Sounding awesome

FAQ Q&A your questions answered:

Isn’t there…isn’t there already an Alaska Pacific University?

There might be, sure. Lots of things have similar names, or share initials.

OK but “Pacific”?

Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean.

The reason that’s funny is that there already is a University of Texas at Austin, which is quite well known and well regarded. (It’s also, come to think of it, the location of that tower where one Charles Whitman locked himself in and shot a lot of people in 1966, a time when mass murders of that kind were a novelty. That part’s not funny.)

Will there be “safe spaces” or “trigger warnings” at The APU?

No. No topics are disallowed and no uncomfortable subjects are off-limits at The APU.

Will The APU promote CRT or BDS?

No, The APU will not allow students or professors to practice the poisonous academic assault on American history known as Critical Race Theory, or to engage in political, cultural, or economic boycotts that unfairly target the only democracy in the Middle East.

What degree programs do you offer?

None.

Doesn’t a university almost definitionally have to offer degrees, and in fact isn’t the term generally understood to mean institutions with post-graduate programs?

The APU is not so vain as to imagine it can know what “most people” understand by the term “university.” All we know is that United States law does not specifically define what can and cannot be called a “university.” Maybe in other countries only “the queen” or “the state” get to define what is and isn’t a university; to us that smacks of intellectual authoritarianism.

OK well then what are the undergraduates you mentioned going to do if they can’t get a degree from The APU

We do plan to offer degrees eventually. We expect to offer our first MA program, Applied Entrepreneurial Optimism, to be ready by 2022.

Heh heh heh. Just what I thought – they sound much more like entrepreneurs than academics.

H/t Rob

Updating to add for the pre-caffeinated: this here is satire.

Comments

15 responses to “Sounding awesome”

  1. TheDudeDiogenes Avatar
    TheDudeDiogenes

    “[O]ur first MA program, Applied Entrepreneurial Optimism” *chef’s kiss*

  2. Red.Tide Avatar

    “No topics are disallowed and no uncomfortable subjects are off-limits at The APU.”

    “ The APU will not allow students or professors to practice the poisonous academic assault on American history known as Critical Race Theory, or to engage in political, cultural, or economic boycotts that unfairly target the only democracy in the Middle East.”

    This seems like a pretty glaring contradiction…

  3. Red.Tide Avatar

    Never mind – my irony meter is a bit off today. I blame being woken up twice in the middle of the night by my job’s pager duty…

  4. Naif Avatar

    I think Stock has made something of a strategic error getting involved with that initiative.

  5. Sackbut Avatar

    I suspect Stock won’t be involved for long.

  6. Sackbut Avatar

    Oh, and: Stock was involved with University of Austin, not this (parody) effort, University of Alaska Pacific.

  7. Naif Avatar

    Sackbut – yes, that was clear. She might have been better off being involved with the UAP.

  8. Helicam Avatar

    @Red.Tide: but if you were woke twice in the middle of the night, your irony meter would be broken completely.

    As an aside, is there any word for someone exclusively on the left who hasn’t given themself over completely to woke derangement (primarily in the matter of gender identity)? It’s the usual problem with a one-dimensional definition of political orientation, I guess. “Politically homeless” is the best I can come up with.

  9. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    Gender critical left or a variation on that theme. The irony is there’s really nothing “left” about trans dogma. It’s individualistic as fuck, and doesn’t overlap with other left projects or goals without a hell of a lot of hammering and sawing and scotch-taping.

  10. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    “Heterodox” gets used but just seems like another tribal label.

  11. Sackbut Avatar

    Any word can become a tribal label, unfortunately.

  12. Papito Avatar

    Red Tide, I think you spotted a contradiction there perfectly well.

    I can’t stop batting this about:

    Doesn’t a university almost definitionally have to offer degrees, and in fact isn’t the term generally understood to mean institutions with post-graduate programs?

    The APU is not so vain as to imagine it can know what “most people” understand by the term “university.” All we know is that United States law does not specifically define what can and cannot be called a “university.” Maybe in other countries only “the queen” or “the state” get to define what is and isn’t a university; to us that smacks of intellectual authoritarianism.

    It’s so snotty, so weaselly and mush-mouthed. It makes me imagine a restaurant run by the same grifters:

    Q: Doesn’t a restaurant almost definitionally have to offer food, and isn’t the term generally understood to mean establishments which serve meals?

    A: The APR is not so vain as to imagine it can know what “most people” understand by the term “restaurant.” All we know is that United States law does not specifically define what can and cannot be called a “restaurant.” Maybe in other countries only “the queen” or “the state” get to define what is and isn’t a restaurant; to us that smacks of culinary authoritarianism.

  13. Papito Avatar

    My turn to click the link. More coffee is obviously needed.

    I hate it when reality laps satire.

  14. Michael Haubrich Avatar
    Michael Haubrich

    At least I know my kids will get fresh air free of cultural marxism. Not sure they’ll get much of an education, but those two things are good enough for me.

    Shut up and take my money.

  15. Michael Haubrich Avatar
    Michael Haubrich

    Gender critical left or a variation on that theme. The irony is there’s really nothing “left” about trans dogma. It’s individualistic as fuck, and doesn’t overlap with other left projects or goals without a hell of a lot of hammering and sawing and scotch-taping.

    It’s really an eye-opener that trans dogma and the “sex work is work” mantra is given so much credence from lefties, since the latter is based on greed and exploitation of the working class. There was a time when I bought into what COYOTE were saying, that legalization would allow prostitutes to be protected by labor laws, but then I woke up when talking to a group that advocates for trafficked women who have escaped.

    As far as the trans go, they were very smart to ride the coat-tails and (and now they have the entire coat) of the LGB and Pride movements. I think that’s got a great deal to do with how they captured the left.