So much for prestigious academic names

[fpb]

One of the most internationally renowned American universities is MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One expects services provided by MIT to be of good quality

Comments

[patchworkmind]

Wow. I'd heard a rumor that Tariq Ramadan may get a fellowship, but in the wake of July's bombings and current rumors that Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda are planning another set European strikes I didn't figure Oxford would dare.

Apparently they do.

Might the award of the visiting fellowship be some kind of appeasement or some strange kind of politically correct show of tolerance from the school? Why would they do such a thing? Next they'll award one to GWB one for Public Policy.

[fpb]

It's not Oxford. It's St.Anthony's College, which has Lebanese money behind it.

Ah.

[patchworkmind]

That certainly puts things in perspective.

Re: Ah.

[fpb]

Mind you, St. Anthony's is a part of the university, a regularly acknowledged college. What they do involves the university. And the university has certainly not proven unwilling to take Islamic money, or for that matter the money of crooks (cf. Rupert Murdoch).

[rfachir]

The kids at MIT learned their Greek from math books. Not to say they haven't studied the liberal arts side, just that they push very hard on math and not so hard on Homer. (Which is a pity since the students need balance and perspective there more than most places. One recent grad told me new students are only given P/F grades as a reaction to the high suicide rate.)

The grad school isn't known for the classics, either.

[fpb]

I suppose so. But the point is, whatever MIT undertakes should be carried out in a style befitting the prestige of the MIT name and the indubitably monstrous sums paid to study there.

[rfachir]

Eh, it's not their focus, it was an old project that's no longer being maintained, and you can get all the same material at Perseus, which is both mirrored and updated.

[fpb]

And which has a format I loathe. I would try to learn Tibetan rather than trying to navigate Perseus again. But anyway, this was about the unimpressive behaviour of a couple of impressive academic names.