How far should a student accommodation go, what do you think? Does the media allow itself to get played?
What do you think?
The article below details a fuss between CU Boulder and a geology student. The nub of the disagreement is over whether or not the school is being fair in accommodating a student who has a disability that prevents him from completing one of the classes he needs to graduate.
It's another example of something in life that's complicated, no easy answers here. I thought I would toss it out to see what you think (or to get you thinking).
First, let me back up a step and discuss what an accommodation is. In college classes you as the instructor will time to time get a student who brings you paperwork indicating that they are entitled to, say, take their tests under different conditions.
The most common ones I get are for students who get extra time on their tests due to some attentional issue. I also get accommodation letters from time to time saying a student gets to take their test in a quiet room with someone there to read the questions (not answer them, simply read what's on the paper out loud).
The theory here is that someone may be just as knowledgeable in the content as another, but they need a different way to show that they have the knowledge. Tests, remember, should function as a way for a student to show how well they have learned the content of the class.
For example, in my physics classes, the goal is to determine whether or not a student could calculate the net force, not whether or not their brain encodes written information in the same way as others. Therefore, someone who has a quirk in brain function such that information can't get up off the page and into their brain for processing, but who CAN actually calculate a net force, should have a reader.
As you can likely tell from the above, I have no problem with accommodations. They're always couched as a legal requirement (once the student has been tested and etc.), but I've never had an issue in my classes. Hell, I usually go beyond what the school requires. Physics involves lots of story problems, so I've more than once helped a non-native speaker understand what I'm asking by rephrasing or drawing the question out. Additionally, I've worked with non-traditional students who had a job change and couldn't make it to class for a couple weeks figure out a way to still do the work around their new responsibilities.
My philosophy on this is two fold:
--If you're willing to work and put in the time, I will too. Between us we'll figure out a way to get you over the hurdle that is neither morally repugnant and that honors the expectations of the course.
--When it comes to class policies, you don't just set rules for rules' sake and then apply it thoughtlessly. Rules are there for a reason and, if there is some conflict with a rule or policy, the proper response is to sit and consider the purpose of the rule. Is there a way you can still meet that purpose via another route?
I wonder, then, when I read about this young CU student, what to make of the situation.
First, we would all be wise to acknowledge that the university and the professor(s) mentioned and involved here are at a distinct disadvantage. This young man can (and boy did he--you see later in the article he's a disability activist who's protested CU and likely was savvy enough to get in front of the press and phrase it in a way that the reporters would leap at the story like a shot) speak his mind openly and make any accusations he'd like. The University and professors here cannot. They are hamstrung by policy and also by a sense of playing defense legally. Keep this in mind as you read; we're only getting one side of the story. One other quick note: complaints that this young man has filed in the past with outside agencies have found no wrongdoing. More in the story.
Putting that aside, however, one of the major themes at play here is whether or not the accommodation the student is seeking is fair; is this a case of a crusty old professor unwilling to get with the times or is it legitimately a case where the young man can't pass the class because he can't reasonably do the work required?
This young man has a condition that prevents him from using pencil and paper or writing by hand. The class he is needs to graduate requires field work that the professor insists must be handwritten. The young man has tried, according to himself--again, remember we get one side here, to find work arounds, but none are satisfactory and the university won't work with him.
Is requiring things to be handwritten in a field geology course reasonable? I could see it both ways.
We do live in a modern age and few things can only be done on pencil and paper anymore. The young man tried using technology (as he presumably has in the past) to work beyond his limitation. If the field notes are just as well done and just as clear using some other technology than pencil and paper, why need field notes be done by hand?
There are a couple things I can think of. I don't know a huge amount about geology fieldwork, but it takes place in a field, where you might be days away from a road. If your electronics fail out there and you waste 4 day's round trip to replace them, then what? If your boss needed that report, he or she ain't gonna like the delay. Likewise, if you were the boss and your job didn't need you to be in the field, it would be wise for you to at least have some nodding familiarity with what your employees deal with and how they produce what your company needs. Having never made field notes on pencil and paper, you wouldn't have this knowledge.
Which of the two above weighs more in the hand? I wish I felt more clarity.
On a more pragmatic note, my guess is that the university is actively working to try and get this kid graduated. Regardless of who's right and who's wrong about the course requirements, I doubt anyone up there is actively trying to make this kid's life hard. That is, they probably want him to graduate and then (as the Jesuits put it when someone decides against becoming a priest), "seek perfection elsewhere". And they want it as much as, presumably, he wants it himself.
My hope is that they are able to come to some terms with each other. Get him his class or some substitute, get him moved on, and then life goes on for everyone.
