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By Professor Doom      One of the many strange decays in higher education today concerns language skills. In times past, every college graduate had to take at least a year�s worth of some foreign language.        Now, I grant that Latin (a common option, decades ago) wasn�t particularly useful all by itself, but studying another language is incredibly helpful for mastering one�s native language. Even my very crude understanding of other languages has from time to time given me some insights into English. I mean, Spanish has such easy pronunciation, French has an interesting adherence to aesthetics, Mandarin has a very streamlined structure (those are just the languages I can at least barely speak). All of them, overall, are so much easier than English.. . I have a real appreciation for people who have learned English as a second language.       Unfortunately, in administrative eyes, foreign languages were a real...

By Professor Doom      It�s so funny how often official policy is ignored; in particular, every campus I�ve been on has had policy regarding equality, that everything is open to everyone without concern for ethnicity, gender, orientation, or anything else. Despite such policy, I�ve seen faculty and administration chosen based on race and gender, and I�ve seen faculty and administration refused promotion or hiring based on being the wrong race and gender. It�s really weird how once a position is occupied by a female, it remains occupied by a female forever afterwards.         Because administration has gotten away with bigoted and sexist hiring for years, it only makes sense that we�ll now see programs in explicit violation of written policy : Claremont McKenna College is set to offer a program restricted to non-white individuals who feel they have experienced race-related stress. The college is officially funding the program, and its ad...

By Professor Doom      It really is interesting how the other half lives, particularly when it comes to the Poo Bahs who rule over our institutions. Their lives are just so�different. I worry about losing my job, because that would be a major problem for me.        I want to move closer to my university, but it�s a major risk: I�m not exactly paid enough to buy a house near the place, so if I lose my job soon after moving, I�ll be really hurt, financially.   It�s a big gamble.       Poo Bahs don�t worry about such mundane things. I�ve mentioned before how, when a Poo Bah is fired, he gets a fat check no matter how horrible he or she did the job. Over the course of even a wildly incompetent career, a Poo Bah can rake in a $1,000,000 or more just by getting fired repeatedly.       But that�s not why Poo Bahs don�t worry about buying a house, because the institution actually provides a...

By Professor Doom      �Are you on drugs?� --common response to an individual exhibiting strange behavior. It seems a fair question to ask most students on campus today.      Every day we get to see another example of insanity on campus, and while I usually blame it on the student loan scam, another explanation comes to mind: More than 25 percent of college students have been diagnosed or treated by a professional for a mental health condition within the past year.      Wow! Please understand, when you go to these kinds of doctors (more accurately called �drug dealers�), the primary thing they�re going to do is give you a prescription for drugs. It�s not complicated�these drugs are almost certainly addictive, so prescribing these drugs is a great way to make a lifelong customer. Many of my students have told me of how they jump through hoop after hoop to get �their� drugs that they �need,� whether it be Adderall, Paxil, Xanax, ...