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Pharaoh Tutankhamen
Credit Ancient Egyptian Art website
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From: "Raymond A. Winbush"
Reply-To: rwinbush@usit.net
Organization: Fisk University
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: Re: What is Olin?
Athenians et al.,
Here is an excerpt from a 1991 article on the Olin Foundation in terms of their
grants that year. The complete article can be found in:
Mullen, Liz (1992) "Olin Foundation Gives Millions To Higher Education" _The
Chronicle of Higher Education_ , p. A31.
"...The problem, as some academics see it, is the conservative cast of the
foundation's goals and its use of millions of dollars to support activities that
directly challenge the spread of diversity and multiculturalism on campuses.
Far from promoting objective, dispassionate scholarship, as it claims, the Olin
Foundation has an explicit political agenda, with ties to officials in the
Republican Party, these critics argue.
...For an idea of who's hot on the academic right, a look at the annual report of
the John M. Olin Foundation is instructive.
Listed among the Olin Foundation's grant recipients in 1991 are many of the
critics who have recently made a name for themselves writing about what
they believe to be the leftist bias in higher education.
A sampling of the grants that the foundation awarded last year, according to
its forthcoming annual report:
* $98,400 for a research fellowship for Dinesh D'Souza at the American
Enterprise Institute.
* $100,000 to the Center for Individual Rights, in Washington, to establish an
"academic freedom defense fund."
* $125,000 to the National Association of Scholars for educational activities.
* $20,000 to Clark University for a book by Christina Hoff Sommers on
academic feminism.
* $800,000 to the University of Chicago for programs and fellowships at the
Olin Center, a program directed by Allan Bloom.
* $25,000 to the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research for research
on multiculturalism by Linda Chavez.
* $92,000 to Vanderbilt University for a project run by Chester E. Finn, Jr.,
"to advance [the] movement for educational reform."
* $18,000 to New York University for a book by Carol Iannone on
multiculturalism.
In addition, at a meeting last month, the foundation approved several other
grants:
* $175,000 to the Hudson Institute for a fellowship for William J. Bennett.
* $114,000 to the Madison Center for Educational Affairs for the Collegiate
Network of college newspapers and for "Diversity" magazine. The foundation
also approved a $60,000 grant to the center for "The Common Sense Guide to
American Law Schools."
* $100,000 to the National Association of Scholars to establish the National
Academy for the Advancement of the Liberal Arts, which is intended to serve
as an alternative accrediting group to the Middle States Association of
Colleges and Schools..."
--------------
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 96 08:54 EDT
From: "Mary Lanser"
Subject: Re: What is Olin?
To: cgrimes@nature.berkeley.edu
Cc: athena-discuss@INFO.HARPERCOLLINS.COM
In-Reply-To: cgrimes AT nature.berkeley.edu -- Fri, 31 May 1996 18:51:55 -0700
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You forgot to remind the fellows with the florid faces that in the
marketplace of "public" policy and opinion we are ALL expendable if the
wind shifts just so. And if some of you think that Chuck's post reeks of
mindless conspiracy propositions--get one of the historians on the list to
give you the definition of "patron" as it has been played out in the history
of ideas. Reviunenlightened the period of enlightenment was for some of t
of the lessor luminaries--who may have burned less brightly since they were
s angrier god.
mary lanser
----------------
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 07:33:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Daniel P. Tompkins"
To: athena-discuss@cortez.nis.newscorp.com
cc: athena-discuss-digest@info.harpercollins.com
Subject: NEH
In-Reply-To: <199606020405.AAA14299@cortez.nis.newscorp.com>
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David Meadows has asked about funding for "left" and "right" issues.
Some quick comments.
a) A lot depends on what one defines as left and right. David mentions
Sarah Pomeroy's book on ancient women, but that was from the beginning
deemed a pretty safe and conventional, but good, piece of work, positively
reviewed
by Ernst Badian in NY Review of Books as I recall. Not an exercise in
bomb-throwing. Feminists more interested in the relations of class and
gender in the 70's had a harder time of it.
b) The assault on the academy--and I say the academy not just "leftists
in the academy" or some such because I really believe the aim is to
discredit us as a group--comes not only from Olin but from the Bradley
Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and from the National Endowment for
the Humanities when Lynne Cheney was running it (see her miserable
pamphlet, "Telling the Truth," which embarrassed even Dinesh D'Souza);
also from the Wall St. Journal editorial page. it is very much in the
interest of this list to attend to and deal with this ongoing assault.
It is not just a matter of certain scholars being attacked but of whole
institutions. Pay attention to state legislators and what they say; read
what mass-market newspapers say (Peter D.: is that idiot still writing
for the Chicago Sun-Times orTribune, the guy who makes fun of the Modern
Language Assoc. every other year?). Schools are underfunded. Our
students--the evidence on this is easy to come by--are poorer than
they've ever been, and hammered by the conversion (since 1980) of grants
to loans. In NYC students are being forced out of school by the new
workfare rules: at a time when not only power but even survival will
depend in part on a good education.
