Tufts University restricts free speech, intimidates students

December 24, 2017 • 11:00 am

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) defends free speech on campus whether it comes from the Right or Left, and I support their mission. According to their website, they’ve just completed a long investigation of free speech at the private Tufts University near Boston (home of Dan Dennett, by the way). While Tufts need not adhere to the First Amendment, as it’s not a state university, its own written policies promote free speech. But that’s not the way it shakes out.

Here’s a summary of the results and then a video. The main result of the investigation, in fact, is the video, so there’s no document you have to read. That seems  bit problematic, as the video is a bit anecdotal, but the links on the FIRE website do support the anecdotes. The upshot is that free speech, while promoted by the University, is opposed by students, and even some faculty. From the FIRE site:

Students who publicly support unpopular views at Tufts University do so at their own risk.

That’s the conclusion of our months-long investigation into the state of free speech at the elite Boston-area private school.

While not bound by the First Amendment, Tufts’ broadly speech-protectivepolicies promise students the right to free speech. But a variety of other speech codes at Tufts — like its policies on email usage and sexual misconduct, as well as a bias incident reporting systemthat encourages students to anonymously report each other — render a wide swath of non-criminal speech off-limits. And these speech codes are being enforced.

Students have been systematically investigated, interrogated by police, and punished by Tufts for speech the university claims, generally, to permit. What’s more, numerous students told us the campus climate is “toxic” for free inquiry, with a passionate but small and exceptionally like-minded student body attempting to silence “offensive” or disfavored speech — even reporting it to administrators and police, or characterizing it as a literal act of “violence.”

These mutually reinforcing phenomena create a perilous combination for students who want to speak their mind at Tufts: Open disagreement isn’t just “social suicide” — it can get you in serious trouble.

Here’s a ten-minute distillation of FIRE’s investigation:

Some people have commented on this site we have to excuse these students because they’re young, and they’re just naive and will learn and change their authoritarian ways when they “grow up.” I don’t believe that for a minute. These students are moving into the workplace and continue to enforce authoritarian dogma there. They will become authoritarian professors who indoctrinate students in their ideologies. This is not a passing fad, but something that’s here to stay, at least for a while, and we must fight it as hard as we can. Even at the risk of being called “alt-righters” for supporting the right of anyone to speak according to First Amendment guidelines, the issue is too important for us to remain silent for fear of personal demonization.

To see the depth and breadth of the problem, watch this 9-minute FIRE video (it’s a bit of an ad for that organization), which gives five egregious examples of universities violating free speech and other student rights:

Happy holidays, everyone! I’ll be on the plane to Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) on Christmas.

A holiday nebula

December 24, 2017 • 10:00 am

Reader Tim Anderson sent a lovely astronomy photo with holiday-appropriate colors. His notes:

‘Tis the season to be observing the Great Orion Nebula.
This photograph comprises 30 images each of 60 seconds, taken with a 126mm refracting telescope and a colour astronomical camera, stacked and enhanced to display the gas clouds.

Pune: Science and food

December 24, 2017 • 9:00 am

My visit to Pune, as it was in Chandigarh and shall be in Thiruvananthapuram (the new name of Trivandrum), were at the Indian Institute for Science Education and Research (IISER), which teaches science to undergrads and graduate students, as well as harboring many labs with their complements of researchers, students, professors, and postdocs. You can read more about this small but elite network of institutions here.

These are fancy and well-funded institutes which take their mission seriously; there is not only high-quality research, but groups devoted to teaching and outreach to secondary schools. And of course there are undergraduate courses. Admission is selective: I’m told that less that one tenth of one percent of the applicants get in. That’s far more selective than Harvard.

Here’s the “Main” (Administration) building at IISER Pune, where I am now. This is where I have an office (they gave me a nice room to work in and meet the researchers).

The entrance to the building, lined with bronze busts of famous Indian scientists:

My office, nicely air-conditioned and with wireless Internet. There is an espresso station down the hall, and from time to time a man pops in and asks me if I want coffee or tea. The result is that I am drinking too many cappuccinos!

This is a classroom and auditorium building, and it’s where I gave my three talks here. As you see, the architecture is modern and very nice. 

This being India, IISER Pune has its own high-level cricket stadium. Here it is. It’s suitable for international matches except that it seats only 2000 people, about 1/30th of what they’d need for pro games. 

Nearly all students and faculty live on campus, which is very convenient (and the campus is beautifully landscaped). Here’s the house of the Institute’s director.

A strange cat-related mural on the outside of one of the student residences:

The night before last, we went to a fancy dinner at a hotel restaurant whose name I can’t remember. We sat outside by the swimming pool and gorged ourselves on fancy food, starting with masala papadum, the familiar lentil-flour crispy bread, but this one topped with all kinds of spicy goodies:

Then two rounds of appetizers: first grilled mutton, chicken, and other meats (the Indians excel at grilling and kebab-making):

and then grilled vegetables, some filled with Indian cheese (paneer):

The main course: a HUGE masala chicken dish, more than enough to feed seven people (one guy took home a pi-dog bag). The chicken is overlain here by sculptured vegetables, garnishes. and shreds of boiled eggwhite:

And of course the obligatory basket of rotis. parathas, and naans to sop up the chicken. I can eat endless amounts of Indian bread, which makes me a northern Indian by taste (Southerners and Bengalis prefer rice as their sopping-up starch.) Picking up food with rice balls is an art I’ve not yet perfected, and I make quite a mess!

