[HN Gopher] Professors Are Being Watched: 'We've Never Seen This...
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Professors Are Being Watched: 'We've Never Seen This Much
Surveillance'
Author : JumpCrisscross
Score : 33 points
Date : 2026-02-04 19:31 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| theamk wrote:
| I think political interference is a horrible thing for university
| education.
|
| But that particular part - "laws requiring professors to publicly
| post their course outlines in searchable databases" - is great,
| and should be done everywhere. There are actually universities
| who _claim_ to have great math (or physics or other science)
| program, but actually just teach it at "advanced high school"
| level. So public syllabi - something that was very common in
| 2000's but going out of style today - are critical for anyone
| choosing the university to go to.
| mmooss wrote:
| > There are actually universities who _claim_ to have great
| math (or physics or other science) program, but actually just
| teach it at "advanced high school" level.
|
| What do you mean by that? And could you give an example?
|
| It's hard to imagine any university teaching science majors at
| 'advanced high school' level, as I understand it. I could see a
| US community college or almost any university teaching intro
| courses that way. I can't iamgine what a 4th year chemistry
| major would be studying that fits the scope of 'advanced high
| school'.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| "I think political interference is a horrible thing for
| university education."
|
| The University of California is one of the largest universities
| in the US. It is governed by a Board of Regents. The majority
| of those Regents are appointed by the state Governor.
|
| Do you consider that 'political interference'?
|
| One of the things those Regents did was vote to end the use of
| SAT scores in admissions. They did during a meeting in which
| several spoke of the value of the SAT. And they acted against
| the recommendations of the Academic Council's Standardized
| Testing Task Force.
|
| You might think that the staggered and long terms protect
| against political interference/influence. But if that's the
| case, how do we explain how so many votes are unanimous when,
| on the day of the vote, some regents express opposing views?
| kyboren wrote:
| > how do we explain how so many votes are unanimous when, on
| the day of the vote, some regents express opposing views?
|
| That reminds me of the Politburo voting scene in _The Death
| of Stalin_. Small group politics at their finest.
|
| Anyway, the UC Board of Regents is full of political hacks
| and corrupt cronies. Diane Feinstein's husband was famously a
| regent, while simultaneously serving as Chairman of both CBRE
| and his own leveraged buyout private equity firm.
| ebiester wrote:
| So, that sounds fine in theory.
|
| What's happening in practice, though, is a group of people
| (like Campus Watch) are looking specifically for anyone
| teaching gender, trans issues, race, and religion, and
| analyzing the coursework through their ideologies and harassing
| professors on account of it. And they're going through past
| years as well as present.
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| Not sharing course outlines is not going to help make this
| problem better. Better to face those groups head on than
| hide.
| janice1999 wrote:
| Intent matters though. Malicious actors, who are very much in
| power, will use the information to target universities and
| ideas [1] they don't like. Don't build databases for your
| enemies. Censuses were a great tool too, until certain people
| took power, then destroying them became the moral thing to do
| [2].
|
| [1] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-
| issues/academic-...
|
| [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Amsterdam_civil_registry_...
| testing22321 wrote:
| > _But that particular part - "laws requiring professors to
| publicly post their course outlines in searchable databases" -
| is great, and should be done everywhere._
|
| You have to think about the consequences.
|
| It seems like a great thing until doors are smashed down and
| people are taken away for discussing topics the current regime
| doesn't want discussed.
| coldtea wrote:
| Nobody (roughly) is choosing the university to go to based on
| the syllabus. They choose it based on cost, exclusivity, and
| networking considerations.
| nesk_ wrote:
| https://archive.is/HJa8N
| hilbert42 wrote:
| I am just so glad my time at university was in the late 1960s.
| Not only was it an exciting time to be alive but the thought of
| universities and professors under this kind of surveillance and
| being frightened to speak out couldn't have been further from our
| thoughts.
|
| Universities have always had their critics and back then was no
| exception. Complaints centered widely from about the ratbag
| student element causing troubles, to critism of subsidiaries/what
| universities cost the state, and about the spoilt and privileged
| class, and that universities were a hotbed of political activism
| --which at the time they were--but nothing approached this level
| of intense scrutiny.
|
| We students and those teaching us could say what we wanted
| without retribution. I remember being cheered by the student body
| after giving an anti-Vietnam War speech in the student union
| building and I suffered no repercussions, and that's how it was
| for everyone, staff and students alike.
|
| It was a wonderful time to be a university student, and 1968 was
| very special.
| josefritzishere wrote:
| This reminds me of something I read about the STASI.
| delichon wrote:
| Surveillance of publicly funded activity is due diligence.
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(page generated 2026-02-04 23:01 UTC)