Tagged: Higher Education

Movies You Missed “Hoop Dreams” Edition

While looking through some old class files, I found a document that began “Why I love hoop dreams so.”  A stream-of-consciousness-no-proofreading kind of document, I realized that I must have written it after showing Hoop Dreams in my independent film class a few years back.  It was my way of listing everything I hoped my students noticed in the film.  So, with better grammar, spelling, and punctuation is “Why I love Hoop Dreams So.”

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Why I love Hoop Dreams so…

First of all, I always go back to that scene. That scene where Arthur watches his father buy drugs. I will never forget seeing that for the first time and audibly gasping at the sight. And Arthur motioning to this father with his left hand, as if to say, “Come here!”, where the roles become reversed, where he tries to take care of his father, instead of his father taking care of him. And the way that left hand stays at his forehead as he watches and we watch… it takes my breath away.

I cried several times during the film and even as I was talking about the film with you, I choked up and had to move on before I cried in front of you. How many Arthurs and Williams are there? And we never would’ve known these two boys/young men had it not been for these filmmakers….

The racial politics are firmly at work in this film. The only black college head coach in the film was John Thompson of Georgetown. Yet the workers, the ones upon whom the biggest pressure is put, is the young black male. Ironically, Coach Pingatore kept leveling the insult to the St. Joe players that they weren’t working. Remember the wind sprints as he yells at them for not working and they’re all bent over, sweating, and gasping for breath? That’s why Spike’s ‘lecture’ about the politics of college athletics is so compelling. On the one hand, it’s a good thing that the Nike All-American Camp directors invited him; on the other hand it’s horrible that they would need to do so. And the coaches talking about how they have to get them in grade school… to “get them” before anyone else “gets them” like these boys (and that’s what they are—BOYS) are a possession. And what an irony that Arthur is called “Man” by his family, because he is the man in regards to how much his family depends on him.

I think about Curtis and Bo reliving their basketball hopes and dreams through William and Arthur, fairly and unfairly. William saying “It’s not right for Curtis to put his dreams on top of [him].” And Bo, saying “Junior”, when someone says Arthur’s name, in an attempt to get his name in the spotlight, just the slightest bit. And both of those men are now dead, killed in Chicago. A fate that could very well happen to William and Arthur—after all Arthur was mugged one week before he graduated from high school. That’s why there is a celebration for Arthur turning 18… because unfortunately too many young men in the inner city don’t make it to 18.

And the stereotypes—remember the radio playing “Go the fuck back to Africa/Go the fuck back to Africa/Go the fuck back to Africa” as Arthur cleans his shoes?

Recognizing the faces at the Nike All-American camp that did make it… Three of Michigan’s Fab 5 that won the NCAA championship their freshman year. Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard all make an appearance in the film. But they were three of how many? I think of my own nephew who went to that same camp. He’ll never win an NBA championship, but he’s getting a top-notch education because of his skills on the court. What do we do about those that don’t have those skills? How do they get their education?

And Arthur’s mother… when she sobs knowing she got the highest score on the nursing test… Sobbing because she knows that she can get a job. At the graduation, a woman sings “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” as the camera pans the empty seats at the graduation. I agree with movie critic Gene Siskel, that’s where there needed to be cheering crowds—at her graduation, not the basketball games. And I’m sitting there desperately trying not to sob with her at the joy. “He IS watching” Sheila.  He is.

I’m always struck by the power of the metaphor of the empty basketball court. William making a shot with his eyes closed in his empty childhood gymnasium; Arthur lingering after the city championship. Sometimes that silence can be as deafening as cheering throngs.

The parallel stories… William getting all of the praise and attention, yet it is Arthur who actually played professional basketball in the IBA.  It wasn’t the NBA, but he was paid to play basketball.

When Arthur plays his dad in a game of one-on-one, the anger and the years of pain come to the surface and you almost relish Arthur sinking that 30 foot shot–as an all-deserved middle-finger to Bo, yet, I don’t hate Bo.  I was a jumble of emotions just like those involved. And what about Curtis who’s unable to make the baskets he once was able to? You see his blank face and know that his mind is probably, unfortunately, numb as well.

