college students) calls anti-gay bullying mere teasing:

Wilson opposed anti-bullying laws, comparing anti-gay bullying to mere “teasing.” Earlier this year, she outlined her opposition to SB 555, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, explaining that “with respect to this particular agenda we have to recognize as parents that children tease each other.” Wilson mocked the bill — which would merely provide LGBT students with similar civil rights protections against bullying to those already granted to students bullied based on race and gender — dismissing it as “so broad it would actually punish children and say that it’s prohibited to express an opinion with respect to homosexuality in the schools” [Josh Israel, "Better Know An Anti-LGBT Senate Candidate: Former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM)," Think Progress, 2012.09.05].

Israel also reports that Congresswoman Wilson "refused to even adopt a non-discrimination policy against LGBT discrimination for employees in her own Congressional office."

But no big deal, right? We hired Wilson to use her connections to raise funds for Mines, not promote equality or create an inviting learning environment for all students and faculty, regardless of whom they love. And no non-heterosexuals work at Mines or send their kids or their contributions to Mines, do they?

48 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2013.04.30

    I hope her opinion will change over time, but since this statement was made only last year it might be awhile. That our Board of Regents would hire someone who so recently issued such a statement says as much about them as it does her.

  2. larry kurtz 2013.04.30

    Tip o' the iceberg, CAH: more to come.

  3. Douglas Wiken 2013.04.30

    It would be good if SDSM&T put a priority on good teaching and good testing. Also, they might check the relevancy of the courses to determine if any engineers actually ever use any of the courses in the real world.

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.04.30

    Nick, I am curious is President Wilson will agitate for the Regents to remove sexual orientation from their anti-discrimination policy (it's in there, 1.18-3.)

    The Regents equal opportunity policy (1-19) could also require Wilson to "evolve" her views on her LGBT employees:

    "The institutions under the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents shall offer equal opportunities in employment and for access to and participation in educational, extension and other institutional services to all persons qualified by academic preparation, experience, and ability for the various levels of employment or academic program or other institutional service, without discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, gender, transgender, sexual orientation, religion, age, or disability."

    ...and...

    "The chief executive officers of the respective institutions shall be responsible for assuring that the Board's equal opportunity policies are communicated effectively to members of the institutional community and the public at large."

    Can President Wilson effectively communicate Mines' commitment to equal opportunity for LGBT employees if she does not believe in that commitment?

  5. grudznick 2013.04.30

    What if the Mines School has no GLT employees or students or has a waiting list long enough that they don't care if those persons leave? I hope that's not the case but it could be. If so there is that NAU nearby that Mines should have to pay for a free year at for those students. Don't say I'm not a sensitive fellow.

  6. joeboo 2013.04.30

    The School of Mines plans on expanding quite a bit over the next 10-20 years, they have bought some land and have options on others. They need money, that is the only reason she got the job. When your #1 qualification is I raised a boat load of money for a campaign I lost, it shows what the school and board of regents was targeting.

    Will be interesting to see what happens with the Athletic Director. He needs to be fired, he botched the NAIA-NCAA transition and has alienated most of his coaches, and is again fighting with the head women's coach in the media. Will be interesting to see what occurs there.

  7. Tony Amert 2013.04.30

    Douglas-

    You seem incredibly ill informed about both the priorities of SDSMT as well as the quality and relevancy of its curriculum.

  8. Nick Nemec 2013.05.01

    Cory, joeboo might have hit the nail on the head. Mines needs a fundraiser and that is the basis of the Regents hiring decision.

    Equality is nice but money talks.

  9. Testor15 2013.05.01

    So we hire a Karl Rove - Koch Brothers operative to work against the people of South Dakota. She will bring money to Mines if South Dakota endorses Keystone XL? What else will she do for the out of state interests? Look at her history of ethics violations in New Mexico and Washington to see what she is sent to South Dakota to accomplish. They would not have her here if she could not get the corporatist agenda accomplished.

  10. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.01

    Tony Amert, I know all together too much about SDSM&T. I also know that several of the members of the board of regents are not capable of comprehending the problems and potential of the place.

    SDSM&T will not get 3000 students if they continue to cause 2/3 of incoming students to drop out without degrees. Every drop-out spreads the word.

