Excelsior MA in Liberal Studies

I'm getting a not-great vibe about this flexible program. Dan Eisenberg, the hip, gay online director and notable Cervantes scholar, was encouraging in his past correspondence with me. Now he's gone, and they are searching for a replacement.
I'm thinking seriously of pursuing this degree, commencing within the 6-9 months. I had done extensive research on this and competing MALS programs, and I sent Excelsior an email of a few specifics queries in October.
I was seeking faculty bios for their Tier 1 (i.e., Great Books curriculum) required component, because I want to see whether any of them seemed interesting professors, in Eisenberg's league.
I also requested the names and emails of a couple of students or recent grads who might be interested in telling me about the program. And third, I wondered if a residential master's students weekend they had tried in Albany was going to be a regular event.

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No reply, so I wrote again six weeks later, in early December.

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No reply until yesterday, when I received a response from a Michael Andolina, PhD, temporary acting director of the program.
1. He said they will eventually have a link to faculty bios on the website, but not now. No suggestion of when, nor any offer to mail me info of the profs. He assured me that all have earned doctorates and experience teaching at the graduate level -- as if this trivial info is helpful.
2. He said due to confidentiality he could not give me the names of any students or graduates. (By contrast, when I was scouting out National-Louis U for adult education, I engaged in extensive, most helpful correspondence with several grad students or graduates, and their input persuaded me to enrol.)
3. He made no mention of the residential one way or the other.


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Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.

Peter

 

"...the hip, gay online director..."

Interesting criteria for the consideration of a graduate school.

 

I should have guessed my shorthand could raise an eyebrow. Eisenberg's scholarly cv is impressive: wide-ranging gay literary scholarship seems to be his bag, along with Cervantes, and he seemed serious about the concept of online learning, even having published about it. All this marks him in my book as a new-wave humanities prof, by definition more interesting than many of his confreres. Of course I could be mistaken -- perhaps he's dull as ditchwater -- but I would doubt it.

I wonder where he has gone. He was previously at, I believe, the University of Arizona, before taking the job at Excelsior a few years ago. Are there any Excelsior MA grads who monitor this board?

Peter

 

http://www.degreeinfo.com/static/forum_archive/8/8882/thread_8882_page_1.html

Angela

 

Well, he's not dull. Sounds like there was merit to his professional side.

 

Wow, I've been so busy with my studies that I certainly missed that thread! Thanks for telling me. I suppose the moral is never to bring your computer in for repairs in the United States, but just buy a new one. Ten years' probation sounds like a plea bargain, but a forced resignation from a university tenured position is about as bad as professorly life gets.

I hope Mr. Eisenberg continues to teach and write, despite the black cloud. Child porn charges carry no weight with me when it is simply possession of images. Maybe he could team-teach a DL course on Nabokov's Lolita, or Romeo and Juliet, with somebody from the police Morals squad. That could be lively. I'd take it.

Peter

 

Much like drugs, if there was no demand, there would be no supply. Every pedophile that I've dealt with started off "just looking" at pictures and video.

Eisenberg is human garbage, and should be behind bars (my personal opinion, not an official position of this board).

 

Mr Mose, are you serious about your statements.

I have some friends at customs that would love to talk to you. Maybe you can show them all your friends' stashes and try to explain to society at large how these pictures are only for personal artistic or some forlorn altruistic purpose.

People that think like you make me sick.

 

I wonder if Chief Julian Fantino of the Toronto Police has your name on his database?

 

Divergent viewpoints on this discussion board, clearly. I'm still lamenting the loss to Excelsior College and to distance learning of Prof. Eisenberg, and I hope he continues to teach and write.

Peter