And their struggle with basic education vs. my own privilege of getting into college.  Ten plus years ago, the ACT changed their testing procedures so that the average score went from around a 16 to a 20.  I think about William’s struggle to get the most basic score. I think about Jon Holman, whom I graduated high school with. He was nothing short of a phenomenal athlete. First team all-state in football after being an all-state honorable mention the year before; a state champ in wrestling, after finishing third the year before; but not a star pupil.  His chances at a scholarship went out the window. More importantly, without the life skills of a good education (including high school), what opportunities did he have?  I have no idea of what Jon is doing now.  I can’t help but think of A.E. Housman.  …”And the name died before the man.”

I think of the privilege William had throughout… to the point that the encyclopedia lady got his brother Curtis a job.

I think of Arthur and William becoming fathers at an early age and the struggles they are ‘stuck’ with before they even get out of high school.

And I get angry that the film wasn’t nominated for Best Picture or Best Documentary. In one final insult, these young men have to fight to get the highest recognition. It’s not fair and I want that for them, their families, and those filmmakers who spent seven years on this film. The biggest criticism of the film by academy voters… too long. Three hours compared to seven years compared to the lifetimes the ‘characters’ have lived…. It makes me mad even now.

The National Film Registry exists to preserve American films that are significant works of art about the American experience. Films are only eligible 10 years after they were released. In its first year of eligibility, Hoop Dreams was selected to be preserved.  Finally, someone got it right.

All That Mushy Teaching Stuff

I seems as if I’ve been writing “You are loved” a lot lately and you’ll forgive me if there’s a bit too much ‘love’ here, there, and everywhere.  I’ve been writing “you are loved” on the blog and faceplace pages of former students, two in particular, who have been having a rough time of it.  One with stage four cancer, the other with pregnancy complications.  I feel as if I’m sharing private information here, violating a trust, sharing t.m.i. with a nameless, faceless internet.  I’m not sure that I care.  As I see it, spreading the word that these two are loved is all the better, because not enough people can know how special they are.

It feels a bit odd to be confessing my love for two former students.  Surely that’s a violation of some teacher-student code written somewhere in pedagogical ideology.  Should I emphasize that these are former students?  Does that free up some emotional space, some emotional appropriateness?  I admit that I’m always one to carefully look twice before I cross the road from teacher-student relationship into teacher-student friendship.  In this age of 24/7 access, I used to have a very strict policy against social media connections amongst current students and very few students were ever given my cell phone number.  I have colleagues that give their cell phone numbers out to students all the time and have scores of current students follow them on twitter, facebook, and allow students to call them by their first name.  Is this student-teacher bff-dom a sign of the times and I’m horribly outdated?  I have no earthly idea.

Social media has certainly allowed a new era of student-teacher relationships to emerge, that is for certain.  Now, students can ‘find’ you years, months, or days after graduation and reconnect.  I must say that each time it happens, I am so flattered– flattered at the prospect that a former student thinks enough of me that they want to stay connected rather than cutting the bookbag strings and staying as far away as possible.  These two students, that have been on my mind, fall into that ‘flattery’ category.

I’m always struck by that moment when former students move from the Miss, Professor, or Doctor Darnell relationship into an  Amy Darnell relationship.  Sometimes when they call me by my first name it’s awkward for both of us.  For me, it’s as if I expect Mr. Hankins, Dean Van Tassel, or Dr. Brouder, or some other administrator to be nearby and I can’t stand the thought of disappointing.  (I have a bit of a Catholic guilt problem and I’m not Catholic.)  Other times I tell them that plenty of time has passed and I think it’s good if they no longer call me “Professor.”

Interestingly I don’t think either of these students hesitated a second calling me by my first name.  I can’t say that it was a surprise.  Hearing one of them call me “Honey,” well, that one took me by surprise and I attributed it to some really good medicine.

