Word: legislationã
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...critics of higher education have long suspected: Concerning pedagogical matters at Harvard, the lunatics now run the asylum.After somewhat heated debate, and much delay, the Faculty finally mandated that professors must offer “Q” evaluations for all their courses enrolling at least five students. The legislation??s sponsor, music professor Thomas F. Kelly, while conceding the possibly flawed premise of the evaluative escapade, however insisted that, to be fair, all graduate-student teaching fellows deserve to be judged by their students. To give greater incentive to fill out the tedious evaluation forms, compliant students...
These vagaries highlight the problem with this type of legislation??namely, that it is arbitrary. If someone’s feelings are hurt, they can claim harassment. Of course, arbitrariness is endemic to the justice system, but our laws should not add to the problem; they should try to alleviate it, especially if aimed at curtailing free speech. Further, teasing and name-calling are part of every young person’s daily life. Learning to deal with that is called growing up and, if intervention is necessary, we usually call that “parenting...
...editors: In her column “Overvalued Legislation?? (Oct. 17), Justine R. Lescroart misses the point in her critique of legislation that would attempt to “correct” the trade balance between China and the United States. Her concern that taxing Chinese imports will hurt China’s economy and create a political precedent for protectionism in the world is probably accurate. However, the main reason we should not be worried about the undervalued yuan is that the major consequence– “allowing Chinese businesses to produce products... whose prices...
...legislation??s political consequences, however, are manifest. By taxing Chinese imports, the United States would adopt a protectionist stance that would set an international precedent contradictory to the promotion of free trade. Further, in forcing OPIC to deny new financing to countries with “fundamentally misaligned currencies,” the bill would distance the U.S. from the very emerging market economies that the government would want to participate in free trade...
...about the Task Force on General Education’s proclamation that “it is important to avoid confronting students with an overly-restricted menu.” Yet the issue of the breadth of courses that will count for General Education was completely neglected in the legislation??which was supposed to merely translate the Report into Facultese—and remained up in the air after several days of debate at Faculty meetings. Like other important details, it has been left to the arbitrary judgment of the SCGE.Similarly, professors fought tenaciously to ensure that their...