Meanwhile, at Evergreen State?

Question

It seems Evergreen is going to have to cut its operating budget by over 10%, requiring layoffs.

http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/education/article210893889.html

But will President Bridges take a 10% cut in salary?  Of course not!  His Board wants to extend his contract to 2021 and to give him a small raise in appreciation of all the fine work he has done.

Not that I blame them for wanting to give Bridges a raise.  Making ends meet on $350k a year is difficult nowadays.

http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article26115502.html

Answer 1

That must be one of the worst schools I've ever heard of. Always something going on there and it never seems to be for the good of students. Wonder if it was funded by the Clinton Foundation? 

Comments

Rooster, I have been following this just a little bit...and apparently, this kind of nonsense is happening at several or maybe even many universities in the US.

I am not a stranger to social justice, my liberal and progressive credentials are impressive, beginning with membership in the Black Panther Party 1967-9. (I worked in their voter registration projects in the ghettos, and admired their programs like free breakfasts for school children and accessible health care clinics they set up, in many cities.)

This kind of "movement" is unrecognizable under the banner of SJ; I don't understand how it got this much momentum, it is deeply destructive.

Answer 2

Tink, I cannot imagine this direction Evergreen is taking will last very long...sooner or later hopefully the former, it must surely crash. 

As for the board, I saw on another video that at least one member is one of TESC students, presumably one of the SJ types....board might be kinda stacked.

* * *

Have you been following Evergreen regularly? Because I came across an interesting question. Bret Weinstein claims that George Bridges has an agenda for Evergreen that he would be unable to put over if he introduced it directly, but somehow to cater to the SJ movement helps him promote that agenda. The agenda has to do with dismantling the structure of Evergreen, which Weinstein claims has been very helpful as he (Weinstein) works to bring out the best in highly intelligent but marginalized students (presumably POC or other minorities).

The structure I think Weinstein refers to is the student-teacher relationship; you may already know, instructors don't give grades they make long narrative evaluations, and students may stay with the same instructor(s) for much longer than other colleges.

* * *

So (takes deep breath) do you know anything about that, what is George Bridges' agenda that he is using this SJ movement to propel forward?

Comments

Well, Virginia, if that's what Bridges is trying to do, he is taking a (reverse) page out of the standard revolutionary manual:  help the status quo destroy itself, and then you will be free to follow your agenda.

Weinstein surely has a much better inside understanding of Evergreen than I do, so who am I to contradict him, but I must admit that I just don't see it.  What may happen, of course, is that financial realities will force Evergreen and Bridges to follow more sensible policies, much as I suspect they would prefer not to.

And maybe Weinstein is engaging in some wishful thinking, hoping to get his job back, in a new, reformed Evergreen State.

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Ha ha, reminds me of Camus, Tink!