As a communication teacher and practitioner I can’t help but think about the linguistic relativity of it all.  Surely, the name we put on things, on people determines the ways in which we think about that thing, that person.  I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten away from this concept my entire life.  My family always referred to my brothers by their formal first names, but all of their friends called them by their shortened nicknames.  To this day, I’m not sure I really know who Mike and Phill are.  I have students that offer up really casual nicknames to me on the first day of class and as I told one young woman, “That’s a bit too intimate for me.  I’ll stick with your first name.”  So, am I letting my profession down when I move from Miss Darnell to Amy or “Honey”?  Am I letting down my one-time student if I take a breath of air when she moves beyond Professor to call me Amy?  I can only remember a handful of former students referring to my parents by their first names.  Is it merely a different time?  Is it the difference between high school and college? Is it really about that frou-frou topic of love?  That once we start to care for students and students begin to care about their teachers, that we change the names with which we refer to people?  Titles don’t necessarily breed the deepest concern and care.

I’m not sure I have an answer.  All I know is that to J.S. and H.B., I wish you only best.  The best is simply karmic reciprocity.  Be well.

Love,  Amy

Really We Don’t

This article from Forbes, “Dear Student: I Don’t Lie Awake At Night Thinking of Ways to Ruin Your Life,” highlights so many of the same things I have written in my own grading philosophy.  In a wonderful beginning, Art Carden cites 1 Corinthians 13:11 as a way of understanding the frustrating quicksand of professors, students, and grades.  Do yourself a favor and read Carden’s insights on the the topic.

New Year in Education Resolutions

This post by Paul Stoller in the Huffington Post highlights some of the tiring dilemmas in Higher Education. Among his assertions is that, “Higher education should be more than a system for processing student bodies. Indeed, it should be the serious attempt to teach young people how to be in the world–an attempt that will set a course for the future.” More importantly, I hope that students may take him up on his challenge in the new year and new semester…
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for college students: make a habit of visiting your professors and discussing the world of ideas. Taking such a small step will not only be rewarding for students and professors, but will make the university a little less corporate and a little more humane, which means, that everyone benefits.

Occupy Your Education

When I was a Ph.D. student, my desk, in an office crammed with teaching assistants, was next to Jerzy’s. Jerzy, as we all called him, was simply the sagest, coolest graduate student in the program. How appropriate to read his comments about social justice and higher education this morning. Dr. Del Gandio, you’re still sage and cool in my eyes.

Occupy Your Education: A Note to Students about Changing the World

College Game (?) Day

No, this isn’t about ESPN’s sports program that airs every Saturday morning in the fall. This is about the days in the fall that I’ve come to love so very much, but that today seem especially grotesque given the tragedy that occurred and occurs, still, at Pennsylvania State University.

The latest Penn State sexual assault rumors started to make their way to the airwaves and internet screens of the country about a week ago that a former assistant coach at PSU had been implicated in a very graphic grand jury report– a grand jury report that comes after years of suspect behavior on behalf of football players and coaches. These latest allegations claim that over a 15 year period, Jerry Sandusky had assaulted eight boys during activities at Penn State. The most alarming was that in 2002, a then 28 year-old graduate assistant named Mike McQueary walked in on Sandusky sodomizing a boy in the shower. McQueary did not call the police, did not stop the action, did immediately report the incident… Instead he called his father for advice. Later he told head coach Joe Paterno and, allegedly, Paterno told him to let the athletic director know. All the while, a ten year-old boy was dealing with the repercussions of an ill-fated visit to College Park, PA.

Wednesday night when PSU College President Graham Spanier and coach Joe Paterno were fired for their ‘mishandling’ of the abuse allegations, students took to the streets to protest, to scream their dissatisfaction at the firing of their coach– not the actual leader of their university, but the metaphorical leader of their school.

As I was watching the coverage of this disgraceful embarrassment on ESPN, commentator after commentator kept talking about how hard this was for the Penn State community. Matt Millen was especially distraught that his former coach had been fired. It was just so unbelievable to him and he knew that these next few days would be hard to get through for everyone at Penn State. I shouted at my television over the incredulity of these ‘experts’ never mentioning the victims, the boys assaulted by Sandusky, the boys who were allowed to be assaulted after the first allegations in 1998 were made. I waited for Kirk Herbstreit to offer his perspective. I’ve always felt a connection with Herbstreit for several reasons, but tonight it was because he seemed to be the only one on ESPN to ‘get it.’ “This is not about football,” he implored us all to remember. He would only briefly speak to the imagined devastation ignorant fans were experiencing. He focused on the issue at hand– that the men with the power to protect the victimized boys appeared to do nothing so as to protect the institution that is/was Penn State football.

