Yale Tse-tung : ACADEMIC SELL-OUT OR BUY-OUT ?
Tse-ung, the last name of a famous Chinese leader, literally means " to beneficense the East."
Well, that may very well be what Yale thinks it's doing with its Yale/China campus and courses.
But listen up: Yale may be dancing with the very devil Google just dumped at the Junior Prom.
How can Academic Freedom exist in Yale courses in China if those same courses' students cannot use modern search engines to address the Tiananmen Square uprising?
That would be like Yale academic courses existing in Ohio whose students could not use Google to address the Kent State killings.
(That ALMOST happened before Google existed: the Ohio state legislature threatened to shut Kent State University permanently if there was any more student unrest there after the May 4, 1970 murders of four Kent State students by Ohio National Guardsmen who broke up a peaceful demonstration protected as freedom of expression by the First Amendment .)
What kind of Yale professors are going to agree to teach under such constraints and to give assignments which must avoid using the Google search engine since Google refuses to purge Tiananmen Square as a topic from its search repertoire?
Yale is heading down a dubious path here. And dare I say it may be more for money than for truth?
Bux et Veritas.
Beneficense the Blue.
ITS delays switch to Gmail
By David Tidmarsh
Staff Reporter
The Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The changeover to Google as Yale’s e-mail provider has been put on hold.
Information Technology Services has decided to postpone the University’s move from the Horde Webmail service to Google Apps for Education, a suite of communication and collaboration tools for universities, pending a University-wide review process to seek input from faculty and students. After a series of meetings with faculty and administrators in February, ITS officials decided to put the move on hold, Deputy Provost for Science and Technology Steven Girvin said.
“There were enough concerns expressed by...
#1 By Anon. 3:29a.m. on March 30, 2010
Horde is an embarrassment. It is far older and less functional that email systems at other universities, proof that it's not just the architecture at Yale that looks medieval. I don't know who on the faculty raised these objections, but it makes me think they should stick to research and teaching and stay away from IT policy.
#2 By EH 3:59a.m. on March 30, 2010
Debate is a nicety and is generally good in these types of things, but this is a simple decision that many universities like Brown have already wisely made. Let's not be stupid: maintaing Horde over Gmail costs Yale more for worse service.
All three listed reasons are stupid:
1) problems with “cloud computing" -- everything is moving to the cloud, even bank databases and financial institutions. It is cheaper due to economies of scale and it is more effective and reliable because of 24/7 effective support.
2) technological risks and downsides--the security risks are not nothing, but I'd rather entrust my information to Google's web security team than Yale's. Plus, Google has a business to keep: they're not going to sell of my information or let it leak.
3) and ideological issues--like what? Conservatives like privatization/outsourcing and liberals like change/progress. Both camps should be on board.
This is silly. Get rid of Horde.... NOW! I don't have 10 minutes to have my web email access load each time.
#3 By Censorship/Scholarship 5:09a.m. on March 30, 2010
The postponement of the word "Chinese" in this article until the final two sentences screams volumes here.
Sensitivity or self-censorship?
Yale's involvement with a country which obstructs academic freedom needs front and center analysis by a journal with as distinguished a record for courageous reporting as the YDN has had over the century plus of its own history.
Google may be telling Yale what Yale already knows but is too financially involved to admit:
Censorship and Scholarship do not a marriage make.
Paul Keane, M.Div.'80
M.A., M.Ed.
The Anti-Yale
No comments:
Post a Comment