NATIONAL UPROAR FOLLOWS SCHOOL’S FAILURE TO FOLLOW STATE LAW
The University of South Carolina is ignoring a state law which requires it to offer courses on the United States Constitution and other founding documents – a law which provides for the removal of the school’s president in the event of non-compliance.
Of course USC President Harris Pastides is taking the law about as seriously as the federal government takes its founding documents – which is to say not at all.
According to The Daily Gamecock (in a story which has since been picked up by The Daily Caller), Pastides says he’s not following the law because it is antiquated.
And because it would be too expensive to implement.
“Without modernization, the strict application of (the statute) would create an academic logjam, delaying a student’s timely graduation and burdening the student and parent with additional tuition and costs,” Pastides wrote in a letter quoted by The Daily Gamecock.
Really?
So teaching students the U.S. Constitution involves the unacceptable incursion of student and parent expense … but USC can blow money on a colossally failed speculative real estate deal with no consequences?
Good to know …
Also, the last time we checked the statute Pastides refers to as antiquated was last updated in 1998 – which strikes us as a fairly “modern” application of law.
As usual, Pastides is 100 percent full of it …
Frankly, this whole exercise is ridiculous … and further evidence of the need to completely privatize South Carolina’s bloated, inefficient and corrupt system of higher education (which consumes a disproportionately high percentage of our state budget).
Bottom line: Colleges and universities shouldn’t be required to teach anything they don’t want to … and the only accountability they should be subject to is the accountability of the marketplace.
There should be no taxpayer subsidization of education at any level, as far as we’re concerned.
Having said that, we fully suspect members of the S.C. General Assembly (with a few exceptions) will completely ignore the fact that Pastides is completely ignoring their law … because what is South Carolina if not an ever-revolving circle jerk of ignorance.
Oh, and tuition increases …
83 comments
But they can afford polarizing, hate-based African-American (Honky Hater) Studies, Women’s (man hater) Studies, and a Reagan-bashing class. And I bet they teach the myth of Global Warming and the wild absurd “theory” of Evolution, as if it were Gospel.
Evolution is closer to the truth than Creationism, you dipshit knuckle dragger…
A mosquito morphed into a dog, then became a horse that morphed into Albert Einstein…and you are SURE that’s True..despite not ONE SHRED of evidence…or even logic…How many times have yall declared to have a missing link, only for it to turn out to be a pig jaw, or a totem poll of wood????…
I’m sure MENSA is knocking down your door….Dumb@$$…Hahahahahaha…
At least it’s RECORDED in The Bible…which is thousands of years old…when did Darwin sip those ‘shrooms and trip so Dumb@$$#$, like you, could feel smart..150 years ago???
I don’t think you have a grasp on Evolution, sir…
I’m not sure there is anything to “grasp” other than a wildly speculative THEORY…that even Darwin said cannot be proven through a fossil record…
Ahem…recorded in the fossil record MILLIONS of years ago…
You can SHOW me a fossil in the TRANSITION state from one animal to another?
PLEASE, PLEASE show me…you may have just become the MOST interesting man in the world, if you can…
Just link it below…I’d LOVE to see your PROOF. It would be the FIRST…
Have you heard of antibiotic resistant bacteria?
How do you think they got that way?
It’s evolution, baby!
So “antibiotic resistant bacteria” is that ever-so-elusive Missing Link yall claim to have found every so often. And it proves a gorilla was once a fly..
You are one stupid, easily-led son of a B!*ch…no wonder the DNC loves Dumb!@$$#$ like you…
The pitch ignorance, and you run with it…no questions asked…
Answer the question. How did they get that way?
You can watch it in a petri dish.
So if you left that bacteria there for 10 billion years…it would become a human…after it morphed into a roach, a possum, and a bigfoot…LMAO…
Do you any idea how IGNORATNT you have to be, to believe the Bull-S#!* you people “rap” about as gospel, over at the “Effeminate Ways Coffee Shop” on bi-curious night???
At least your stupid Global Warming Warning @$$ learned something from predicting the end of the world by the year 2000…
Did you know dinosaurs such as the Sinosauropteryx had hues of color that patterns those seen in today’s birds? Of course you don’t, you don’t even know they ( dinosaurs) had feathers.
