Statement: Fordham Against Torture Weighs In On Revocation Of Bill Cosby’s Honorary Degree
Statement: Fordham Against Torture Weighs in on Revocation of Bill Cosby’s Honorary Degree
To the Fordham Community
From: Fordham Faculty and Fordham Against Torture
President McShane and the board of Trustees have acted responsibly and conscientiously in deciding to rescind the honorary degree awarded to Bill Cosby, in the light of what we now know. The members of Fordham Faculty against Torture understand the difficulty involved in publicly acknowledging and moving to correct a mistake, for the sake of the victims and to preserve the good name of the university. The moral logic applied to the personal crimes of one man, though, applies equally well to a situation of profound international political significance. We must ask, therefore, how Fordham can be so attentive to the actions of Bill Cosby while ignoring the actions and words of John Brennan, especially in the light of what we now know of his support for torture in the aftermath of the Senate Report on Torture.
It is also dismaying to us that the Cosby decision, though certainly appropriate, appears to have been made behind closed doors and entirely without consulting the Fordham community in any way, just as was the decision to grant the degree in the first place. In contrast, the petition to revoke John Brennan’s honorary degree emerged from the Fordham community itself, was vigorously debated by proponents and opponents alike, and had the support of more than 700 faculty, students, staff, and alumni, only to be rejected on the flimsiest grounds. If the decision to revoke the Cosby degree can be said to represent the university, how much more compelling is the strong evidence of community support in the matter of John Brennan?
At this point in time, we want to thank all those hundreds of people who signed the petition, and all those students and faculty who gave passion, time, and energy to move the university to a morally responsible position. We are sorry that this passion and commitment could not convince the Board of Trustees and the President to act. At the same time, we are determined to continue to fight for human rights and justice, and to guarantee that the labors of so many will result in a permanent resource for the Fordham community.
Sincerely,
Orlando Rodriguez Jeanne Flavin Jeannine Hill Fletcher Glenn Hendler Brad Hinze James Kim David Myers Louie Dean Valencia
For more, see the recent article in The Fordham Ram
More Posts from Krillion and Others
Reclaim Your Privacy
Edward Snowden Explains How to Reclaim Your Privacy via The Intercept It’s a long read, but worth reading.. for those that want the cliff notes version, I pulled these from this article: Step One: Tor Software to use to browse the web anonymously Step Two: HTTPS Everywhere Forces your browser to use https (think *secure session*, like the kind of connection you want when you are shopping or banking online) Step Three: Duck Duck Go Search engine that doesn't track you (set as the default of your browser) Step Four: KeePassX Password manager, use in conjunction with 2-Factor Authentication [// I think this is great for websites in general but banking, credit card, email and other "mission critical" sites-- I'm still a little skeptical about relying on using a key system for these sites] Step Five: Signal Encrypted instant messenger & calling without having to change your number
The Graphing Calculator Story
When His Project Was Canceled, an Unemployed Programmer Kept Sneaking Into Apple to Finish the Job via Mental Floss
The Graphing Calculator Story by Ron Avitzur
Why did Greg and I do something so ludicrous as sneaking into an eight-billion-dollar corporation to do volunteer work? Apple was having financial troubles then, so we joked that we were volunteering for a nonprofit organization. In reality, our motivation was complex. Partly, the PowerPC was an awesome machine, and we wanted to show off what could be done with it; in the Spinal Tap idiom, we said, "OK, this one goes to eleven." Partly, we were thinking of the storytelling value. Partly, it was a macho computer guy thing - we had never shipped a million copies of software before. Mostly, Greg and I felt that creating quality educational software was a public service. We were doing it to help kids learn math. Public schools are too poor to buy software, so the most effective way to deliver it is to install it at the factory.
Love is Love
Still, Texas and Arizona show us sales go on when Tesla dealers are “banned.”
This one made my jaw drop, seriously????
Intelligent life hasn't contacted us yet, possibly because it self-destructs.
#Fordham DLC was AWESOME today!
Check out: Digital Literacies Collaborative
Blog
Wiki
Agenda from the conference today
Tech Talk Bingo
#FordhamDLC Tweets !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");
One of the many little thrills of being a part of the Obama campaign four years ago was a deep and abiding sense that, finally, a political leader had come along who could live up to our highest aspirations. Yes, Obama was cool and played basketball and was conversant in ironical youth culture, but when it came down to it, he was overwhelmingly serious. The other guys were hauling unlicensed plumbers onstage and suspending their campaign at the drop of a hat, but Obama kept his eyes on the prize and played the grown-up. Now he's talking about "Romnesia."
Eugenie Clark
There was a great post in my FB stream on Eugenie Clark-- a marine biologist who was an advocate for sharks and science. I can remember reading her biography “Shark Lady” in 2nd grade, not only was it the book that got me fascinated by sharks but also inspired me to think maybe one day I could be a scientist too.
Nat Geo had a great article on Eugenie back in February: 'Shark Lady' Eugenie Clark, Famed Marine Biologist, Has Died
Also see my previous post on Sharks
Fermi Paradox and Elon
http://singularityhub.com/2014/10/05/elon-musk-is-right-colonizing-the-solar-system-is-humankinds-insurance-policy-against-extinction/
http://bigthink.com/videos/bill-nyes-answer-to-the-fermi-paradox
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Some of what I come across on the web... Also check out my Content & Curation site: kristentreglia.com
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