What do you think?
https://www.dailycamera.com/2023/08/26/disability-and-discrimination-cu-boulder-student-effectively-banned-from-graduating-due-to-course-requirement/#:~:text=Without%20a%20way%20to%20fulfill,professors%20in%20the%20geology%20department.
The post above, along with the situation in this below, got me thinking about something.
Does our media, (with or without the their active participation) allow people or organizations to "work" them?
I would submit yes.
First, let me draw a distinct line here. When I say the above, I mean the "news" media and not the opinion pages. Anyone with a functioning brain can put it together that the opinion pages of newspapers are subject to people putting up opinion pieces that are thinly veiled advertisements or arguments for one position or another. That's what opinion pieces are.
But, what I mean in this case is a concerted effort by an organization to get their agenda amplified or forwarded by the news part of an organization. Let me give you a couple examples.
I wrote a ways back about how CPR News suddenly had a couple stories involving the bad things that were happening to instructors at Metro State University in Denver. One was about a pay raise that didn't happen, the other was a bill before the Assembly which included a profile of an adjunct instructor who, coincidentally enough, worked at MSU.
In looking up some background I found that both the adjunct profiled and many of the professors quoted about their salary just happened to be active in the faculty association of MSU instructors. A group which advocated for the pay raises and the bill.
The reporters I emailed with at CPR told me only that they'd received news tips. They didn't say, but I bet if you traced back the source of those tips you'd find they all originated in this faculty association and were coordinated by same.
Turning to something more recent, if you read the two links below (one is news, one opinion and in that order), what you'll note is a commonality. The same company that the opinion writer talks about working for (and suggests others work for) just so happens to show up in the news story.
I wrote to the editor of the paper and to the reporter to ask if this planned or coincidental? I also asked the reporter when and from where the story idea came from. What I got back from each is below. Larry Ryckman is the editor and Jennifer Brown the reporter.
Larry R:
"It was entirely coincidental, and there is no coordination between news and opinion. We have a separate opinion and news editors and keep news and opinion separate."
Jennifer B:
"Yes, it was a total coincidence. And as a reporter, I had no idea the column was in the works. The story idea came to me months ago, and I held onto it waiting for school to start again."
First, can we take them at their word? That's a tough one. The idea that news and opinion are completely separate is not unique to The Sun. It's something that many outlets proudly proclaim as a marker of their ethics and integrity.
If I knew more about their newsroom, I'd be more willing to speculate. If I knew more about the source of the tips and the process, I'd likewise be more willing to wade in (it didn't escape my notice that the reporter didn't address the request for details on the sourcing).
For example, if the Sun was in a giant office building where the opinion folks are on one floor and the news on another in a giant office building vs. one where everyone is two cubicles over from everyone else, I think you can rightly weigh that in your decision.
It is, in short, quite possible that both Mr. Ryckman and Ms. Brown lied. I am loathe, however, to accuse them of something this onerous without more evidence or history (and there is none, just to be clear) regardless.
Besides, it isn't necessary to explain what we see here. Put aside your natural tendency to see patterns in things and imagine your last dealings with a big organization. Did one department have any idea what the other did? It is not implausible that it happened here.
It is quite possible (and quite probable if you ask me) that the organization that pays people to drive students to school worked behind the scenes to make sure the news bent as it should have.
There is a long-established and well trod path that leads between journalism and PR. The semi-permeable barrier separating the two, in fact, allows travel both ways. Reporters move into jobs in PR, and, I would presume, move back to being reporters.
I would not at all be surprised to note that someone contacted the reporter with the story idea and, when they felt a nibble on the line, they stayed in touch waiting for the story to run. That person then had someone write an op ed and send it over to the opinion section so that the timing would be approximately the same. The two then ran on the same day.
I don't know this to be the case, but this is my guess. If you forced me to bet my lunch, this is what I'd go with. I think the Sun got took
If the media do get regularly "worked", I wonder what a solution to the problem would look like? Assuming the reporters don't want to be used as a tool (some do and see it as their mission to uplift one group over another, but not all), what would help prevent them getting taken advantage of?
I'd say a healthy does of skepticism is in order. Consider this the corollary to what I've preached to us, the media consumer.
Reporters should brush up on their wariness and skepticism. Not a cynicism that looks askance at everything, but the basics of not getting played.
This is particularly so when it's a story or an idea that they are intrigued by or interested in sharing. Emotional investment makes us vulnerable.
Questions like, why is this person pitching this story, i.e. who are they in relation to the story? Do they seem overly interested in my timetable or in pushing me to do something on a schedule? Should I take everything they hand me or should I go out looking for references and resources on my own? Would be good ones to run through.
Oh, and don't overlook the power of having another set of eyes on something.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/31/school-transportation-bus-drivers/
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/31/school-transportation-bus-drivers-shortage-car-opinion/