    Professors don't maintain published office hours. They are into research. That does not mean they can communicate. If research is to be an important part of SDSM&T, they need to have two classes of professors and instructors. They need those who can work with the researchers and then do the communication with the students.

    SDSM&T still has the policy that it sorts "unworthies out from worthies". It is a mill for wasting lots of talents.

    SDSM&T got funding for controlling attempted or threatened suicides by students there. A pscyhologist or psychiatrist there said that the primary problem he say was that too many professors viewed students as challengers or enemies that they had to prove were not their equals and then did that by testing on materials not discussed in classes and designing tests that were so poorly designed they guaranteed failure.

    To give you an idea of the professorial attitude there, years ago I talked to a physics prof I had had years before. I said, the new cheap calculators must have helped students a lot. He said something like, "No, we just made the problems harder."

    The course year is shorter and they are trying to cram in more information into students because of the tremendous advances in science and engineering.

    Engineers come back to the campus and Rapid City and say that they have not ever used many of the classes that were so difficult at SDSM&T.

    SDSM&T is a terrible waste of talent.

  11. Donald Pay 2013.05.01

    For a conservative, she seems to have found her niche in an odd place. She's a big advocate of using federal dollars to pump up big government institutions and big business interests that do business with government. Generally it works this way: government gives government labs a lot of money, the labs give big business a lot of money, big business gives politicians a lot of money. Congrats on the Republicans for finding another way to feather their nest.

  12. tonyamert 2013.05.01

    Douglas-

    I work at SDSMT. First, the 2/3 drop out rate you cite is actually the quantity that enters but does not complete a degree at SDSMT. This includes all students that transfer from SDSMT to USD/SDSU/BHSU/Aug/etc. which obscures the true drop out rate which is much closer to the state average (I believe the real number is ~58%, 5 year completion rate).

    Second, engineering is a math heavy discipline. A pretty small minority of people are really capable of doing it well and correctly. I would expect there to be a fairly high drop out rate based on that requirement alone.

    Third, the majority of professors do maintain published office hours. But even if they didn't, what does that actually mean to you? Do you expect professors to commit 30 hours a week to 1 on 1 tutoring? If you do, you are making a grave mistake. Engineering is about independent problem solving. Engineering students are put through a curriculum that is designed to bring this quality out. If there was some unlimited source of 1 on 1 tutoring and a student utilized it heavily, the student wouldn't become an independent problem solver. Going to engineering school isn't about learning one particular thing. It's about training your brain to become an independent problem solver. The student must train himself. The professor is just there to offer some topical information and sets of problems. If a student can't do that, the student should drop out. Being an engineering just isn't for that student.

    Further, when an engineer gets out into the workforce, his whole day is about being handed problems that he wasn't trained for and has to solve. It would be impossible to train an engineer for any specific position. You can only train up general problem solving capabilities.

    "SDSM&T still has the policy that it sorts "unworthies out from worthies". It is a mill for wasting lots of talents." - no one has this policy. You have no idea what lengths the professors go to help students.

    "SDSM&T got funding for controlling attempted or threatened suicides by students there. A pscyhologist or psychiatrist there said that the primary problem he say was that too many professors viewed students as challengers or enemies that they had to prove were not their equals and then did that by testing on materials not discussed in classes and designing tests that were so poorly designed they guaranteed failure." - Whoever told you this is just making stuff up. As an employee I had to read the entire suicide prevention study from 2009 and then take an HR test on it. This isn't in it or any other document I know of.

    "The course year is shorter and they are trying to cram in more information into students because of the tremendous advances in science and engineering." - What? The course load has gone down by almost 14 credit hours over the last 7 years. Less material is being required for graduation. Not more.

    "Engineers come back to the campus and Rapid City and say that they have not ever used many of the classes that were so difficult at SDSM&T." - Glad we're using anecdotes as data. Even if you believe this pointless line engineering school is not about learning what you're going to be doing on the job. It's about learning how to solve problems.

    "SDSM&T is a terrible waste of talent." - This tells me that you know nothing of the school or engineering.

  13. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.01

    So, Tony Amert, what kind of work do you do for SDSM&T besides spread their propaganda which is wearing mighty thin after all these years?

