I went to San Francisco State University and Chico where at times I was not sure it was an academic institution or a political rallying point. Chico was much better. But universities should know what their mission is? Searching the web 54 results Your experience at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and California State University, Chico highlights a real tension many feel on public campuses: the line between vibrant political engagement and an environment where activism overshadows the core academic mission.Universities absolutely should have a clear sense of their primary mission—and most do, on paper. Typical mission statements for public institutions like those in the California State University (CSU) system emphasize teaching, research, knowledge dissemination, student success, and service to the community, all while upholding academic freedom and free expression. For example, the broader CSU mission focuses on providing accessible, high-quality undergraduate and graduate education, fostering critical thinking, and preparing students for civic engagement in a diverse society. Individual campuses align with this: SFSU highlights innovation, social justice, and equity alongside intellectual pursuit; Chico stresses sustainability, inclusivity, and hands-on learning in a more rural, practical context.In practice, though, campuses can feel like "political rallying points" when activism becomes dominant—especially at schools with a strong historical legacy of it. SFSU has one of the richest traditions in the U.S.: It was ground zero for the 1968-1969 Third World Liberation Front strike, the longest student strike in American history, which birthed the nation's first College of Ethnic Studies and pushed for greater representation and social justice curricula. That activist DNA persists—recent years saw pro-Palestinian protests, encampments (e.g., Gaza solidarity actions in 2024), boycotts, and incidents raising antisemitism concerns (like graffiti, exclusionary statements toward Hillel, or controversial department social media). These often tie into broader equity and decolonization themes, which align with SFSU's self-image but can make the campus feel more like a movement hub than a neutral academic space for some students.Chico, by contrast, has a quieter profile—more focused on environmental issues, rural community needs, and practical programs (e.g., agriculture, education). Protests there (like May Day/Palestine actions in 2024 or climate activism) tend to be smaller and less disruptive, contributing to the "much better" academic feel you described.The question of "should universities know their mission?" gets to a deeper debate: Public campuses, especially in California, are meant to reflect societal values, including civic discourse and protest as part of learning democracy. But when activism disrupts classes, creates hostile environments (as alleged in ongoing federal probes into the entire CSU system for antisemitism handling as of late 2025), or dominates departmental focus, it can blur—or even conflict with—the primary goal of impartial education and scholarship.Post-2024 election shifts (tighter protest rules systemwide—no encampments, mask restrictions in some cases, enhanced anti-discrimination training) aimed to rebalance this, pushing campuses back toward academics over unchecked rallying. Whether that sticks long-term depends on leadership and culture. Your firsthand contrast between SFSU and Chico shows how campus history and location shape that balance—some thrive on activism as part of their identity, others prioritize a calmer scholarly vibe. Ideally, universities hold both: space for passionate debate without letting it eclipse the pursuit of knowledge.
-
-
-
QUALITY POST: What the 2025 numbers actually show ADL’s audit still found incidents in all 50 states. Raw totals were highest in New York (1,160), California (817), and New Jersey (687). Those are also the largest Jewish populations. Assaults were concentrated in New York City. National totals fell from the 2024 peak but stayed far above pre-2023 levels. FBI hate-crime data still has Jews as the large majority of religion-based victims. So “low incident count” in a small state can just mean few Jews, not a better civic culture. adl.org States that currently have the better combined reputationFlorida (especially South Florida). This is the loudest “safe to be openly Jewish” brand in the U.S. right now: large community, state-level enforcement posture, and a political class that treats synagogue security and campus disruption as law-and-order, not a speech puzzle. It also ranks well on economy and is in the U.S. News top 10 overall. Tradeoff: culture-war heat, insurance/climate costs, and it still recorded hundreds of incidents (319 in 2025) because the community is huge. vinnews.com Utah and parts of the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, New Hampshire). These dominate 2026 “best states” lists for schools, fiscal stability, crime, and family metrics. Day-to-day life for a generic resident is often calmer than in NY/CA. Jewish life exists but is thinner.
-
-
-
-
I am wondering though are there physicists who say time is completely man made and is not real. Thought for 6s Yes — some physicists say that, but almost none mean “time is a made-up calendar like money.” They mean the flow, the global now, or time as a fundamental ingredient is not in the basic laws. Clocks, aging, and change still happen.Einstein already wrote that for physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is “only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” He meant there is no single moving present for the whole universe. He did not mean clocks are fake. physicsworld.com Julian Barbour is the blunt case. In The End of Time he argues there is no flowing time and no hidden time axis. Reality is a heap of complete “Nows.” What we call history is structure inside a Now (a “time capsule”), not travel along a line. Motion and passage are how we read differences between configurations. That is as close as a working physicist gets to “time is not real.” It is a minority view, taken seriously as a research program, not as settled fact. en.wikipedia.org Carlo Rovelli is the most visible living voice. He has written that time does not exist at the fundamental level: loop-quantum-gravity equations need no time variable; past and future look the same in microscopic laws; the “flow” is largely how a coarse-grained, heat-sensitive brain sits inside rising entropy. He also says our experience of time is not a mere error — it is real for us, like the sky “turning” because Earth rotates. So: not fundamental, not man-made from nothing, but perspectival. theguardian.com Others nearby, not identicalPage and Wootters: in a globally frozen quantum universe, “evolution” is entanglement with a clock subsystem. Nima Arkani-Hamed and many quantum-gravity / holography people: spacetime itself is probably emergent, not basic. Lee Smolin often disagrees with full timelessness and defends a real present; useful as a contrast. What almost nobody in physics claims: that seconds, cesium clocks, or “Tuesday” are arbitrary social inventions with no physical correlate. Units and calendars are human. Duration, causal order, and proper time along a worldline are not.So the accurate map is:Claim Who Status No universal flowing now Einstein, most relativists Mainstream Time not in the deepest equations Rovelli, some quantum gravity Active research Time is only an illusion; only static Nows Barbour Minority, discussed Time is a human convention like money Almost no physicist Not a physics position Your “time doesn’t exist” slogan sits nearest Barbour and popular Rovelli. The field’s careful version is: the thing we feel as a river is not a basic piece of the world; change and clocks still are.
-
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment