December 2016

Since the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, there has been a reported increase in bias related incidents and hate crimes on college campuses. Hate crimes and other criminal acts can be dealt with accordingly by law enforcement. But what happens to the bias related incidents that do not break any laws? What consequences are there?

I advise a group of young men in a fraternity on Virginia Tech’s campus. As a result, I am “friends” with most of them on social media. Recently, I observed a post from one of them (who is also a member of the Corps of Cadets) which depicted him and several other members of the Corps of Cadets dressed as cholos for Halloween. If you are not familiar with the term cholo, let me define it for you.In sociological literature, it is one of the castas (or hierarchical system of race classification created by Spanish elites (españoles) in Hispanic America during the eighteenth century) and currently refers to Mexican American gangsters (pandilleros). I immediately sent the image to individuals in leadership positions within the Corps of Cadets, the Latin American student organization, and individuals involved in cultural engagement at Virginia Tech. I was thanked for standing up for this injustice and called courageous. I understand how they felt about what I did but I personally did it because it was the correct thing to do and not for personal gain or pride. I was later told that these students were involved in restorative facilitation regarding their choices to dress in a culturally insensitive manner.

I attended a “teach-in” on October 25, 2016 regarding colin Kaepernick and his protest of the U.S. National Anthem. I learned several lessons from this “teach-in.”

Dr. Stephen Quaye opened the dialogue. We were reminded that Black Lives Matter. It is important not to judge (debate) but try to understand (dialogue). Individual and systemic oppression matter. With shame, our agency is lost. The ideas behind “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter” comes from shame about our identities & defensiveness. Guilt is acknowledging behavior as good/bad. Shame is saying I am good/bad. Do not frame people as good/bad. Engage in dialogue, earn the right to name our shame, allow people to be whole.

Athletes have been protesting against governments for decades, so what Colin Kaepernick is doing is nothing new. The idea of dissent is originally found in religion. We have a choice not to swear an oath. This is the original reason the Quakers came to what is now the U.S. There are three places in the U.S. Constitution, not including the Bill of Rights, where the swearing or affirmation of an oath is required.

1. Article I, Section 3
2. Article II, Section 1
3. Article VI

Most U.S. citizens are familiar with the lyrics of the U.S. National Anthem because it is sung before all sporting events and other forms of entertainment or gatherings of individuals. There has been backlash against Kaepernick for sitting or eventually kneeling while the U.S. National Anthem is performed. There are those that call him unpatriotic and say the same about those that support his decision. An interesting radio panel about the “militaristic culture” surrounding sporting events and in particular the NFL can be heard here. The last verse we sing of the U.S. National Anthem is actually a question. Instead of applause at the end, we should turn to neighbor and ask that question.

It is also interesting to know that there are several stanzas to the U.S. National Anthem that are not sung. Stanza 3 in particular reveals a racist agenda.

[Stanza 2]

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[Stanza 3]

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[Stanza 4]

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I have been teaching at Virginia Tech since the spring semester of 2015. The teaching bug bit me and bit me hard. I thoroughly enjoy teaching students, regardless of how aggravated I get with some students. I do what I can to reach out to students that might be struggling. However, the student has to meet me halfway. Unfortunately, some students do not accept my offer for assistance. These students, who typically earn lower grades in my courses, are most likely the students that give me poor reviews on my SPOT surveys. High grades are not given freely in my courses. I have received some awful comments on my evaluations, but fortunately I tend to have more students give me positive evaluations. I do know of a few cases where adjuncts were dismissed due to poor student evaluations and I have also overheard groups of students state that they will group together and make sure each of them intentionally gives an instructor a negative evaluation because they do not like the instructor or agree with what the instructor is attempting to teach them.

According to Inside Higher Ed, “A number of studies suggest that student evaluations of teaching are unreliable due to various kinds of biases against instructors. Yet conventional wisdom remains that students learn best from highly rated instructors; tenure cases have even hinged on it.

What if the data backing up conventional wisdom were off? A new study suggests that past analyses linking student achievement to high student teaching evaluation ratings are flawed, a mere “artifact of small sample sized studies and publication bias.”

‘Whereas the small sample sized studies showed large and moderate correlation, the large sample sized studies showed no or only minimal correlation between [student evaluations of teaching, or SET] ratings and learning,’ reads the study, in press with Studies in Educational Evaluation. ‘Our up-to-date meta-analysis of all multisection studies revealed no significant correlations between [evaluation] ratings and learning.’

