[OT] What's with the Arts School distrib. changes?

[Greg Berge]

I got the Arts School flyer this month and it details changes in the graduation distribution requirements.  Essentially, the categories we all know and love (social sciences, humanties, etc...) have been reshuffled into new categories with British Silly Party names (including my favorite, "Cognition, Knowledge, and Moral Reasoning," which sounds like something from Thoreau's days at the Harvard Divinity School).

Note the College also now offers a concentration in "Inequality."

They're against it.

So my question is, does anybody familiar with what's going on on the hill these days care to comment on the university politics behind it?  Please, no broad-ranging rants about "what has academia come to these days" and yadda yadda.  What would be a lot more interesting, if anybody knows details, is who won what pissing contest in what departments and how come?

Private email is fine, though a public airing would be a lot funnier.

[Scott Kominkiewicz \'84]

I don't know the answer, but I have another question.  I received the newsletter today, and I read the dean's message.  In it, he said that he previously announced his "involuntary resignation effective June 30, 2003."  I'm curious to know the skinny on why the dean is resigning involuntarily.  Another pissing contest?

The new categories don't bother me one bit.  Just as Classical Lit is no longer a graduation requirement, I see no problem with re-shuffling the deck every few decades.  I was amused though with the foreign language requirement, which seems pretty much unchanged except for the omission of terms like "proficiency."  (I'm so grateful that I don't have to go through that again.) :-))

[Greg Berge]

I'm told by my fiancee that the change from "Women's Studies" to "Feminist Gender and Sexuality Studies" is merely us marching lockstep with Princeton (albeit behind a few beats).  Apparently, "Women's Studies" now has approximately the same hemline currency as "Oriental Studies."

[DeltaOne81]

Not a lot of information out there regarding the resignation, but the Sun had some relatively thorough coverage...

http://cornelldailysun.com/articles/6216/

[Scott Kominkiewicz \'84]

Interesting article from the Sun.  Thanks for posting it.  I think that Provost Biddy Martin should become the dean so that we could enjoy perhaps the funniest joke in Rodney Dangerfield's movie "Back to School."  

Also, why did the Sun not capitalize the department name of Romance Studies at the end of the article?  Beej, do you know if this is the Sun's typical style?

[littleredfan]

I think the miscapitalization was an editorial error. Usually they do capitalize department names.

[Beeeej]

Editorial sloppiness?  Yes, that's very much the Sun's typical style.

Beeeej

[Greg Berge]

Do not bring down the dreadful wrath of the Sunnies upon you, Beeeej.  This I have done in the past, but I have learned.

Editorial note: the Daily Sun is a fine paper and please direct all of your hatemail to http://elf.hockey.cornell.edu/profile.php?f=1&id=26.  Thank you.

[jy3]

so i have a question...
why do i not get this a&s flyer?
i think i graduated ;-) ::help::

[marty]

Yes but you graduated in the very hip PC but now oh so old "pre-neo feminist ultra moderne" era.

Face it - it's time to go back to school.  Everything you know is wrong.  The dean now has learned his lesson and is throwing in the towel.

Tradition sucks, history sucks, and genteel Division One Shuffle Board is just around the corner. ::nut::

[Greg Berge]

While Cornell has been a lot of things, it has never been hip.  :-D

I started getting the A&S mailings after I went to their page and filled out the "yeah, bug me" form.  This particular form of self-abuse is not automatic.

[jy3]

gotcha. thanks greg