The Spectator The independent student newspaper of Valdosta State University
To the Editor:
In the aftermath of the Mark George and Ben Carson fiascoes, some friends and I compiled a list of concerns over the way things are done at VSU: welcome to ataViSm U….
Definition: atavism: reversion to an earlier type; a throwback; so, think of the baby born with a tail; or, in more general terms, think of VSU, where humanism and progressivism are paid lip service and the status quo is sacred.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where a faculty member and alumnus is vilified for his anti-racism work. Not only that, but his organization’s funds are seized.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where the administration takes its cues from a neo-confederate (John Hall) and wins applause from a self-proclaimed “pro-white, pro-south, pro-independence” website: “God bless ataViSm U! At least there’s one Southern school that’s trying to protect its people” (see http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2014/08/18/poor-mark-patrick-george/).
Welcome to ataViSm U., where it’s taken 100 years to install a person of color in an executive leadership position and where a woman has never been president or provost.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where environmental activists (from S.A.V.E.) are told by one of the VP’s that their concerns over climate change are groundless and that their efforts are misguided.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where a speaker whose shtick is Social Darwinism is invited to speak at the rate of $43,000 per speech.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where students of varying sexual preference are too frightened to demonstrate against sexual oppression and where sexual harassment is kept hush-hush.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where John Scopes is still on trial.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where those in charge of the food court are oblivious of the connection between nutrition and disease, as they feature two Chik-fil-A’s (infamous for homophobia) and Nathan’s hotdogs.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where graduation ceremonies are D. U. L. L. (“we built this building and we built that building”…I wonder how parents who’ve driven for hours expecting to be inspired feel about such banalities?)
Welcome to ataViSm U., where the old prez’s lecture series (hello, Wade Davis, Jonathan Kozol, Harry Kroto and Joel Best— a National Geographic explorer in residence, a best-selling Harvard educator/author, a Nobel Prize in chemistry winner, and a renowned social scientist, respectively) is canceled, but the new prez finds money for three new administrators (who, education critics say, add little value to an undergraduate’s education).
Welcome to ataViSm U., where a football player is released from jail moments before a playoff game and returned to jail after the game. Hey, but A.U. won, 31-28 (see http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120402/col_11134440.shtml).
Welcome to ataViSm U., where the only women on display during visitation weekend are the dancing “Red Hots,” who perform for the crowd, after which a middle-aged male administrator shouts “aren’t they hot?”
Welcome to ataViSm U., where the Greek system remains segregated.
Welcome to ataViSm U., where adjunct faculty haven’t had a raise since 2005, and where graduate student funding is diverted to another admin position.
Matthew Richard, VSU Associate Professor
No I end up agreeing with all your premises although in most if
Early in my career at ataViSm U., one of my students told me she worked in the photo lab at K-Mart. One day, she came to my office and broke down crying: some Sigma Nu guys had brought in a couple of rolls of film to be developed. She was horrified that the photos showed guys in black-face posing on all-fours as dogs with collars around their necks and attached to leashes. My student was devastated, but she couldn’t report the incident or she would have lost her job.
I would like to add that the shoddy treatment of Dr. George and his anti-racism efforts are all the more regrettable in light of the incident involving the photographs.
Who is this John Hall guy anyhow? From the recent articles on local media, facebook and now here it seems to me that John Hall is a racist accountant who thinks it’s appropriate to email VSU’s president and the legislature everytime he has a problem with the university. I wish I could be sooooo powerful as that. I guess if I’m in Dublin GA in desperate need of an accountant Im not going to go to the “great Mr. John Hall, CPA.” I thought Bill Mckinney was a yankee!? He really hopped into bed real fast with the racist-radical-far-right!!!!
In a word, courage. Very courageous, sir, indeed. With VSU’s unspeakable 4-year graduation stats, coupled with blatant intolerance and its willingness to appease neo-Confederate whackos, why would any promising student in our state want to come to VSU when they could go to UGA, GT, Emory, or even Georgia Southern!? If the administration wants to improve academics they have to first fundamentally change the culture and “engaged innovation” — whatever that means — isn’t doing it. I have a friend who says that Valdosta “isn’t the end of the world, but you can see it from your doorstep.” This place is an anomaly in the world. VSU’s administrators like the community revel in the status quo. For that VSU cannot even be called a university — in the truest sense of the word. This culture HAS got to change…………
Thank Matthew….can we add sexual harassment and rape culture in vulgar and disgusting signs flashed to women at the football game?
And, it’s for these reasons and more why this university will continue to lose quality faculty members. As Mark Patrick George once told me after I moved to VLD in 2007, “Melissa, you don’t play the Southern way.” He was right.