So the attacks on certain scholars are going to get used to demean the
entire educational mission of our schools, esp. large urban schools that
are particularly under the gun (Wayne State, Temple, etc.). Shifts in
funding, from state to state, from universities and to prisons etc.
demonstrate this.
David Meadows is a smart person, who can contribute a lot--who does
contribute a lot. He speaks his mind and I don't always agree with him.
This post is aimed not so much at him as to the list. (David is also
Canadian, so there's no reason why he should be knowledgable about all
the NEH stuff.)
Dan Tompkins
-------------
From: John Woodford
Subject: Re: Attacks on universities
To: FISHERGM@jmu.edu
Message-id:
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Fisher's description of the high-level assault on and subversion of higher
ed is the most important post on this list. This is real discovery--when we
find out that certain moves we saw on individual campuses fit into a large
and, to me, obviously planned transformation of university life. What the
Egyptians and Greeks did or not do to or with or for each other is a red
herring by comparison.
The establishment of centers and institutes at the epxense of academic
departments, the assault on tenure (masked as a defense of "minorities")
the imposition of phony liberal behavioral codes upon the students (also
masked as a defense of "minorities"), the hooking up of computers to take
the role of faculty, management gurus. ... this is what's happening. I
hope Fisher's observation is translated into vigilance and organization by
the faculty.
-------------
Original Text
>From FISHERGM@jmu.edu, on 6/2/96 12:37 PM:
Daniel Tompkins wrote:
>From: IN%"pericles@astro.ocis.temple.edu" "Daniel P. Tompkins"
2-JUN-1996 07:31:16.65
>To: IN%"athena-discuss@cortez.nis.newscorp.com"
>CC: IN%"athena-discuss-digest@info.harpercollins.com"
>Subj: NEH
[snip]
>b) The assault on the academy--and I say the academy not just "leftists
>in the academy" or some such because I really believe the aim is to
>discredit us as a group--comes not only from Olin but from the Bradley
>Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and from the National Endowment for
>the Humanities when Lynne Cheney was running it (see her miserable
>pamphlet, "Telling the Truth," which embarrassed even Dinesh D'Souza);
>also from the Wall St. Journal editorial page. it is very much in the
>interest of this list to attend to and deal with this ongoing assault.
Actually, the attack is broader-based than that --- it's coming from
various powerful corporations as well, either directly or through
influence on state legislatures and other agencies, etc. A group
of us at my university having been fighting a battle to preserve
some of the better aspects of academia for a couple of years now,
and it's a tough battle. We've been through one court case claiming
breach of contract by university administrators, which we lost.
We're now going through another case initiated by student officers
of our Honor Council, involving improper actions by our administration
in cancelling judgments made by the Honor Council. We've discovered
in the course of our work that many universities in the USA are
having experiences similar to ours.
One aspect of what looks like an attempted takeover is the formation
of "schools" or "centers" or the like which are undertaking to
teach watered-down curricula. In our case, we have a "College
of Integrated Science and Technology" which is not what it
title claims, at least according to standards and subject
matter which I believe in. Another aspect of the attack is
the attempt to computerize all sorts of things which ought
not to be computerized. This of course involves selling a
lot of equipment to universities. Some administrators
seem to think this will be paid for by eliminating considerable
numbers of what we call around here "traditional" faculty members.
A third aspect of the attack is an apparent conscious
attempt on the part of corporations to use universities
as training grounds for employees in specialized job
activities (which often tend to become obsolete rather
rapidly, at least in such disciplines as we have in our
CISAT: mainly computer science and health sciences (which
trains medical technicians, I think). See for example the
bookm *Leasing the Ivory Tower, The Corporate Takeover of
Academia* by Lawrence C Soley, Boston MA (South End Press)
1995.
"Traditional" faculty members here doesn't refer to people who
hold to traditional curricula, but people who teach in a
traditional person-to-persons classroom or laboratory way,
with human contacts. It includes our teacher of African
studies (who is an African from Ghana). In fact, this is
the first time I've ever entertained the notion that
so-called Afrocentrists were attacking universities as
institutions. I thought they were attacking certain
traditional curricula. As far as I can tell, we don't
have too much of a problem with that here. We have a
considerable black presence among the students here,
and a decent one on the faculty. I haven't heard of
much complaint from black students on the curricula,
although of course individual instructors sometimes are
criticized. I'm not sure it's relevant, but the head
of our Honors Program (which provides honors courses
for especially qualified students) is an African-American
women. As it happens, my wife and I met her in a
store yesterday, and she and my wife bemoaned the fact
that our honors program (which includes a course taught
by my wife) is getting so popular among qualified
applicants that some deserving students who apply
have to be turned down.
