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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Purdue Professor Argues Tough College Courses Reinforce White Privilege

The head of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education, Donna Riley, argued in a recently published academic journal article tough engineering courses only serves to uphold “white male heterosexual privilege.”

According to a report from Campus Reform, Riley, in an astonishing feat of vague postmodern writing, published an article in the most recent issue of the academic journal Engineering Education in which she argued that the concept of academic “rigor” is used as a means to exclude students from marginalized groups from academic communities.

“One of rigor’s purposes is, to put it bluntly, a thinly veiled assertion of white male (hetero)sexuality,” she explains. According to Riley, rigor “has a historical lineage of being about hardness, stiffness, and erectness; its sexual connotations—and links to masculinity in particular—are undeniable.”

“My visceral reaction in many conversations where I have seen rigor asserted has been to tell parties involved (regardless of gender) to whip them out and measure them already,” Riley added.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The reason universities are doing stupid thing like this is simple, really. Economics. Plain and simple. As less qualified people apply for college, they need to lower the academic bar to survive. The way to run cover for this is to talk endlessly about "diversity" when they really mean incompetence.

The good news is that the majority of American "universities" are going to be out of business within 10-15 years.

Anonymous said...

Engineering courses are tough because one small mistake can cause the collapse, explosion or catastrophic of any engineered p of product. This is ruinous for all involved in the design and build of such products.

Anonymous said...

He's really saying without a doubt that minorities are stupid or have less of a brain. Read between the lines.

Anonymous said...

so there saying it's a white thing and a privilege to be intelligent?
who knew? but from what I've seen of society around here white and intelligent are not synonymous!

Brian Dayton said...

The good news is that the majority of American "universities" are going to be out of business within 10-15 years.

That is good news!!! I am tired of the liberal crap they spew, and idiots they hire to spew it.

Anonymous said...

So we need to dumb down higher education like we have done in the public schools?

Anonymous said...

So we need to dumb down higher education like we have done in the public schools?

Yup. Can you believe there was a time when regular high school folks learned LATIN? Ever google those tests for schoolchildren from the early 1900's? It'll make your hair stand on end how much was expected out of children and how much is not these days.

Anonymous said...

College courses are watered down, especially at colleges like UMES. What a JOKE!

Anonymous said...


How special of her to insult Purdue's engineering alumni. Purdue teams are known as the Boilermakers as recognition of their 'hard science' roots. Hope the alumni weigh in and send her packing. Not an alum, but one of the best teachers I know is.

Engineering, of all sorts, is results driven; both genders can aspire and succeed. She should take her whim driven approach elsewhere.