You got me there, Bo..That proves it…dinosaurs had hues in the same color in some birds….You have provided proof positive…
And of course, it only follows that an amoeba will blossom into a dog, after it sheds it scales from being a fish and then become a man, given a few billion years..and the blind faith a some Darwinian Dumb@$$#$…
Does anyone EVER challenge you idiots…If not, it may explain why you walk around believing this Bull-$#!*….
Can you answer the question or not?
No, it would be a lot faster than 10 billion years. The earth is only 5 billion years old and has only been capable of supporting life as we know it for about 3.5 billion of those years. The sun only has about 2.8 billion years of life left, so Earth will never be 10 billion years old.
Just kidding, I know that is all science non-sense. The earth is only10,000 years old and there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark.
God did it to punish us for letting women vote.
The bacteria adjusts to fight whatever attacks it….It did not turn into an armadillo, as evolution would dictate.
You’re more describing the reason man made guns or how a vaccine for polio developed……You’re not supporting your whacky-nutjob, superstitious-voo-doo belief that the bacteria will eventually “evolve” into a giraffe….
It adjusts? You just don’t want to admit that it evolves to survive better in the environment.
Students have to have 120+ credits to graduate and having 3 of them be about the constitution is too much??
Too much “what?”
Too much time – Too much effort – Too much I would rather take basket weaving – Too much who gives a shit about the Constitution – Too much it would hurt my brain – Too much to learn how you got the right to comment without fear of the Gestapo rounding up your sorry ass and hauling it off to a camp to make lamp shades out of your mommy’s skin
You’re 50 years too late!
Yep, stupid law… (1) college is already too expensive, and this just wastes time; (2) my engineering studying child doesn’t need it for his discipline, and besides, (3) who really follows the Constitution anymore?… this POTUS or SCOTUS?… ha!! While I don’t think USC should break a law, IMHO, it’s a stupid law that needs to be changed.
I’m sure your engineering studying child really needs those english 101 and introduction to college 101 classes much more than a basic understanding of the constitution. It would be easy to drop one of the more useless first year classes and add in the constitutional class.
Uh, no.. he’s already read the constitution anyway. And besides, who would the professor be who teaches him the constitution?…. some leftist a$$clown like Obama?…. yeah, no thanks! Seriously, I think I’d just rather save that money, and at the same time, not glorify some left politico’s hack job of the founder’s document. And let me be clear in closing, he doesn’t go to school to benefit society, he goes to benefit himself and family (and if that benefits society, than so be it)… so, just quit with that socialist mandate BS
Lol at the person who thinks reading the constitution constitutes learning all there is to know about it.
Also, I find it amusing that you believe your child learning about the constitution doesn’t benefit his own interests.
“Also, I find it amusing that you believe your child learning about the constitution doesn’t benefit his own interests.”
Well, let’s be honest about it…the lawyers works to subvert it and it’s pretty much ignored when not twisted in Congress, by the President and the Judicial branch.
So why study it? It’s become just what some claim Bush said, “Just a god damned piece of paper.”
Let’s not delude ourselves into thinking the Constitution means dick. Obama is just a little more upfront about it than Bush the Dumber.
This post is why the course should be taught.
Sorry friend, you didn’t make an argument. Maybe more law school is needed.
No need to make an argument when the other side (you) is proving my point on its own.
Guess what dipsh!t, not everyone is a Poly Sci major, nor cares to live up the a$$ of narcissistic politicians…some folks actually work for a living as engineers, doctors, nurses, HVAC repairmen, etc. And trust me, these folks realize more and more that studying the Constitution is a waste of time, as they know that politicians and judges contort it to their own personal and financial desires. So yeah, why waste my son’s time and my money to study a much manipulated document?!
Because you care so much about the Constitution, you purposefully don’t learn anything about it? Makes perfect sense.
In any event, how do you even know it’s being manipulated before you’ve learned about what it says?
Nope, you are completely wrong. Instead, realize that I don’t waste time on lost causes… and sadly, I’m not of the opinion that a 225 piece of paper will prevent this nation from sliding further into anarchy and into eventual civil war.
You are absolutely right!
Lawyers, pols and judges hate hearing the truth in that regard, it attacks their whole world view.
“not everyone is a Poly Sci major, nor cares to live up the a$$ of narcissistic politicians…some folks actually work for a living as engineers, doctors, nurses, HVAC repairmen, etc.”