I used to love Penn State football. That ‘used to’ is not hyperbole. I cannot ever imagine rooting for PSU again. I first became enamoured with PSU football when I read the book Something for Joey, the story of Penn State’s only Heisman Trophy winner, John Cappelletti and his younger brother Joey. The story of John’s athletic prowess while leukemia racked the body of his younger brother made me want to go to Penn State. Surely there was something special about that place to produce such people. And being a teenager, I probably was hoping I might meet another handsome quarterback like Todd Blackledge. Yes, my admiration of PSU wasn’t always based on the best criteria. I was excited when Penn State joined the Big 10. I felt like I had two teams to root for–my hometown Ohio State Buckeyes and those boys in blue. But no longer. If the allegations and cover-up weren’t enough, the way the Penn State community has reacted is enough to turn anyone away. Much like the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal has driven people from their church and their faith, so too, will this institutional deceit amidst horrific abuse, drive people from Happy Valley.

My turn away from the Nittany Lions was confirmed this morning when reporters in the Beaver Stadium parking lot remarked that you could smell the barbeques going, that the tailgating was underway. Tailgating. Because a child sexual abuse scandal makes me want to cook out and play cornhole. Eventually the Lions took the field to the cheering masses. Hooking elbows, rows of three walked onto to the field while the adoring fans clapped and shouted. As the ESPN cameras panned around the stadium, I noticed that not all of the fans were cheering. Many stood in silence. Maybe I had been wrong. And then the cameras went back to the players walking in, and #81, Jack Crawford, raised his left arm encouraging the cheers and confirmed I had not been wrong.

The Nebraska and Penn State players met at midfield to kneel in prayer and the cheers continued. Eventually there was a bit of quiet that emerged as a Nebraska assistant coach led the players in quiet reflection. Eventually, somehow, there was silence in that stadium and it felt as if the healing might be underway…. And then out of no where, came thunderous clapping. The cheerleaders with their bows and pom-poms ‘cheered’ to the clapping. Those at midfield were still in prayer. What would it take for the victims and the situation to receive the grave attention it deserved? It was as if the silence was too much for the Penn State community, as if the silence forced them all to reevaluate themselves and they wanted no part of that. To reevaluate what they hold dear and valuable may reveal the ugly inner workings of a community, state, and country that is in need of serious moral cleansing. The silence may ‘remind’ them that JoePa is not a victim in this situation, that the football players are not the victims in this situation, that college football fans are not victims in this situation, that Pennsylvania State University, in toto, is not a victim. Maybe the reason the silence could not survive in that stadium is because too many fans were still rationalizing the behavior of those involved in the cover-up. Let me borrow from John Scalzi in his post entitled “Omelas State University” and say that those still rationalizing the behavior of Paterno et al, are “fucking cowards.” Silence could not survive today because the monsters appear when it’s too quiet. And we all know that there are throngs of monsters in Pennsylvania right now.

Penn State lost today to Nebraska, 14 to 17. Oh they lost alright. We all have lost.

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Penn State Riots
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Photo of the Week, 6 November 2011

It’s day four of the SIUC strike. A federal mediator has been asked to come in to facilitate negotiations and will hopefully arrive today. Until then, the students of SIU deserve better. Chancellor Rita Cheng reports that only 5% of the students at SIU are being adversely effected by the strike. Hmmm… that equals out to 1,001 students. I surely would hope if I were in that group she would value my education. Dr. Suzanne Daughton’s sign says it all. SIUC students need their actual professors, not substitute teachers. I cannot imagine the debacle SPCM 510– Rhetorical Theory would’ve been if I hadn’t had the wise and gracious instruction of Dr. Daughton.

Accept no substitutes SIU.

SIU Strike– Day Two

It was a small gesture, but today I wore all maroon, thinking of my friends, faculty, and former academic community at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. The faculty and administration still appear to be unable to reach an agreement that would return the faculty to the classroom. Following the strike on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, the frustrations of all involved are already incredibly large. Students aren’t receiving instruction. Graduate teaching assistants are being asked to ‘substitute teach’ for the professors who are on the picket line. Rumors circulate that qualified ‘substitutes’ will be flying in next week to teach the students.