These findings ‘suggest that institutions focused on student learning and career success may want to abandon SET ratings as a measure of faculty’s teaching effectiveness,’ the study says.”

“The entire notion that we could measure professors’ teaching effectiveness by simple ways such as asking students to answer a few questions about their perceptions of their course experiences, instructors’ knowledge and the like seems unrealistic given well-established findings from cognitive sciences such as strong associations between learning and individual differences including prior knowledge, intelligence, motivation and interest,” the paper says. “Individual differences in knowledge and intelligence are likely to influence how much students learn in the same course taught by the same professor.”

One thing that I would like to see change in the future of higher education is the access to study abroad opportunities for U.S. students. According to a 2015 report from the Institute of International Education (IIE), only 1 in 10 U.S. students, or approximately 10%, participates in study abroad as an undergraduate. This figure is the total number of U.S. students worldwide.

Let’s compare this to some figures from the same report regarding international students from specific countries and their percentage of students studying in just the U.S. China contributes 31.5%. Inda contributes 15.9%. Saudi Arabia contributes 5.9%. South Korea contributes 5.8%. We can extrapolate from these figures that the number of U.S. students participating in study abroad is most likely dwarfed by the worldwide numbers from other countries.

So where do U.S. students typically go for their study abroad experience? The same report shows that 55% of U.S. students study abroad in Europe. The next highest percentage goes to Latin America and the Caribbean at 16%.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I would like to see accessibility to study abroad programs change. Accessibility for me is the ability for students to participate in study abroad programs. Let me take the time to address some figures from the 2015 IIE report before diving into the accessibility issue. Of all U.S. students participating in study abroad, 66.6% identified as female and 33.4% identified as male. In regards to race and ethnicity, 72.9% identified as White, 8.8% identified as Hispanic, 8.1% identified as Asian, 5.6% identified as Black, 4.1% identified as multiracial, and 0.5% identified as American Indian. Most of the time the accessibility issue is based upon economics. The price of most study abroad programs differ according to the length of stay. As I will show, the prices of these programs vary along with what is covered by the price and the ability to use financial aid for the program.

First, I will use the example of a summer study abroad program in Austria because this is where I went for a 6 week program in 2012. The International Summer School in Innsbruck, Austria is a program provided by the University of New Orleans. The program cost is $5,195.00 which includes tuition for up to 9 credits and all university fees, accommodations in a double room, breakfast and lunch on class days, some field trips and extra-curricular activities, round-trip bus transportation between Innsbruck and the Munich airport on arrival and departure days, nursing services and comprehensive medical insurance. Cost does not include airfare and other personal expenses. Financial aid can be used. The courses available for this program include, but are not limited to, Art; Business; German; Italian; Marketing; Political Science; and Sociology. Approximately 200-250 students attend this program each year from the University of New Orleans, the University of Georgia (partner university), the University of Innsbruck (partner university), and other universities across the U.S.

Next is the Vienna Summer Program provided by North Carolina State University. The program cost is $3,800.00 which includes non-refundable application charge, tuition for 6 credits, accommodation in Vienna, overnight excursions to Salzburg and Prague, tours in Vienna and museum admission, and 3 group meals. Airfare, most meals, and other personal expenses are not included. It is unknown if financial aid can be used.The only courses you can take on this program are one German course at any level and one arts course about art in Vienna in the 1900s.

The University of Southern Mississippi offers a 3 week program which is also located in Vienna. The cost of this program is $3,300.00 and includes tuition, fees, mandatory insurance, program excursions, accommodations, and breakfast daily. Airfare, most meals, and other personal expenses are not included. It is unknown if financial aid can be used.This is a program for music majors and only offers one 3 credit hour course.

Virginia Tech offers 3 summer study abroad programs. I will only look at the program in Prague, Czech Republic for 6 weeks. This program is run through the Pamplin College of Business. Costs includes lodging, class fees, lunch on class days, public transportation, emergency insurance and some cultural excursions. The program fee does not include roundtrip airfare to Prague, dinners, personal travel, books, passport, and visa.The cost of this program depends on the number of students attending. If 25 students attend, the cost is $7,050.00. 30 students: $6,800.00. 35 students: $6,500.00 40 students: $6,200. Financial aid cannot be used.