That’s the money shot right there.
Hardly a money shot. Non-engineers do not claim to be experts in bridge design, non-doctors do not claim to be experts in surgery, non-HVAC repairmen don’t claim to be experts in the installation and repair of heat and air systems. Why? Because they have no educational background in those areas.
So why is it people with no educational background in law claim to be experts in Constitutional law? And believe it or not most Judges and Lawyers work just as hard as Engineers, Doctors and HVAC repairmen.
What the hell does any of that have to do with whether someone should study the Constitution or not?
People claiming to know the Constitution without studying it is a completely different issue/topic.
Let us hope you aren’t a lawyer or judge.
Perhaps you need to read. I am not opposed to people studying the constitution. Your response was in support of a person who opposes the University teaching the constitution because he is afraid his children will be exposed to “left leaning” professors. His entire point was he was knows all anyone needs to know about the constitution, and that anyone who believes differently from him is a “commie.”
“Perhaps you need to read. I am not opposed to people studying the
constitution. Your response was in support of a person who opposes the
University teaching the constitution because he is afraid his children
will be exposed to “left leaning” professors.”
He makes that as one of several points later, so to clarify I made my statement on his initial point:
“(3) who really follows the Constitution anymore?… this POTUS or SCOTUS?”
This is a legitimate argument, and IF YOU READ MY COMMENT, I was speaking directly to that…not the other stuff.
… and one other thing, I’ve read and know the Constitution (perhaps better than you). For instance, I know that the rights of states – enumerated in the 10th amendment (Bill of Rights) – is essentially a sham today as the Federal Government has been growing its mission and power for the past 225 years. To the point that the concept of individual state sovereignty is now essentially a hollow term. And let me say this, without individual states’ rights, this country has lost it’s greatest “pressure release valve” to ward off a future civil war. Trust me, 300 million people are never going to want to live under the same set of laws. And simply, only a tyrannical government will be able to keep (temporary) order against the dissenters.
The problem is that Tea Partiers don’t really understand constitutional law, but think they do. So what they want is to force USC students to study a year of constitutional law, but only from someone who knows as little about constitutional law as they do, less he or she tell the students, something Tea Partiers do not believe in.
Tea partiers follow the axiom, ” If we like it its Constitutional if we don’t like it its not.”
“The problem is that Tea Partiers don’t really understand constitutional law, but think they do”…. Thanks William – you overt Commie – for beautifully capturing as to why I wouldn’t want like-minded leftist professors teaching my kids the constitution.
So you’d rather your kid know nothing about the constitution other than the one time he read it like 5 years ago? Sounds reasonable.
Communism is an economic system, not a political system. Making my point you are a political illiterate. Nothing in any of my posts could be construed as suggesting we move our economy to a communist economic model.
Obviously you are afraid of the ideas of others and prefer to silence those who disagree with you. You are living proof the Tea Party is composted of mainly McCarthy style thugs. You would make a great fascist. You have the exact mindset Hitler manipulated in pre-war Germany.
I’m pretty sure the law was passed long before anyone ever heard of the Tea Party.
So to you and the seven people who voted this comment up; Did you know the work “gullible” is not in the dictionary? No really, look it up.
It really is so easy for Fox, Rush, and Beck and Howie Rich.
That’s the word “gullible” not the work, but hey there are no “ds” on my keyboard.
Too expensive to teach the Constitution? Lol.
More likely it is impossible to find a professor who both understands and agrees with it.
Well, Robert Bork is kibitzing about its finer issues with John Graham Altman, III, Strom Thurmond and its writers…
But its really simple. You just have to read it. Why does anyone need a course. All the Tea Party people understand all aspects of Constitutional Law from their pocket constitution. Needs a day at most, right?
I thought all you jackass Teaparty people already knew everything about the constitution.
Nice trolling.
Do you thing Penus Williams misspelled his first name? Dick Head would be much easier for a troll to remember.
We do. It’s you left wing low information voters we need to educate (instead of indoctrinate).
Take 3 hours of electives for one political science class.
