Editor,
Earlier this semester I wrote a letter about the lack of credentials and education in the employees of Student Affairs, and John Bauer's letter in Monday's Daily Lobo frighteningly affirms that there are employees at UNM who have no business in the field of educating young minds.
Bauer mocks a student, said she "ranted and whined" about an issue she holds important, and dismissed one of the most successful programs at UNM by derogatorily saying she must be a "want-to-be lawyer" because she expressed an opinion, unlike most uninvolved Americans. Would any parent feel comfortable knowing that someone at an institution of higher learning used words such as "laughable nonsense," "confused" and "absurd notion" to dismiss a person they are paid to educate?
Bauer's tone is that the student is ridiculous because she wants change. Bauer's refusal to seriously listen to a student and dismiss her as part of the "welfare mentality" makes him sound like an employee of the University of Alabama in 1963 and not UNM in 2005.
He adds, "Social liberalism run amok is destroying public education at all levels." So what time does Bauer propose going back to in hopes of remedying this problem? Before social liberalism helped women get into college? Before African-Americans could go to college?
Bauer states the "young author is more interested in obtaining a good grade than obtaining a good understanding of the subject matter." Why wouldn't she be? Conservatives have shown us that our society has no need for education programs such as PBS, the National Education Association, Head Start or the attainment of an education because cronyism, not merit, is how you get appointed to head FEMA, serve as a U.N. ambassador and become the "best-qualified person" for the Supreme Court.
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Forget about getting an education as long as you are born with the right name and proper connections. It doesn't matter what you learn, because if you are blessed enough, you can laugh about being a C and D student at Yale as you run the most powerful country in the world.
Bauer demonstrates the strategy of the conservative movement - make liberal ideas seem evil without acknowledging that conservative ideas are just as evil.
The divisive conservative issue of the day - creationism - wants to force an unproven theory into our science curriculum. How are these students supposed to be globally competitive in science with the prospect of growing up in an environment where scientific method is ignored in favor of pleasing right-wingers like Focus on the Family's James Dobson and others who want to make sure that creationism is the first step in taking over our educational system and society?
It is amusing that Bauer and I agree on one point - minimally competent administrators. But I believe our liberal academic institutions - even ones in liberal lands like California and Pennsylvania - are producing great administrators. Bauer's ugly bias proves that UNM is intent in hiring unqualified people who work their way through UNM rather than taking a risk and getting a good education. I don't know what Bauer does, but his negative bias against a student is another example of how UNM will not reach its potential because it is filled with staff and administrators who are not qualified to lead.
Rob Huang
Daily Lobo reader
