Comments on: Elitism and Democracy http://alex.halavais.net/elitism-and-democracy/ Things that interest me. Wed, 30 Oct 2002 18:21:38 +0000 hourly 1 By: Sam http://alex.halavais.net/elitism-and-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=80#comment-34 That’s interesting, I was having a similar conversation today with Jenny. I made the argument that we should do away with all those PR/Marketing type courses. I guess I’m a bit biased but it seems to me that those courses (and “courses” like Dr. Woelfels COM486) are the weaker part of the department. Am I wrong?

–SARCASM
I’m surprised Bush doesn’t like profs, I think he showed his commitment to education when he said “We’re going to have the best educated American people in the world.”
–END SARCASM

]]> By: alex http://alex.halavais.net/elitism-and-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=80#comment-35 I have to plead ignorance on whether the courses are “weaker,” since I haven’t sat in on any of them. I would argue that, especially at the undergrad level, they are peripheral: they should be taken only after the central grounding is achieved in communication and thinking skills. I also think they are disproportionately overenrolled by students who falsely think that they will provide a significant edge in the job market.

In fact, there is a proposed MA in P.R. in the department, and I think that could be very good, especially at the masters level. It just seems that, given how few faculty we have to teach how many students, our efforts could be better focussed on core concepts. Of course, this is coming from someone who managed to escape teaching the Com Theory class next semester…

Love the quote by the way: I’d somehow missed that one. :)

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