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Monday, July 10, 2006
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Frisch To the latest brace of unbalanced professors, we must add psychologist Deborah Frisch. We’ll consider her only briefly, since it does the mind little good to linger on any specific psychopath. If it’s to your taste, you can view the details of her mind here, following the links provided. Although she has resigned, Frisch’s name continues to appear on the University of Arizona psychology department web page. Every undeleted moment is a moment of infamy. What matters isn’t the particulars -- this Kevin Barrett, that Deborah Frisch, that Aphrodite Clamar-Cohen. What matters is that, in an age of new technologies flushing out the very worst among America’s professors, we focus upon the betrayal of our students by our universities. Our students come to the classroom at places like the excellent public universities where Barrett and Frisch taught naively. Very naively. They don’t know and don’t care about our articles and professional associations and conference presentations. They care about our knowledge and our teaching ability. They assume -- they have every right to assume -- that the person they meet at the front of the room on the first day of class has the full faith and credit of the university behind her. It’s heartbreaking to read the comments that students who’ve been betrayed by their universities write at Rate My Professors. These students almost always begin by mentioning their excitement about taking the course, their interest in the subject. They then flatly state that exposure to this professor has killed forever their interest and excitement. A series of questions usually follows. Why is this person teaching? Why does this person get paid to teach? Why is a university classroom like this one? I thought it would be different, going to a university… It’s not about the professors themselves apologizing or quitting or whatever -- the sort of people we’re talking about are incapable of understanding what they have done. It’s about the universities that hired them making formal apologies to their students, and vowing to do everything they can to avoid appointing people like them again. Universities unable to distinguish between academic freedom and academic malfeasance need to do some thinking. The technology of exposure isn’t going anywhere. *************** Update: Frisch's name has now been removed from the university's faculty website. |