>It is not just a matter of certain scholars being attacked but of whole
>institutions. Pay attention to state legislators and what they say; read
>what mass-market newspapers say (Peter D.: is that idiot still writing
>for the Chicago Sun-Times orTribune, the guy who makes fun of the Modern
>Language Assoc. every other year?). Schools are underfunded. Our
>students--the evidence on this is easy to come by--are poorer than
>they've ever been, and hammered by the conversion (since 1980) of grants
>to loans. In NYC students are being forced out of school by the new
>workfare rules: at a time when not only power but even survival will
>depend in part on a good education.
>
>So the attacks on certain scholars are going to get used to demean the
>entire educational mission of our schools, esp. large urban schools that
>are particularly under the gun (Wayne State, Temple, etc.). Shifts in
>funding, from state to state, from universities and to prisons etc.
>demonstrate this.
These attacks may well be part of a conscious strategy. In any case,
some corporate interests will no doubt be quick to take advantage
of dissension among scholars which can be used as propaganda for
their undertakings.
>David Meadows is a smart person, who can contribute a lot--who does
>contribute a lot. He speaks his mind and I don't always agree with him.
>This post is aimed not so much at him as to the list. (David is also
>Canadian, so there's no reason why he should be knowledgable about all
>the NEH stuff.)
>
>Dan Tompkins
Gordon Fisher fishergm@jmu.edu
----------------
From: Emiliano Zapata
To: Tom Powers
cc: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com, dissent@elk.uvm.edu,
can-ar@pencil.math.missouri.edu,
Multicultural List ,
Multicultural Education Discussion
Subject: Re: The Southern League
In-Reply-To: <9604058313.AA831322871@USCSUMTER.USCSU.SCAROLINA.EDU>
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Senor:
Indeed, this is as critical an issue as it is complex. As for the
potential and capacity of the more than predominantly white US academic
class to address it effectively, I am audaciously hopeful but not
optimistic that it can.
Why? As an anti-racist organizer and educator I have had the experience of
watching legions of high intellectual minds completely shut down at
various points in the struggle to answer a central question: "What does it
mean to be white?"
Another question which tends to incite white intellectuals to anger in
its most visceral forms is: "What is white culture?"
Yet another stumbling block for white intellectuals seems to be that at
some point almost all knowledge production is marshaled by the state and
its agents to reinforce what us non-whites perceive as white cultural
hegemony.
I also want to qualify here that there are ALANA intellectuals
(African/Latino-a/Asian/Native American) who are vulnerable to the same
quags which ultimately contribute to the allowance of such intellectual
perversions (my bias here) as the Southern League.
As I have witnessed so far on this list, there is also a tendency among
white intellectuals (and ALANA ones in denial or undercover) to view race
separately from the ideology of white supremacy/racism, or to view race as
"ancillary" (thank you Senor Meadows) when in fact euro-derived Yanqui/Reb
culture is predicated in significant ways on race constructs. Please
forgive my shorthand here in not offering a complete scholarly treatise
with annotated footnotes (which I admire when these come my way).
Your post raised many important points and I am offering this view: the
Southern League and Lefkowitz zealous protection of the white academic
domain from the terrors of Afrocentric indoctrination of students (no one
else does that on college campuses ;) ) are part of the same dominant
cultural continuum.
All for now. Flame retardant garments have been donned. Composite flame
resistant shields are up. Thunderbolt scanners on.
Cordially,
eZ
----------------
From: SMTP%"m.levi@ix.netcom.com" 4-JUN-1996 02:46:18.15
To: EMEAGWALI
CC:
Subj: P. S. from Kate
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From: m.levi@ix.netcom.com (M.Levi)
Subject: P. S. from Kate
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In 1990, Piotr Michalowski made the following observations about NES:
"The interpretation of texts from ancient Mesopotamia is dominated by a
strongly anti-theoretical philological tradition that often looks with
derision and suspicion at attempts to discuss hermeneutic issues. The
immense difficulties involved with basic matters of establishing
reliable text editions, reference grammars and dictionaries have
provided a seemingly impenetrable barrier of arguments against critical
reflection, and have conspired to postpone interpretive issues to a
mythical time when the groundwork will have been laid, and a happy
generation of grateful scholars will have the leisure to indulge in
such undignified and unscholarly labors."
"One may, of course, note that it is not possible to provide these
"foundations" without critical thought, and that matters of
interpretation are involved from the very first moment that one
approaches a text; this is often viewed as mere quibbling, however.
The matter is primarily sociological: certain disciplines of
culture study, among them primarily various branches of Near Eastern
and Classical studies, have been traditionally hostile to other
disciplines, often looking at them with scarcely veiled contempt. At
the same time, however, opinions on the civilizations are offered,
compendia on the culture and literatures are published, and "literal"
translations are produced." [381] "In traditional philology meaning is
simply there. And if one is clever and hard working enough, one will,
with good luck, eventually find it, like a treasure hidden from the
gods." [382]"Presence at the Creation," in _Lingering Over Words_,
1990, 381-396.
It seems that Michalowski also suffers from delusions. Don't bother to
go after him, David. He's got tenure.
Kate
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