… work very hard?
Do we have to produce people like Yiwei Zheng, who apparently don’t have time to do much teaching because their business activities take up so much of their day?
Although Zheng’s philosophy writings feature deep thought about morality, he himself appears to be a liar, a smuggler, and a member of an organized crime group responsible for the killing of endangered wildlife.
Zheng, a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Shanghai, China, has operated an online sales business out of his St. Cloud home called “Crouching Dragon Antiques” since 2010. On the site, Zheng has offered wildlife specimen parts for sale under the description that the items were made from “ox bone,” when they were actually suspected of being elephant ivory that was being smuggled to China, according to a federal search warrant.
There are no records of Zheng or the business ever obtaining an import-export license, or declaring any wildlife specimens upon import from any foreign country, according to the warrant.
Zheng’s business activities in buying and selling artifacts has drawn the interest of federal authorities dating back to at least 2011, when a libation cup made from Javan rhino horn was confiscated from him. Agents were alerted because the package did not have the proper documentation for import-export purposes, records show. An agent found that Zheng had illegally shipped the cup…
It’s only when you read all 83 Rate My Professors comments on Zheng that you realize how a professor could pull off running various legitimate and illegitimate businesses, traveling the world constantly, and teaching full-time. Let’s listen to his students.
Very easy course… attendance not required… easy A for sure… very easy… you can cheat on test… such an easy A… beyond easy with this prof. Take this class if you don’t want to take philosophy, no studying involved… Class said it was from 5-745 and we usually got out 615. Gave test study guide that was extremely similar to actual test. Tests were easy if you attend class. Take him if you don’t care about philosophy… Easiest class. Had him for a night class, we always finished in an hour and half AT MOST. Can use books, notes, and practice test on the actual test. No homework ever. No outside work required…. NO FINAL!… He let us out an hour and a half early EVERY TIME WE HAD CLASS… It is impossible not to pass because you get to use all your notes on the tests. I didn’t buy the book and am glad because all you need to know are in the notes you take in lecture. The course sucks, but he is the best Prof to take for it… you never have to go to class. dont buy the book- you never use it. I only went every few weeks and still got an A. He gives review before the ridiculously easy tests. kinda a waste though, i didnt learn much… Class was supposed to be 5-8 and we were always out no later than 6:30… If you’re taking this class just to get it out of the way, take him. The night class was cool because you got out an hour or two early each time… More than likely the easiest philosophy teacher possible… This class is so easy and the professor is cool as anything! =) The tests are easy, hes easy, its great. And you dont have to go to class! Ever….. . he doesn’t even notice if you’re talking on your cell phone during a test… pretty easy class get to cheat on the tests really easy to do. doesnt say anything at all when the whole class is talking. Not too much homework. doesnt want to be there anymore than you do so he makes it fast… He grades on a curve, and he adds bonus points to the tests for no reason. He is sort of a waste of time but you get an easy A. If you want that take this class!!!!…
UD doesn’t want to be unfair. Everyone has ratings they don’t like. But if you go to the trouble to read all of Zheng’s ratings over a number of years, you really have to ask why St. Cloud State University cares so little about the quality of the teaching there. Maybe if they’d put a little pressure on Zheng (doesn’t anyone there read RMP?) he wouldn’t have had time to get in all the trouble he’s now in with the federal government. Plus maybe some of their students would have learned some philosophy.
And a very professional outfit it is.
Morris Talansky: Yet another glorious chapter in the history of the board of trustees whose members include Bernard Madoff, Ezra Merkin, and Zygi Wilf (Wilf remains a board member).
Embarrassing. But at least Yeshiva’s finances are in order.
Whoops. I’m sorry. Original sentence reads:
At what point does a head coach get held accountable for signing players with known criminal backgrounds who get arrested again for similar behavior?
As UD has long noted on this blog, if you’ve bought your diploma(s) from a diploma mill, or if you’ve forged your diplomas, you stand a chance of getting away with it if and only if you content yourself with a middling sort of place in the world. The minute you begin to rise, people start checking your credentials. If you want to go undetected, you must figure out a way to avoid or reject any career event that will make you an object of bureaucratic interest.
And yes, I’ve got a current example.
One Kimberly Kitchen practiced a little estate law out in the boonies for years without attracting any attention. Unfortunately, she did it so well that her firm decided to make her partner. The people reviewing her noticed certain, er, discrepancies in her paperwork, and began looking further.
According to her resumé, she graduated summa cum laude from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh and had taught trust and taxation law at the Columbia University School of Law.
But the state attorney general’s office and a criminal complaint say none of her credentials hold up. Kitchen allegedly forged numerous documents attesting that she was a licensed attorney, including an attorney’s license for 2014, supposed bar examination results, supposed records of her law school attendance and a check purporting to show she’d paid her registration fees.
A forger’s work is never done. But Kitchen could have stayed in Permanent Forge mode for many more years were it not for her apparently unblockable worldly success. That’s what did her in.
America’s highest-profile, highest-paid university coach takes guys like this onto his team, guys whose penchant for choking women is so well-documented that even schools like we’ll take anyone who can hit hard Georgia dump them.
He says he’s giving the guy a second chance because he really wants to help straighten him out.