    High school students considering attending SDSM&T should be warned about the near total disregard for student time and welfare, professors who assign homework and then only grade a small percentage of the problems, but base the grade for the course on the few they happen to grade.

    Professors write tests with no granularity so that missing one point can make the difference between 100% and zero percent. That makes for some interesting grade distributions.

    Students are considered a necessary evil there. Also they have a bunch of administrators with no knowledge of either science or engineering.

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.01

    Douglas and Tony both have more experience with Mines than I do. I resist the urge to wade into their dispute... except to say that maybe the rate at which Mines identifies and drums out students who aren't cut out for their campus ought to be emulated by our other campuses. Maybe being a little firmer in telling students across the Regental system that they ought to do something other than drift through Grades 13 through 16 would do those students some good.

    But will President Wilson be engaged in any of those conversations or other student matters? Probably not. And maybe she doesn't need to be. Maybe school presidents should just focus on money and let the Dean of Student Affairs be the student-facing administrator on campus.

    I wonder, though: wouldn't a campus benefit from a president who shows greater concern for equality?

  15. Tony Amert 2013.05.01

    CAH-

    I don't think her vision for equality is a major concern on campus. As president she won't have any control over such policies, those are dictated by the regents.

    She was hired for fundraising, plain and simple.

    Douglas-

    I attended SDSMT as an undergrad from 2000-2004 and then as a grad student from 2004-2006. I accepted a position in the electrical engineering department in 2006 where I have continued to work to the present.

    What experience with SDSMT do you have? Did you attend school there? Do you work there?

  16. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.02

    I do get the impression, Tony, that most Mines students and faculty are too busy with their science to fret much about social issues. Heck, I might say that about every campus in the Regental system (I welcome the politically active on campus to lambaste me for that hasty generalization).

    But is there a problem with hiring a public leader who has vocally opposed an important policy of a public institution?

    Hmm... is there any equation between Wilson's apparent opposition to the Regents' extension of anti-discrimination protection to homosexuals and my public opposition as a public school teacher to the Common Core standards?

  17. John 2013.05.02

    Tony, consider remaining in your stove-piped environment of electrons, et. al. Wilson was not hired as the development director. She's the president. She's responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen.

    She and she alone will be responsible and accountable for the cultural climate at SDSMT. Doubt it, just ask Phil Dubois, president of the University of Wyoming how his office and his university had no control over or no vision for equality - that those were regents tasks. Ask Phil. What happened in his university after the "teasing".
    http://www.uwyo.edu/news/shepard/oct191998dubois.htm

    The "teasing" of Shepard ultimately resulted in his murder. A "teasing" that profoundly affected the University of Wyoming. The "teasing" happened 300-odd miles from here - to the son of an engineer.

    "It stops here, it stops now." Tony, go back to your lab.

  18. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.02

    What Tony Amert and most professors at SDSM&T miss is that SDSM&T becomes a school good only for a very, very small minority of students. SDSM&T starts with the best highschool students in SD. Then they use the bell curve of grade distribution to cause about 2/3 of there entering students to drop out. That wipes out the bottom of a normal grade distribution, but professors at Junior and Senior levels also try to pretend they have a normal grade distribution and keep knocking off the bottom end when there probably should only be A, B, and C grades by that time. And if there isn't, it is time professors and administrators finally started looking at the mediocre quality of instruction there.

    If the top few percent of students could be picked out after a week there, those students could probably work as scientists and engineers without another day at SDSM&T. Most graduates probably learn more on their first job in a year than they did in four years at SDSM&T.

    SDSM&T makes a lot of artificial hurdles for students. At times it is hard not to believe these are constructed so they can maintain an argument that they are somehow superior to Tech schools.

    The students who are so brilliant they don't need SDSM&T are wasting their time there and those who are not so brilliant, but smart enough to do good engineering or science are both not being educated or served well by SDSM&T.

    SDSM&T is a waste of taxpayer and student and parent money unless they reform the whole education process there. They also need to remove professors who view students as their competitors. They might also want to remove professors who don't think it is anybody's business if professors maintain published office hours or not. That is a near perfect demonstration of academic arrogance. Were this China, most SDSM&T professors would be sent to retraining camps until they learned to educate.

