Word: ago
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...long ago, some experts questioned the usefulness of higher education, claiming it essentially fails to increase students’ productivity and reviving the theory that we use our degrees to merely “signal” skills or ability to employers, with actual learning taking place on the job. It was therefore reassuring to talk to an experienced professor recently who told me about his first experience of teaching a freshman seminar. Prior to teaching freshmen, he only worked with upperclassmen and his new teaching assignment allowed him to realize one thing. Apparently, we may be more enthusiastic...
...insight into other great mysteries—what happened at the big bang, the true fate of matter crushed at the center of a black hole, even the nature of time. I began working on string theory—one of the most promising approaches—25 years ago, as a young graduate student hungry to make a mark on the physics world. It was an exhilarating period leading some to proclaim naively that the insights of string theory would be so sweeping that the end of physics was near. Of course, as more-seasoned observers knew...
...touchness” of the FAS and College deans only helps to undermine our credibility when there’s a real issue worth protesting. An escalation of the War in Vietnam these budget cuts were not, as our similarly-idealized predecessors of 40 years ago would be quick to remind...
...when a now-estranged student cries racism for her apparent complicity in a truly heinous crime, a deadly incident that took place weeks ago in a seemingly safe College residence, it falls deafly on the ears, I think, of those who are in positions of power to make the most important decisions...
Fast-forward to the present. Now, in 2009, we’re operating within an intellectual structure that took shape more than a century ago. It’s a worthy and venerable old edifice, but definitely getting a bit creaky. The oddity of departmental existence struck me forcefully this year as I watched my three freshmen advisees grapple with the tough question of concentration choice. Some students, upon comparing their academic inclinations with the concentration offerings, are able to slide easily into a field. But others cannot, because the fit doesn’t seem right...