In short– what a mess.

I was introduced to Shaheen A. Shorish via the share function on Facebook. A dear faculty member I studied with had met Shaheen on the first day of the strike. Her testimony to the SIU administration and for quality education at SIUC was moving and inspiring. I asked if I could share her thoughts with you and she graciously agreed.

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Student Veteran at SIUC Demands Leadership

November 2, 2011

Dear Chancellor Cheng,

I am a service-connected disabled veteran of the Navy. I was involved in the Gulf War and Operation Provide Promise, one of the largest humanitarian airlifts in history. Those experiences taught me well, especially about leadership, which I now find lacking with your administration.

As a veteran with educational benefits earned from my service, I could choose any state university in Illinois. I could also have chosen The Art Institute or University of Phoenix, both for-profit institutions that market heavily to veterans. However, AI is currently being sued for $11 billion for fraud by the US government, and the University of Phoenix settled a fraud whistle-blower case for $78 million in 2009. These cases dealt with profiting from government funds in creating degree mills. Clearly, these were not institutions that respected veterans, and were in fact all about the dollars, not about the students.

I instead chose SIUC. The program I was interested in initially, Cinema, came with a respectable reputation for excellence. I am now a triple major (Cinema, Philosophy Pre-Law, and General Studio in Art and Design, with a minor in Art History) and in the Honor’s Program. I chose this academic track due to the amazing display of knowledge and leadership shown by SIUC’s professors.

This brings me back to leadership. As Chancellor, it is your duty to ultimately serve the University’s interests. The University’s interests are to serve the students. The students are best served by having quality faculty. I think most would agree that the reputation of a University rests upon the shoulders of their professors. One in the military might say that the University has a mission objective: to educate, and educate well. All other mission objectives are used to support the primary objective.

During the Gulf War, we called one of the factors that ensure mission success “command climate.” Given that four unions on your watch have agreed to a strike, I would say that you have a toxic command climate as a result of a failure to lead. Your inability to maintain unit cohesion in the face of adversity, your inability to create trust in command, your inability to foster an overall communication between “Officer Leadership” (administration) and “Immediate Leadership” (faculty and staff) are outward signs of your lack of skills in negotiating. You offer excuses to justify the situation you are currently in.

In the military, we have an expression: “Excuses are the tools that built the house of failure.” What you have here is a failure to communicate, and you should be offering solutions instead of excuses. Snarky emails and messages on your Chancellor webpage about how the unions are behaving instead point to your inability to contain the situation, not to anything else. I challenge you to ask any veteran what happened to them when they gave excuses either in Basic Training or during a military operation. Why should your excuses pass review when your own veteran students would never tolerate such lax standards?

Every veteran on your campus is here because SIUC has prided itself both in academic excellence and in creating a welcoming environment for those returning from war. This means that every veteran on your campus desires that a degree from SIUC hold merit, to be competitive in the job market, and to be worth the government funds SIUC reaps from our service defending this country.

We all arrived at SIUC with the expectation that the professors with whom we register for classes would be the professors we actually get. Your statements, and the statement from university spokesman Rod Sievers, “We think we can fill the classrooms with qualified instructors in almost every case,” informs us veterans that our professors are wholly replaceable, and therefore your university does not stand on its own merits of accomplished professionals in specific fields of study, but is in fact a degree mill.

This brings me to fraud. I enrolled as a student in SIUC due to the curriculum and the quality of the professors upon which the reputation of this university rests. When you and Mr. Sievers make statements that say your entire faculty are nothing but widgets, then I begin to think I have been lied to by your recruitment literature. If replacement is so easy, what then could make SIUC any different from any other university? Or is SIUC just after my government benefits after all? Like University of Phoenix? Like The Art Institute?

If you allow a strike to happen on your watch, I will rightfully assume the scabs you permit to teach my classes will not have any knowledge about where we are in our class work, and I will hardly waste taxpayer money to teach the teacher in catching up. I have a degree to attain; I am not here to waste my precious class time in educating someone who does not even know my name, much less the material.

