6.0273 Qs: Paradox on PC nets; trustee interventions (2/79)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 6 Oct 1992 12:55:42 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0273. Tuesday, 6 Oct 1992.


(1) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 14:34:20 BST (12 lines)
From: Donald A Spaeth <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Paradox on PC-NFS networks

(2) Date: Sat, 03 Oct 92 21:53:36 EDT (67 lines)
From: "Daniel P. Tompkins" <PERICLES@TEMPLEVM>
Subject: trustee interventions etc.

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 14:34:20 BST
From: Donald A Spaeth <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Paradox on PC-NFS networks

Does anyone have experience of using Borland Paradox on networks besides
Novell, particularly PC-NFS? Any reports of difficulties or lack thereof
welcome.

Thanks,
Donald Spaeth
CTI Centre for History with Archaeology and Art History
University of Glasgow
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------77----
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 92 21:53:36 EDT
From: "Daniel P. Tompkins" <PERICLES@TEMPLEVM>
Subject: trustee interventions etc.

I'm forwarding to this list a posting I originally sent to ancient
historians. I'd be grateful for any responses.

Dan Tompkins
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Did anyone else notice the latest Chronicle of Higher Ed. report on
the new "report" from Lynne Cheney and the National Endowment on
Humanities? The burden of it is that the classroom in the American
university has become intolerably politicized. One response to this,
says cheney in an interview, is for trustees to become more active
in intervening in the classroom. A look at American history, she
remarked, shows that trustees frequently brought about the dismissal
of faculty who appeared too "political" in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries.

Well. It's nice to see that history has its uses--that is why we
study it. But here are the first four names that sprang to mind as
I pondered her rx: Charles Beard (Columbia), Scott Nearing (Penn),
Alexander Meikeljohn (sp? Pres., Amherst), and of course Moses
Finley (Rutgers)--tho Ellen Schrecker's fine book, No Ivory Tower,
reports that the Rutgers trustees stood by Finley to a surprising
degree, and that the firing was brought about by the governor, Alfred
Driscoll--in whose home town, Haddonfield NJ, I happen to live. (It's
also the birthplace of I. F. Stone, and the site of the discovery o fthe
first complete dinasoar [pardon the paren in paren, but a droll aspect
of Hadrosaurus Foulkei, as I think it's called, was that he/she was
initially reconstructed on the supposition that it was a mammal--only
later did folks realize the correct "ideal type" was a lizard. Again,
salutary for historians and archaeologists to note]).

Anyway, an unbiased observer looking over this rogues' gallery might--
pace Lynne Cheney--reasonably conclude that there was some injustice
in the dismissals. Meikeljohn, I believe, "surfaced" as pres. of U
o Wisconsin, and a major award for defenders of free speech in the acad.
is annually given in his name. "Free speech," of course, is something
Cheney and the Nat'l Assoc. of Scholars do espouse when it suits their
needs (not always--on this more anon, if you want). Ironies abound
(not the least of these: Robert Frost was his arch-foe). Nearing became
a sainted figure, living of the land 'till his nineties, providing all
he needed on 4 hours work a day in Castine, Maine. Beard remains
famous though some of his ideas have been modified (including, I think,
the robber barons thesis). Finley, closer to home for us, was knighted
and lived out his life in Cambridge, where (irony again) one of his
friends was Owen Lattimore. Were American historical studies enriched
by his departure?

I've written the above partly to sort some things out for myself, partly
to raise the possibility that trustee intervention ain't always the best
thing in the world, and partly as a request for information. Do I have
the facts wrong about Meikeljohn and Beard, esp.? I've worked more
recently on Nearing and Finley, and am not as worried about them. But
I'd hate to send off a letter somewhere and later find that I erred.

I'm planning to check this in a library, but it occurred to me that some
folks out there might have the information right at hand. I'd be very
grateful for any help.

DO some teachers politicize their classes? That's another question, worth
discussing. Some do. To the extent alleged by Cheney? I doubt it.
Whether trustees should intervene, and whether their aim is always sure,
are the questions I'm pondering tonight.

Dan Tompkins, Classics, Temple U.