Month: February 2026

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that legislators in Kansas “want to get rid of DEI offices, end diversity trainings, banish diversity statements, and censor how professors talk about race…in mandatory courses” (February 20th online).  

None of this is very surprising in the current political environment.  What IS raising eyebrows in the Sunflower State, however, is a recent decision by Wichita State University that will enable it to become the first school in the nation where it is legal to claim, “We Don’t See Color.”  

Commencing July 1st, 2026, WSU will only hire faculty, staff, and administrators — and only accept students — who can provide medical proof that they are color-blind. 

According to WSU President Richard Muma, “discrimination on the basis of skin color has been the scourge of humanity since the beginning of time, and WSU is committed to eliminating that scourge.  We realize that mandating color blindness on our campus will be a challenge, since only about 8% of all males — and less than 1% of all females — are color-blind.  But WSU embraces that challenge.  Color blindness is not a deficiency or an affliction, it’s a gift.  Color-sensitive people are Satan’s minions, and our institution will no longer be complicit in the evil they foist upon the world.  As our new school motto proclaims, ‘If you can see brown, yellow, black, or white, you better make sure to get out of OUR sight’.”

Amen, brother. 

TRUE FACT:  In an attempt to reduce grade inflation, the Subcommittee on Grading of the Undergraduate Educational Policy Committee at Harvard University recently recommended that the number of A grades awarded in any given course at the school be capped at 20% (Harvard College of Undergraduate Education website).

Princeton is following a different path.  Indeed, some might say it’s taking the high road: providing students with incentives rather than applying pressure to faculty.  

Beginning in September 2026, a Princeton student who agrees at the time of course registration to accept a final grade of B without complaint will not be required to complete any assignments for that course.  No papers, no exams, no reports, no nuthin’.  

Additionally, if the student is comfortable with a grade of C, he or she will receive 500 shares of Nvidia stock and complimentary tour tickets for 3 different Southern plantation tours:

• Oak Alley (Vacherie, LA)
• Boone Hall (Mount Pleasant, SC)
• Belle Meade (Nashville, TN)

According to Christopher Eisgruber, Princeton’s President, “we prefer to catch our flies with honey — and we have lots of that — rather than vinegar.  It’s the Princeton way.”

Well, Yale.  The whole world is watching. 

 

More than a few faculty members at Old Dominion University were upset last summer when Provost Brian K. Payne announced that they would need to condense their 16-week online courses into 8-week offerings.  They predicted that the shift would not go smoothly (Chronicle of Higher Education, February 2nd online). 

They had no idea how right they were.

Late in the afternoon of February 4th, Dalton Pelf, an assistant professor of English at ODU, sat down in front of his office computer in the Batten Arts & Letters building on campus.  He asked ChatGPT to compress all of the PowerPoint content for his 16-week online course on James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake into an 8-week presentation.  ChatGPT responded that the task would “take some time, probably several hours.”  Professor Pelf left the computer running on his desk and went home.

At approximately 2:35 am on February 5th, a massive explosion and mushroom cloud replaced what used to be Batten Arts & Letters.  Fortunately, the building was empty at the time except for a small aquarium tank in the office of the English Department Chair.  Its inhabitants did not survive. 

According to campus police and forensic IT consultants, squeezing so much dense analytical material on Joyce into just 8 weeks raised the energy requirements of Pelf’s computer to the point where a form of nuclear fission occurred, unleashing an atomic-like blast.

Surveying the rubble, ODU’s police chief remarked, “it’s one thing to condense the substance of Dan Brown’s collective works into 8 weeks, but James Joyce?  Give me a break.  That Pelf fella should have known better.”

An interfaith memorial service for Batten’s deceased guppies will be held at 10:00 am on Wednesday, February 11th at the Seafood Station in Broderick Dining Commons.  Phish will perform.