  19. tonyamert 2013.05.02

    CAH-

    SDSMT doesn't exist to study social issues. It's a science and engineering school. Is there a social issue problem at SDSMT? Please present your evidence that there is a problem.

    John-

    Please present your evidence that there is a problem at SDSMT that needs to be addressed. If you don't have any evidence, please retract your claims.

    Douglas-

    What experience do you have with SDSMT? You're making baseless claims. Please present your evidence for any of the claims you've made in your last post.

    As an example, I don't know any professor that grades on a curve at any level.

    "Most graduates probably learn more on their first job in a year than they did in four years at SDSM&T." - Wow, this comment shows your complete ignorance. You learn by far the fastest during your entire engineering career while in college. I'm now convinced you're either just a troll, or just so ignorant of engineering that you're succumbing to the Dunner-Kruger effect. Not sure which it is.

    "SDSM&T makes a lot of artificial hurdles for students. At times it is hard not to believe these are constructed so they can maintain an argument that they are somehow superior to Tech schools." - Is this a joke? Do you know how engineering and Tech schools differ? Are you trying to compare Western Dakota Tech to SDSMT?

    "The students who are so brilliant they don't need SDSM&T are wasting their time there and those who are not so brilliant, but smart enough to do good engineering or science are both not being educated or served well by SDSM&T." - Present your evidence. My evidence is that students from Tech have a near 100% placement rate and top starting salaries. This at least shows that the grads are valuable to the market. If they weren't educated well they wouldn't be getting jobs.

    "They also need to remove professors who view students as their competitors. They might also want to remove professors who don't think it is anybody's business if professors maintain published office hours or not." - Post a list of professors that you believe meet this criteria.

  20. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.02

    There is a shortage of engineers and scientists. It is not surprising that most graduates get hired, but my guess is that is also the case at nearly all engineering and science institutions.

    There are graduates of SDSM&T who after 4 years of burying their heads in textbooks only eating, crapping, and studying and getting minimal sleep have come out so mentally messed up and socially inept that they quit engineering and scientific jobs in order to take jobs in retail or hospitality in order to gain social skills. Math majors with bachelor degrees only and without a teaching degree find getting jobs difficult.

    It is not my job to publish a list of arrogant professors who view students as competitors. Also, when Amert says it is none of my business whether or not a professor observes office hours and then asks which professors do that, I wonder if he knows what he writes.

    There are universities in the US that are striving to get more qualified science and engineering graduates by improving instruction quality. NPR and PBS highlighted those and presented data showing that some of the programs worked. Universities do not have to eliminate 2/3 of their students in order to have fully qualified graduates.

    For Tony Amert's information, I attended SDSM&T for 4 years and ended up without a physics degree. I was student body president there and also writer and editor of the SD TECH when it was still printed by Espe Printing.

    I also taught highschool physics, general science, and Geometry, but probably did not do a very good job of it.

    I have become more concerned about students at SDSM&T and poor quality teaching and testing over the years and have found that most of my concerns while participating in student government and with school administration then (FL Partlo, L. Palmerton) have not been significantly improved.

    Tony Amert displays the attitude that the problem can't possibly be the result of poor teaching, but only because students are incompetent or lazy or worse.

    Lazy, mentally unqualified students do not go to SDSM&T. SDSM&T burns out students and destroys many students interest in science and math. That is the real tragedy.

    While what follows happened over 40 years ago, I should have realized at the time the psychologist's perceptive observation concerning SDSM&T professors attitude toward students as enemies or competitors should have been evident to me.

    Freshmen chemistry lab. We were supposed to determine what was in solution. The tests were demonstrated. I did all the tests and found nothing. The example tests showed whole beakers turning bright orange when a few drops of reagent were dripped in. I got zero of such reactions on my sample.

    When I got a crappy grade, I asked the lab assistant to show me what I had missed. He doubled, tripled, quadrupled the reagent and finally in the center of the sample, a thread of orange smaller than a sewing thread ran up the center. He practically yelled, "There it is, I see it." Lowell Dieter died in the Rapid City Flood and I can't say I shed any tears.

