Higher Education: Deaf and Dumber
I have a vivid memory of something my mother said to me when I was a teenager: “Go to college or you’ll be a nobody.”
A little higher education news roundup for ya’ll follows.
From CNN.com this morning:
HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) — A Yale University historian has uncovered a 1918 letter that seems to lend validity to the lore that Yale University’s ultra-secret Skull and Bones society swiped the skull of American Indian leader Geronimo.
The letter, written by one member of Skull and Bones to another, purports that the skull and some of the Indian leader’s remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club’s headquarters.
According to Skull and Bones legend, members — including President Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush — dug up Geronimo’s grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War I. Geronimo died in 1909.
“Harlyn Geronimo, the great grandson of Geronimo, said he has been looking for a lawyer to sue the U.S. Army, which runs Fort Sill. Discovery of the letter could help, he said.”
Only 15 Yale seniors are asked to join Skull and Bones each year. Alumni include Sen. John Kerry, President William Howard Taft, numerous members of Congress, media leaders, Wall Street financiers, the scions of wealthy families and agents in the CIA.
Members swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which are said to include an initiation rite in which would-be members kiss a skull.
Meanwhile, over at UConn…
A vice president of the University of Connecticut’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity chapter was charged Thursday with selling drugs and phony driver’s licenses, police say. [snip-clip] Ryan Schultz, 21, of Montville, was arraigned Thursday in Vernon Superior Court on charges of second-degree forgery, operating a drug factory, conspiracy, and possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and with intent to sell.
“The investigation that resulted in Schultz’s arrest began Wednesday, police say, when an underage female student was arrested by UConn police on charges of forgery and possession of alcohol.”
The woman told police she e-mailed a photo of herself to Schultz, then paid him $100. In return, he gave her the fake Massachusetts driver’s license about a week later, police say. Police visited the fraternity’s Web site, and found Schultz on a roster of the fraternity’s Executive Council.
The female student identified Schultz as the student who sold her a fake license when police showed her his picture from thefacebook.com, a popular social networking site for college students, police say.
Dumb and dumber. Last but not least, this breaking educational news:
WASHINGTON — The newly chosen president of Gallaudet University, the nation’s only liberal arts college for the deaf, received a no-confidence vote from faculty Monday in a dispute that she said comes down to whether she is “deaf enough” for the job.
[Jane] Fernandes, who was selected by the board of trustees last week and is scheduled to take office in January, was born deaf but grew up speaking and did not learn American Sign Language until she was 23. [snip-clip] “She does not represent truly our deaf community,” said professor E. Lynn Jacobowitz.
“Fernandes is married to a retired Gallaudet professor who can hear. So can the couple’s two children. Some people who were deaf at birth can learn to speak through intensive speech therapy.”
Deaf education has been roiled in recent years by the development of cochlear implants and other technology. … Some say such developments threaten sign language and other aspects of what they call deaf culture; others welcome such advances.