Fraud. Failure to lead. As a veteran, I am insulted. My benefits have a time limit, as is the case with every veteran here. How dare you waste our hard-fought benefits by incompetency and mismanagement. We have come from battlegrounds and war zones. We know leadership but have also seen incompetence, usually at the cost of someone’s life. We survived horrors just to get here. And now we are faced with unprofessionalism and incompetence from the highest point in leadership.

You need to rectify this situation. You need to create a healthy command climate. Your mission objective has been compromised. Abide by your duty.

Sincerely,

Shaheen A. Shorish

USN 1990-1993

ATAN,Plane Captain: CH-53e

Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 4

Junior at SIUC

GPA. 3.77

Dean’s List

Minority Filmmaker Award Recipient

Military Awards

Navy Unit Commendation,

Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation

National Defense Service Medal

Southwest Asia Service Medal with 1 Campaign star

Armed Forces Service Medal

Humanitarian Service Medal

Sea Service Ribbon

Liberation of Kuwait Medal (Kuwait)

Certificate of Completion for Avionics Technician Course, A1, NATTC Millington, TN.

Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Performance on Physical Readiness Test.

Certificate of Recognition for Cold War Service

Honorably Discharged

My resume

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For more information concerning the strike, you may want to consider these sources.

SIU Official Site

Occupy SIU Blog

@OccupySIUCTeam on Twitter

Facebook page protesting student censoring

Which Side Are YOU On?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my Ph.D. alma mater, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Today, as of midnight, the Administration of SIUC and the Faculty Association could not reach an agreement thereby resulting in a strike. The issue is NOT as simple as higher salaries for tenured and tenure-track faculty.

The statement by Faculty Association David Johnson President makes the issues at hand abundantly clear. The University has made their position abundantly clear also– opposition to their desires will not be tolerated or given even the simplest regard or courtesy.

SIUC has resorted to juvenile and, ultimately, disheartening silencing techniques to those that support the faculty in their strike. I am one of many who posted my support of the faculty on the SIUC facebook page. Once personnel in charge of the site came to work today, my message was deleted and I was blocked from posting any other messages to their facebook page. In the past hour I have watched comment after comment appear on the page, only to be deleted from the page minutes later. What an embarrassment!!! A public institution of higher learning blatantly censoring messages from its community of current students, faculty, staff, and alumni?

Now granted I expected the University to put its public relations team into overdrive to make the faculty look like the bad guys, especially when three out the four unions considering a strike settled yesterday. But those of us who are able to understand the situation know that this is classic spin that only contributes to the lack of transparency the faculty are fighting for, in the first place.

Perhaps what is most frustrating is to follow the strike on sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. This morning on Twitter @mattmoberly posted this: Glad to see @SIUC professors striking at 630 am. When is the last time that they got up at 630 for their students benefit? Never! #firethem
I quickly tweeted to him that he has no idea of the number of hours his professors spend on his education. He’s certainly not alone in voicing their distaste for the strike. In the comments section for the above video, on YouTube, someone offers, “This is what parents are paying for?” And on Twitter a student admitted that he had just crossed a picket line for the first time, but was excited that he got extra credit from his professor. “Thanks Dr. Ruffner,” he tweeted.

These anti-faculty comments are the same types of comments that were used against the unions in Wisconsin and Ohio. And they’re the same comments that permeate the Occupy Wall Street pushback. Unions are not evil, nor are they perfect. Unions protect those who have little to no other form of protection. Through all of these incidents I’ve had two mediated messages running through my mind. The first is the coal mining union song written in 1931 by Florence Reece of Harlan County, Kentucky.

“Which Side Are You On” was written on the back of a calendar that hung in her home when authorities invaded her home looking for her husband, a union member. Quite simply, the question “Which side are you on” is a life mantra. Which side of any issue, any problem, any solution– Which side are you on?

The second piece of media is a speech delivered by President Andrew Shepherd in the film The American President. After attacks on his personal character, all for the purpose of political gain, Shepherd finally has enough with the bureaucratic machinations of Washington D.C. and delivers an impassioned speech about those times when we ‘blame them’ for ‘our’ problems.

We do have serious problems that demand serious solutions. I believe in the faculty of SIU and their ability to educate their students. They deserve better. The students deserve better.

I stand, in solidarity, with the faculty of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. That is the side I am on.