    L.R. Palmerton (Dean of Students) told us as freshmen that we should check the students on both sides of us, because 2 out of 3 of use would never graduate from SDSM&T. He was at least right about that even if his attitude toward students came out of the middle ages.

    In a computing class, I got a C or B on a test. I asked if there were any A's. The instructor said there had been one. He mentioned the name. I knew the guy and he was one of the smartest, most personable students at SDSM&T then. The instructior then said, "He had such a good grade point ratio (probably something like 3.98) that we didn't want his good record hurt by a "B" in this course.

    Needless to say, that did not help me a whole lot. I ran into a friend of mine who was graduated from SDSM&T. He said he still had nightmares after 30 years of the "Reader No Feed" warning light on the old IBM card system. He quit a job in Geological Engineering because of the coming computerization and his memory of SDSM&T.

    Recently, I have talked to students from SDSM&T who asked their professors what it took to get grades there. One said, that if a student did all homework, attended all classes and passed all tests and spent 5 or 6 hours per credit hour per week on the course, they might get a "C". When asked what it took to get an "A" or "B", was told that a "B" would require more hours of work and higher test scores. And, what about an "A"? Professor said student would have to do outside, independent study. When asked what the study would be, was told students would have to figure that out for themselves.

    The comment of a campus humorist in those days that being graduated from SDSM&T was like stopping hitting youself in the head with a hammer.

    I did not accomplish much at SDSM&T, but I did get President Partlo to state that he did not think students should be expelled for expressing criticism of professors or administration or SDSM&T. That was a policy change in those days.

    Back in those days, there was a film program on campus where rented classic movies would be shown several times of the year. The professor deciding the film choices had never consulted students on what films should be shown even though all funding came from student funds. He finally decided that students should be on the committee and have a voice in film selection.

    Obviously, with $1 DVDs available, that is now irrelevant.

    If SDSM&T actually wants to increase student enrollment and also graduate more of those students, the college must work with high schools and grade schools to get students preparing for such higher education before the are eighth graders so they are truly aware of what is required of them.

    I also hope, most likely vainly, that the new President will make sure teaching and testing improves at SDSM&T and that mental abuse of students ends.

    There is at least one Department at SDSM&T that does make an attempt at actual education. Others should emulate it.

  21. grudznick 2013.05.02

    You should have spent less time at the Hall Inn.

  22. John 2013.05.02

    Tony, please consider reading comprehension. I never said there was yet a equal protection problem at SDSMT - that was your inference. I said, implied, the president-select had a track record of equating due process and equal protection of those who dared be different with merely being "teased" and that she owned the university consequences of the environment she fosters and tolerates. CH and others provided the links that need no repetition here.

    Guardians of the status quo revile supporting a system in which they succeeded whether systemically corrupt or not. The male generals for decades "saw and heard" no evil of female rape, abuse, and discrimination the ranks. Until the dead weight of evidence and experience overwhelmingly showed that the chain of command systemically failed female soldiers. Similarly those few who weather the straight jacket of academic dogma dressed as "quality" justify the waste in human capital they create. Rather than teach, coach, train, and cajole the vast majority to succeed they smugly justify the majority cannot met their oft arbitrary standards. If the university matriculates students into the system the university owes it to the state and the students that the university will train the vast majority of them to the standards required for a degree. Anything less is academic, scholarly malpractice. It's reasonable that a few will fall by the wayside for life happens; but when falling by the wayside is the rule and not the exception then the university has systemic problems.

  23. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.03

    Tony, I don't have first-hand evidence of social problems on the Mines campus. And part of me appreciates the idea that Mines is focused on its practical mission rather than debating social policy. It's rather like the military: we're not here to hold your hand; we're here to get the job done.

    But suppose there are social problems. Suppose Douglas is less than 100% wrong and there are some unaddressed inequities on campus. A president hired primarily (solely?) for her connections and fundraising abilities is not well equipped to address those inequities. Selecting a president like that reinforces those problems: that president will be too busy doing other things to look for and deal with those problems.

    Can we make an analogy to the problem with the military's don't ask don't tell policy? We heard similar arguments against working on equal rights for gays in the military: the military is here to fight war, not do social policy. But that practical mindset covered inequities and drove decent and highly skilled people out of the military.

