How Often Does "Degree Revocation" Occur?

I think you are right.

 

I am NOT taking sides in this dispute over moderation, but - at the risk of being termed a fawning robot - I will defend the work of some of my favourite poets. Non-rhyming poetry has a long and legit literary pedigree in many languages, predating rhyme by centuries. Nowadays, it's usually referred to as blank verse if it observes strict rhythm, free verse if it does not. I have found much pleasure in the non-rhyming work of major poets including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Walt Whitman, Rimbaud, Heinrich Heine and yes - Maya Angelou.

Not saying you have to like them, Bruce - just that there are plenty who do. I'm one.

J.

 

Oh yes - shouldn't forget Langston Hughes and William Carlos Williams, either. Or Allen Ginsberg. I liked him a LOT, especially in my teens - late 1950s.

J.

 

You don't seem to understand the difference and why your example is a poor analogy. Let me help you. I'm not talking about the sentence, Bruce. I'm talking about the process. Let's say I commit a crime in 1974. Now let's say that, in 1974, that jurisdiction allowed the case to be heard by a judge that no longer exists (quite common, in fact, a number of jurisdictions have eliminated lower level, typically non-lawyer judges).

Is it your contention that if in 1974 that case that would have been disposed by a Justice of the Peace should still be heard by a Justice of the Peace even if my state eliminated JoPs in the early 90's?

Not at all. I'd simply direct you to get your own damn water because I'm not your waiter. Simple.

That's the point of a statute of limitations (not that I'm suggesting there exist one for academic fraud). If you asked me to defend myself against a charge of shoplifting from when I was 12, I couldn't really do it. I have no way of gathering witnesses and it's impossible to recall my alibi on that date. That has little to do with the fact that we don't charge dead people with crimes. Jack the Ripper didn't get away with murder because lots of time elapsed. Jack the Ripper got away with murder because he died with the crime unsolved.

Perhaps it would be. People screamed from the mountaintops that the degree of a Rabbi caught up in the To Catch a Predator TV show should be revoked. His school, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, refused because his crime did not occur during his time as a student and did not involve academic fraud. Lots of outcry. But the school followed their process. Now, if the University of Denver has in its code of conduct that a degree can be posthumously revoked, well then, I'd say they should do what they do. But I would hope they would resist doing anything outside of their established code just because some loud blowhard "called for" her degree revocation. I don't believe in mob rule degree revocations even when I disagree with the politics of the individual involved.

Fine, then back up your opinion with any shred of evidence that Boston University even had that option. Otherwise, while it is still your opinion, it is simply misinformed. If I think that the legislature of the state of Maine should impeach Justice Antonin Scalia I can indeed call it my "opinion." But that doesn't change the fact that my opinion is based upon some very odd notions of the authority the Maine legislature has and how Supreme Court Justices are impeached.

I don't particularly care for a lot of different music artists. However, I recognize that their work contributes to the "field" of music. So you don't need to like Maya Angelou. You don't need to understand Maya Angelou's work. Evidently a lot of people did get it. And evidently Wake Forest University felt she was qualified enough to join their faculty.

But I'm not going to try to culture you as Im seeing that would likely be a fruitless effort.

I can tell you how many degrees they've revoked posthumously, zero. Because their policy doesn't allow for the posthumous revocation of degrees.

This has been lovely.