Ethics Professors (Adventures at a Catholic College pt.4) Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 04:05 PM PST Topic Icky People Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a Catholic college that was somewhere in the middle of the "liberal" scale of Catholic colleges. This college had a decent mix of science and non-science offerings, including Communications, Biology, Theology, and even Philosophy and Ethics. At this school, nothing bad ever happened, no students EVER had sex, and nobody was ever homosexual. Then into this perfect universe came some "odd" people. They started exploring starting a Gay-Straight Alliance. To explore viewpoints on this issue, the students, with support of some staff members, began a discussion in the school newspaper, in a monthly column called "Ethics on the Hill"-- the philosophy department's forum to discuss ethical issues. One student and two staff would write for this column. The staff members that would write their articles would submit directly to the newspaper. The student, however, had to submit her paper through the Philosophy Club advisor. This shouldn't have been a problem-- she just had to submit so the article could be checked for spelling, grammar, etc. (Because, apparently, this school does not trust it's own educational abilities.) After working for three full weeks on a three-hundred word essay, running it by numerous staff and student editors to make sure the tone, the comments, everything was PERFECT, or as perfect as a piece of writing can be, the student e-mailed the professor her article with a note saying if he had any questions, comments, changes, etc, to PLEASE contact her via phone or e-mail during Thanksgiving break. This professor, apparently, had other ideas. The author's friend, who happens to be Philosophy Club President, stopped by the professor's office two days later, one day before the submission deadline, to make sure that he had received the e-mail. He had, and he had also rewritten the article so much it was barely recognizable. The President sat in the professor's office for four hours, trying to salvage the article. It was then the president that e-mailed the author with the final article and a copy of her original. Was the overall opinion of the article changed? Somewhat. Was the tone, the attitude, the sound, changed? In almost every way. The professor still has yet to say anything to the author, even though the paper has been printed and the author has asked him if he changed it. This professor teaches ethics at this school. Not only teaches it, but is the head of that major concentration. The Ethics on the Hill article is not the only exploit of this professor. He is also known for giving students 24 hours to complete final drafts of rough drafts it took him three weeks to return. Anti-feminist ideals are his baby-- to the point he will grade students down if they write pro-feminist opinions. Along with all of this, his syllabus reads with mostly 3 words- "at my discretion." Grades, attendance, EVERYTHING, is determined by his personal, does-he-like-you opinion. Delving a bit deeper into history, this professor also has a long history, before he got married and had 7 kids, of dating whatever student struck his fancy at the time, as well as having foggy background in possibly being involved in a few students leaving the school. Is this man qualified to teach Ethics? Should he? Is what he does Ethical? Apparently so, according to the Perfect School Where Nothing Ever Happens. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=625