    Won't Mines be better able to carry out its mission with someone both skilled at fundraising and committed to principles of equality?

  24. Testor15 2013.05.03

    Why do we need a morally and legally corrupt individual running a higher education campus in this state? How did the selection committee come up with her name? Looking at her background, what is her actual qualifications?

  25. tonyamert 2013.05.03

    CAH-

    In a magical world full of perfect candidates of course there would be better options. We don't live in that world. The president was chosen for practical needs. Social issues aren't a problem on the SDSMT campus, to my knowledge. It's by far the most inclusive place I have ever seen.

    Perhaps it's because of the type of student that is drawn to the school? Honestly, intolerance is not tolerated here.

    John-

    I've been nothing but kind and courteous to you. Your first line in your last post is a personal attack.

    "I said, implied, the president-select had a track record of equating due process and equal protection of those who dared be different with merely being "teased" and that she owned the university consequences of the environment she fosters and tolerates. CH and others provided the links that need no repetition here." - What do you mean here? Is your conclusion therefore she shouldn't have been hired? If so, which of the other potential candidates would you have selected?

    "Guardians of the status quo revile supporting a system in which they succeeded whether systemically corrupt or not. The male generals for decades "saw and heard" no evil of female rape, abuse, and discrimination the ranks. Until the dead weight of evidence and experience overwhelmingly showed that the chain of command systemically failed female soldiers. Similarly those few who weather the straight jacket of academic dogma dressed as "quality" justify the waste in human capital they create. Rather than teach, coach, train, and cajole the vast majority to succeed they smugly justify the majority cannot met their oft arbitrary standards. If the university matriculates students into the system the university owes it to the state and the students that the university will train the vast majority of them to the standards required for a degree. Anything less is academic, scholarly malpractice. It's reasonable that a few will fall by the wayside for life happens; but when falling by the wayside is the rule and not the exception then the university has systemic problems." - What? Are you claiming that there is a problem at SDSMT or not? This automatically assume a problem exists. If there is, please let me know!

    Douglas-

    Oh, I see. 40 years ago you had a bad experience at SDSMT and failed to complete your degree. Now you blame the school rather than yourself for failing to complete your degree. You are unable to list a single teacher that currently works at SDSMT that either scores students based on a curve or doesn't have office hours.

    In your world, teachers would spend an unlimited amount of time spoon feeding information to students and writing tests that only ask for that information to be directly regurgitated. Good luck with that.

  26. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.03

    Amert, you are regurgitating the same crap that SDSM&T has been using for 40 years. It was not true or it was irrelevant 40 years ago and it is still the same.

    I can give you names, I chose not too. I could give you student names, but I chose not too. I could give you names of graduates, but I chose not to. This is not the appropriate forum for such a list of names and you know it. That is why you asked.

    I readily admit I did not work with sufficient dedication to get a degree from SDSM&T. I was too easily diverted from mindless drudgery. Those were just two experiences. I could bore readers here with a dozen more, but enough of my whining.

    There are probably only about 3,000 people of all ages in South Dakota of near genius level. There is no way SDSM&T is going to grow to 3,000 unless it fills with Chinese. The current numbers are inflated because regents have recognized the drop in K-12 South Dakota student numbers and urged colleges to make it harder for students to graduate in 4 years by making course and scheduling changes. An extra year dumps another $12,000 or so into the regential pockets.

    SDSM&T has an interesting reputation not because instruction and testing there is good or appropriate, but because often arbitrary and capricious hurdles and gates leave only students who would give any school a good reputation. That is not education. It is an incredibly wasteful and expensive sorting system.

    South Dakota students, parents, and taxpayers deserve much better. Changes at SDSM&T are long overdue.

  27. Les 2013.05.03

    You don't seem to mind the mindless drudg over here Wiken.

  28. larry kurtz 2013.05.03

    mind the mindless mindlessness, les.

  29. Douglas Wiken 2013.05.03

    That should have been "mind-numbing drudgery". Sorry about that despite my criticism, none of it was mindless.

    Posting here is hardly drudgery and most commenters .. even those I disagree with, are not drudges. Also nothing here takes hours of work.

