[Vision2020] NSA Students Not Educated for UI

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 24, 2007) UI Argonaut -

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NSA students not educated for UI

Tara Roberts' article on the university's policy of not recognizing degrees
from New Saint Andrews College was very informative, but it did raise an
issue that was left unaddressed. 
She quotes Brad Littlejohn as saying, "many of the faculty, ... don't like
NSA and don't want to encourage us by accepting our students." There are no
quotes from any university faculty members in response to this assertion. 

One reason people might object to the university accepting graduate students
with degrees from NSA is that the college was founded by Doug Wilson's
Christ Church. Doug Wilson was co-author of the book "Southern Slavery: As
It Was," which argued that, "slave life was to [slaves] a life of plenty, of
simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." This is not a
good reason for not recognizing NSA degrees. Every NSA student doesn't
necessarily agree with Wilson, and no one should be kept out of a public
university for his beliefs. 

A better reason for not recognizing an NSA degree is their curriculum is
very narrow. Caitlin Rice mentioned that NSA has only two classrooms, but
she didn't mention how many scientific labs they have: zero. Reading a
six-foot stack of books every year may compensate for a lack of lecture
time, but there's no substitute for lab work in science. Only three books
are listed in the NSA "Natural Philosophy" required reading, and one of them
is actually about math, Euclid's Elements. Another of these books is about
biology, Darwin's "Origin of Species." I've never taken any Natural
Philosophy courses at NSA, but for some reason I doubt they treat Darwin's
theory of natural selection in the same manner as an accredited university. 

The university shouldn't refuse to recognize an NSA degree because of
Wilson's moral bankruptcy. They should refuse to recognize it because the
NSA offers a narrow, biased curriculum that is unfit for accreditation.

Geoff Beidler
graduate student, computer engineering

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)