My plate, loaded (and soon ready for refills):

Before going out for dinner this evening (I am having a rest day), I lunched in the canteen with a local foodie professor. We had a vegetarian meal, but then the lovely Nepalese manager, Ramji, offered to make us an omelet. It came in the form of egg bhurji, in which the egg is chopped up with hot chilis and onions (many variations exist):

After lunch, Dr. Dey and I walked around campus and, besides talking science, inevitably arrived at the subject of food. I mentioned that I had not yet tried the local kulfi, the fantastic Indian version of ice cream. I had heard there was a world-class kulfi shop in Pune, and regretted that I hadn’t tried it. I was informed that, in fact, the student cafeteria had on sale kulfi made in that very shop, so we stopped in at the refectory for a treat. Here’s what the students have on offer; this is very cheap food. At about 65 rupees to the dollar, a full veg or non-veg lunch runs you less than $1.25:

And our kulfi: malai kulfi made with milk boiled down to a thick, creamy substance called rabri. Kulfi varies in quality but I’ve never had a bad one. This one, however, which was thick and not watery, tasting of pure, fresh cream with no detectable ice crystals, was sublime.

 

I will clearly be gaining weight on this trip, and must revert to a severe fasting regime when I return to Chicago early in January.

Sunday: Hili dialogue

December 24, 2017 • 6:48 am

by Grania and Jerry

In India today the Google Doodle celebrates a national celebrity, Mohammed Rafi, a prolific and famous movie singer born on this day in 1924 (he died in 1980). From the very first time when Indian movies featured singing actors , virtually all of that singing was done not by the actors themselves, but by people like Rafi and his female equivalent, the very famous and prolific  Lata Mangeshkar (born 1929 and still with us). The actors, as they do now, simply lip-synched the prerecorded tracks. As Wikipedia says of Rafi:

Mohammed Rafi was an Indian playback singer and one of the most popular and successful singers of the Hindi film industry. Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility; his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor, lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.

Rafi is primarily noted for his songs in Hindi, over which he had a strong command. He sang around 7,405 songs in many languages. He sang in other Indian languages including Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili and Urdu. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhalese, Creole and Dutch.

. . . Rafi was buried at the Juhu Muslim cemetery and his burial was one of the largest funeral processions in India as over 10,000 people attended his burial. The government of India announced a two-day public holiday in his honour

Here’s his Doodle (click on it to go to a photographic biography of the man), and below I’ll put one of the songs he sang

Here are Rafi and Mangeshkar together singing a romantic duet (the actors are lip-synching), “Teri Suniya Se Door Chale Hoke Majboor”, from the 1961 movie Zabak, made in Tamil. (English translation here.) This is the precursor of the modern Bollywood musical:

Some bits and pieces from Twitter

Further evidence of the dignity of cats.

And the dramatic rescue of a frozen bird.

Penguins, because Jerry loves them almost as much as cats. Truefact.

Good news, everybody!

https://twitter.com/natureslover_s/status/943798206063939584

Meanwhile in Winnipeg, Gus is wrapping presents, eager to get his promised Xmas present, a pork chop! He adds this assurance to me, his Uncle, that he’s been a good cat:

I haz bin gud, I promize. Zee, I hepped wif de wrapping, zee how fast I movez. =^..^=

The final word is from Hili in which she discovers an unpleasant truth.

Hili: What am I going to get under the Christmas tree?
A: We don’t have a Christmas tree.
Hili: We have so many other trees.

In Polish:

Hili: Co dostanę pod choinkę?
Ja: Nie mamy choinki.
Hili: Mamy tyle innych drzew.

Hat-tip to Matthew

Slate’s sexism on the SAG awards

December 23, 2017 • 11:30 am

There’s no doubt that the call-out of sexual harassment in Hollywood and elsewhere has been salubrious, and a warning to men to lay off the assault, gender-based persecution, and predation. Sadly, in a new piece on the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards, Slate hasn’t learned where the line should be drawn. Herewith is the text of Rachel Withers‘s new article “The 2018 SAG Awards will be presented by an all-female lineup, because women are awesome.” Emphasis is mine.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Wednesday that the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony will be presented by women, women, and more women, as a mark of what womenfolk have been through this year and since the dawn of time.

Like many award ceremonies, the SAG Awards usually pairs a man and a women to announce each winner—but this year, only women will have that honor. The lineup is yet to be announced, but the ceremony, which has never before had an emcee, will be hosted by Kristen Bell. The nominations were also announced by women, with Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash revealing the nominees Wednesday morning alongside SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris, awards committee chair JoBeth Williams, and awards committee member Elizabeth McLaughlin.

Kathy Connell, the SAG Awards executive producer, told the Hollywood Reporterthat the decision was in recognition of the idea that 2017 belonged to women. “Beginning with the Women’s March in January, it’s been the year of the woman,” she said. “This is a unifying salute to women who have been very brave and speaking up.”

Men will still be allowed on the stage sometimes, like when they win an award, but with female-heavy ensemble casts nominated for Lady Bird, The Handmaid’s Tale, GLOW, and Orange Is the New Black, hopefully we won’t have to see more than a dozen suits on stage for the evening.

Connell insisted this was not about punishing men for their behavior (even though they definitely deserve it). “We don’t want to slight the men who have given great performances this year,” Connell added. “Knowing our membership, I’m sure our men will embrace the opportunity to honor women.”

Since when did Slate become Salon? As for the bits in bold, I can conclude only that all men, and not just those accused of assault, are being demonized.  (“Hopefully we won’t have to see more than a dozen suits on stage”, etc.) If that’s not sexism, what is it?