#phyllis wise

[weetweetie]

Phyllis Wise, the chancellor of the University of Illinois and an obstetrics researcher, has called for a massive correction of a 2006 paper in Neuroscience for work she appears to have tried to pass off as having been previously unpublished — but which wasn’t. The article, “Estrogen therapy: Does it help or hurt the adult and aging brain? Insights derived from animal models,” has been cited 47 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

Yes, that Phyllis Wise

Self-Plagiarism: about 80% of the text of this paper is taken verbatim from Endo01: abstract, introduction, methods and materials, results and discussion. Endo01 is not cited. The only significant differences are the parts about bcl-2, ERα and ERβ, which do not appear in Endo01, but have been copied almost verbatim from another paper (JNeuro99) [...]

...and not the first time

[jayohday]

The Independent Student Newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

What perfect timing. Check out today (2/6/14)'s front page photo as a follow-up to my blog post from last night (er, this morning).

Whoever took the time to make the "sorry Phyllis" shown in this photo, major props and mad respect to you, even if you were one of the hashtaggers. No matter who did it, though, I'm glad we are taking responsibility as a campus. This one photo made me feel a lot better about the whole incident.

#onecampus <3

[jayohday]

That hashtag thing

(This blog was inspired by Jeffrey Katz, Joel Sucherman and Brian Boyer of NPR. Thanks for the encouragement to keep blogging, guys!)

I won't re-hashtag, because I don't want to participate, and I don't want to disrespect Chancellor Wise. I also don't personally feel comfortable using that kind of language, and I'm not trying to glorify what happened in any way.

But, after I expressed that I was shocked we had class today (Wednesday, 2/5, after a fairly heavy snowstorm the night previous) to a friend, he sent me the hashtag followed by a question mark. I laughed; he was being playful, and he knows that I wasn't likely to be a participant in the clusterfuck of overreactions gunking up Twitter a couple of weeks ago. In my reply to my friend, I said: "God, yeah. How embarrassing. It's okay to be upset; not racist."

And I thought some more. You can be angry, and even express your anger in a not-so-eloquent way where BILLIONS of people can view it, and where it may be saved forever.

But race and sex aren't at the core of why you're upset. You're upset because you have to go to school tomorrow. Nobody wants to go out and walk through mounds of snow or subzero temps. You're justified there. But you attend a world-class research university with the second largest library system in the country, and you can't express yourselves better than through racism and sexism? Come on. It's not even entertaining; were you trying to be funny? It's just incredibly embarrassing for me, as your peer. 

Why does anger transfer so quickly into hate, racism and sexism? "We feel less restricted behind the keyboard" and "We aren't facing the person so it is easier to say mean things." While these statements sound logical to me, I think the issue is deeper than that, and shows the full extent of racism embedded in our society. It also shows the extreme discomfort that people have with anger. 

It doesn't matter how far away you are from a person of insult or how many screens separate the two of you. What matters are the thoughts in the insulter's head. It isn't just, "wow, that's really mean of her to make us trek to school in negative degree weather! College sucks!" but racist and sexist comments. Those begin in the head before they hit the keyboard and eventually the Twitter feed. And that my peers' thoughts transfer so quickly into vicious hate like racism and sexism makes me realize how embedded and deep racism and sexism are in our society. 

Instead of expressing anger properly, someone takes a cheap shot, and usually that cheap shot ends up aimed at his own foot. The other foot; the one not already stuck in his mouth. 

I'm disappointed but not surprised that some immature classmates of mine do not realize the power and beauty of the internet. We can't misuse it like that. It hurts everyone, and the internet is one big happy family.

So, dear classmates, please keep your racism and sexism out of it. And try to get it out of your heads, too. 

[abdelsandweesh]

The negative comments, as offensive as they were, are protected speech. But what is protected expression and what is the level of discourse we as educators expect from our students can be very different things. And the size of that gap – so evident this week – is what has been most disappointing. Racist, intimidating or culturally derogatory epithets have no place in any debate in any circumstance. Of all places, a university should be home to diverse ideas and differing perspectives, where robust – and even intense – debate and disagreement are welcomed. How do we foster such an atmosphere? Only through an unwavering and unrelenting commitment to building truly diverse communities of students and scholars. One dinner with someone who doesn’t look like you and doesn’t sound like you can open new worlds of ideas. You can sit in a classroom and discuss situations in Egypt or in Syria based on academic readings. But, to hear these issues explained by a classmate from that country, from her or his personal experience, in his or her voice – this is when an academic exercise can become a moment of personal transformation. That is why we say diversity is the route to excellence. And, in fact, we are a diverse campus at Illinois, with students, faculty and staff from every state and more than 100 nations. They are a key part of what makes our university special, a community of cultures and ideas that generate original thought, outstanding research and the excitement that comes with working with the top people in their fields. But this incident shows that we still have work to do. On Monday, Jan. 27, we held classes, as usual, at the University of Illinois. And, I hope, we all learned something.

Chancellor of U. of Illinois responds to Twitter incident | Inside Higher Ed

[guruebby]

Racism. Sexism, and Overreaction at UIUC

Racism. Sexism, and Overreaction at #UIUC #fuckphyllis #putonacoatanddeal

When I got in my car this morning to head to school, my dashboard thermometer read 0 degrees. It had warmed up a bit by the time that I actually arrived at school, to a blustery 3 degrees, but it was still pretty cold. However, these low temperatures were…

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[thedailyillini]

"What I won’t let go of is the quality of education that we offer you. I will not cheapen the quality of education that you’re getting."

University Chancellor Phyllis Wise in an interview with the Daily Illini Editorial Board