Actually, he’s giving him a third chance (one million out of Saban’s yearly seven is for overlooking trifles like theft by deception arrests) but this just makes Saban and Alabam’ yet greater martyrs. Never give up on these guys! Others might, but we never will! Because we’re not really a sports team! We’re a family! Choke away, lad! We’ve got your back!
And if Saban turns out not to be paid to give him a fourth chance?
“There are a lot of other schools that were recruiting him and would have admitted him,” [Taylor’s attorney] said.
University of Tennessee: I’m lookin’ at you!
Attended a remarkable recital here in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening by the bass-baritone Eric Owens that featured Schubert’s Fahrt zum Hades, and Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, and the almost awkward sight (until explained) of tears streaming down Mr. Owens’ cheeks during the performance. After intermission, when Mr. Owens returned, he paused to explain to the audience that the reason for his overcome and bereft manner was that he had learned, only an hour or so before he walked on stage, that his colleague, Maria Radner, was indeed on the manifest of the doomed plane and had indeed perished (along with her husband and infant son).
If ever there was a moment when the distant meanings of these distant songs was made real in the present (‘When will these tortures finish? When?’), it was in Mr. Owens’s explanation of why he was so earlier bereft, of the fusing of Schubert’s music with this very contemporary and lacerating intrusion. It all made his entire presentation – his performance, his utter, convulsed devastation – one of the most memorable and poignant tributes to a fallen colleague I’ve ever witnessed.
From a comment thread, New York Times.
Hey – you’re not gonna fuck with our gun rights, are you? Guns and spring break go together like lilacs and crocuses.
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Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst said business owners informed the council that banning alcohol from the beach, where tens of thousands of revelers gather, would devastate business.
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Having multiple college student gunshot victims in your town can make the locals petulant. Panama City, site of the latest mass shooting, called an emergency town council session.
The meeting was contentious almost from the beginning, with [one council member] asking [another] what was the purpose of an emergency meeting and [getting the reply], “We have blood on our hands, and so do you….”
Later, after [a council member] said he didn’t want to see knee-jerk reactions to a shooting that “surprised” everyone, [another] challenged that statement.
“The shooting last night was a surprise to you, sir? … Can you honestly say that?”
“Of course it was a surprise; I was not aware of it until this morning,” [he] answered.
…. “We’re dealing with some of the worst of the worst of the worst [elements] in all of the U.S.,” [one townsperson] said. Some of it can be fixed, but the difficulty in solving the problem is “amplified by the fact that y’all hate each other.”
Here’s the deal, Panama City Beach-wise: What’s good for getting kids shot up is also, as it happens, good for business. You take the good with the bad in life.
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Shoot and the world shoots with you.
Saturday’s shooting was the sixth firearm-related call of the night, authorities said.
Econ professor Mark Killingsworth is one of this blog’s heroes. He’s that rare faculty member who takes up arms against his sports-mad school’s arms race. Killingsworth happens to teach at Rutgers, which means he gets to witness both athletic scandals that make his school a national laughingstock and relentless wasting of student and tax dollars on football and basketball. He has now helped lead the Faculty Senate to issue a set of recommendations that you can read here.
Glance at even a few of the recommendations and you’ll see that there’s no way in hell jockshop Rutgers is going to take any of them seriously:
• Rutgers Athletics should design and enforce a five-year plan to eliminate all financial
losses;
• No capital investment (expansion or new construction of Athletics facilities)
should be undertaken until the Athletics deficit is eliminated;
• No allocations from student fees should be used to finance Athletics…
Yadda yadda. The list assumes the Rutgers leadership gives a shit about much beyond ball games. The president will thank the professors for their very interesting thoughts and ignore everything on the list.
And that’s why Killingsworth is a hero. He dreams the impossible dream.
During one lecture, a student asked a question I’ve heard many times: “If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” My response was and is always the same: We didn’t evolve from monkeys. Humans and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor. One ancestral population evolved in one direction toward modern-day monkeys, while another evolved toward humans. The explanation clicked for most students, but not all, so I tried another. I asked the students to consider this: Catholics are the oldest Christian denomination, so if Protestants evolved from Catholics, why are there still Catholics?
The new member class of Delta Sigma Phi had been placed into two groups of 14 at the Delta Sigma Phi off-campus residence and were locked in a room where each room was given a large quantity of vodka and a bucket of water and were told to drink until everything was gone. At least one new member reportedly consumed to the point of passing out and lost control of his bodily functions. This same member had been to the hospital twice that same week (not known if related to Delta Sigma Phi).
More details:
Members of the chapter took the new members and separated them into two groups and placed each into a room. Each group was given a handle of vodka, a bucket of water, and an empty bucket to be used for “puking”. Each room was given 15 minutes to finish everything (all alcohol). This activity was explained as a team builder, so the new members were also expected to share facts about themselves in between drinking.
Active members including the new member educator were in the room to monitor and would count down the time (15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.). Halfway through the time, members were rotated out of their room to get to know the other group. At least two new members passed out during this activity, including one who lost control of his bodily functions. This new member was placed into a bed. Multiple people vomited into the empty buckets. At the end of the 15 minutes, both rooms were allowed to return back to the party.