  30. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.04

    I understand the absence of perfect candidates, Tony. We've got to prioritize candidates' abilities. The Wilson pick sends a message about the Regents' priorities. We can only hope that the absence of major social problems on the campus continues, because if problems with inequality do arise, Wilson's record and focus suggest not much will be done about them.

    I'll take your statement that intolerance is not tolerated on the Mines campus at face value and ask a really important question: how'd that happen? Does meritocracy/brainocracy wipe out intolerance? What can we learn about tolerance on the Mines campus that we could port to other campuses that may be having trouble with discrimination?

  31. Testor15 2013.05.04

    Part of higher education, non tech school, is learning how to use your brain to work with others. The discussion here has disappointed me greatly. If social skills are of no importance than Mines is just a glorified trade school. I pitty the grads as they head out into the real world...

  32. Tony Amert 2013.05.04

    CAH:

    I think a lot of it comes from the geek culture on campus. A large portion of the students at SDSMT would have probably been considered geeky and were not socially popular in high school. When they get to SDSMT they meet a lot of people like themselves and find instant acceptance. Generally people that were less popular earlier in life revile anyone who would try to push people out.

    I find that the other schools in the state have a more normal demographic breakdown and results in the high school popularity contest extending into college. I'm not sure how it would be possible to translate this unique result at SDSMT to other schools.

    Testor15-

    Thanks for the useful contribution to this discussion. Your decades of experience with SDSMT clearly makes you an expert on the quality of its graduates and their social skills. Your clear and specific examples in your post make discussions on this topic straight forward.

  33. Testor15 2013.05.04

    No one should forget her involvement in the U S Attorney - Karl Robe - Plame scandal during the Bush years. Just for her part she should never have been considered. A person of such low ethical character should never be involved in educating the future. She is appointed to pad her resume as a thank you for destroying a successful CIA ops organization.

  34. Testor15 2013.05.04

    Karl Robe should be Karl Rove. BTW, thanks Tony.

  35. Les 2013.05.04

    This reminds me of my children and their teachers, all the way from middle school through college and grad on into their first jobs. Abusers of human psyche, driving them to perform through fear rather than teaching or leading they would howl. My reply was, they are educating you for dealing with those types in the world ahead of you, this will pass.

    .
    I appreciate your concern over this gal destroying a successful rogue ops operation Testor. I doubt the children under the rain of drone ops in the Middle East share your concern.

  36. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.05.05

    Geek culture as antidote to social inequality! That makes sense, Tony! And if that culture plays a role in making the Mines campus a more tolerable place, Tony, then you're right: it would be hard to port lessons from that culture to other more demographically typical campuses.

  37. Testor15 2013.05.05

    My concern about her is not just worrying about her destruction of a black ops program but her complicity in the possible murders of operatives doing their jobs. Her political gain was more important to her than any thing else. She chose to destroy people to gain political power. I see her doing nothing to benefit the students in her charge. Everything in her life has revolved around her desire to gain financially and politically. She is being rewarded for her past performance with a public rehabilitation residency at Mines.

  38. grudznick 2013.05.06

    60% of the vote, Mr. kurtz, is more than most libbies would be happy with in this here state. 60% of the vote. That's almost what young Ms. Noem got against that corn dog fellow.

  39. larry kurtz 2013.05.06

    Soon, Noem's buddies Flake and Bachmann will be looking for colleges to commandeer, grud: a feat Kristi will never achieve.

  40. grudznick 2013.05.06

    This is true.

    Also true for the corndog kid, you, and me. The 4 of us should share a pitcher at Ifrits.

  41. larry kurtz 2013.05.06

    is god really dead, grud or she is just fed up.

  42. grudznick 2013.05.06

    depends on the god

  43. Barbara Waxer 2013.06.11

    Along with many others here in New Mexico, we wish you the best in dealing with Heather the Hack. http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3063011.shtml?cat=500
    Heather's insouciant homophobia is well known. You'll also love her non-responses to sexual assault on campus. Amazingly, she knew nothing about incidences of sexual assault and harassment in the military, despite having graduated from the Air Force Academy and served on the Armed Services Cmte.

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