Maybe they get by with teaching it in tyhe Law School… I remember Good Old Charlie Randall going on and on for two semesters. By the time I got to Law School, I alrteady had accumulated some 250 credit hours, none of which were about the US Constitution…
Edit for fat fingers, small keyboard,,, Thanks
Law school???…as long as they teach you not to get your nose too close to the bumper of the ambulance…you’ll be airight…
Bwahahaha Thanks, that made my day!
Yet every college professor I know will gladly tell you, and for free of charge, that Communism has never failed, because True Communism never been tried,….
I guess they have to murder 100 million people to be True Communism, like the profs like…not 80 million…like Stalin and Mao…
The Daily Gamecock editorial was what really got me.
“Additionally, some students’ areas of interest don’t intersect at all with knowing the Constitution front-to-back.”
Tough shit. My interests don’t intersect with paying taxes but I do because I live in this country. Is the law antiquated? Yes. Should everyone be required a full year of study? No. But if we want the University to produce responsible citizens, we need to facilitate an understanding of the rights and requirements of a citizen. There is no better document to lead that discussion than the constitution.
In Full: http://www.dailygamecock.com/article/2014/02/in-our-opinion-mandatory-constitution-classes-unnecessary
Alll Americans should be familiar with the Constitution and other founding documents. Students should spend some time on it in the fifth or six grade and then again in high school, but to require college students to spend two semesters on it is absurd. College courses are expensive. Those working towards science or engineering degrees can hardly afford to waste six semester hours.
This is yet another example of how our General Assembly has wasted time and resources on the trivial and avoided the necessary work for South Carolina and her citizens.
Are you people stupid? Do you just buy into whatever this anti-public education nut tells you. I mean, I guess most of you never went to college. Did you really believe a large university would not have a course on how the Government works??
Try Poli 201 – American National Government. Its a full semester 3 hour course on wait for it . . . “The formation and development of the national government, its organization and powers.” I guess since the course description did not have the word Constitution in it, it was above the comprehension level of most Teanutarians. You know, all those people who fully understand the Constitution from their pocket Constitution.
This article is very misleading. That is why it seem so absurd. Just an opportunity for Folks to bash public education. Same ole, Same ole.
I must be stupid, then. The law says it’s a requirement for “all” students. The problem is not that there’s no Constitution class (or class that teaches the Constitution)…the problem is that it is not a requirement for “all” students.
I’m not sure how I graduated college since I’m so stupid.
How long has Pastides been there already? Get that guy TFO of Osborne. He has had his chance to drive USC further to ruination. So sick of his shit. He can take his ‘civility initiative’ and shove it up his ass.
So f..ing tired of Pastides’ -3rd highest paid president of the SEC – this guy has ruined academic life, gives a tweet about the average prof teaching in facilities from the 1970….send him and cook book Jane back North…
This might happen sooner that you think…he really miscalculated his tuition time out crusade and USC might get a mandated pay raise and Obama Care costs WITHOUT tuition increase…then we’ll be playing HOUSE of CARDS and the BOT can step in to safe USC financially ….
I’m getting so pissed off about these Smart State Chairs, they are all “friends of Harris” but produce nothing. Our college, the largest as our dean likes to say has a guy in Physics who brought in NOTHING …Pharmacy has this guy Bennett who is a looser and then there are smart state chairs who don’t even live in Columbia…it is f..ing pathetic.
Where can we even find an accounting of what has been produced? As return on investment for us, not fancy padding of their CVs.
They actually use other people’s grants to pad their finances!
they claim them for their center – anything remote will do. look at who of the Smart State Chairs has a big federal grant: One!
The rest is stuff that “normal’ full professors do just as well or better…anybody looking into the ROI of the SS chairs will get a heart attack….
Totally agree. Kick his acedemic butt out and let’s get one of our politicians to run this place. Nikky? Lee Bright? Or how ’bout getting Glen McConnell if he fails to land the C of C job! Or how ’bout Catherine Templeton? The chick from the law firm that donates so heavily to da gunna? Yeah,… the one who screwed up the TB outbreak and likely caused huge pestilance as a result. No public health, no management experience. Or hows ’bout the SCDEW chick from the same law firm who’s getting sued for shoddy labor practices. Now SHE needs a good labor lawyer also with no management experience. Oh wait,…she IS a labor lawyer.
Any of THEM
would be FAR better than a world-class trained PhD acedemician with 25+ years experience running complex educational institutions.
You’d do good and look at Pastides’ record as a dean and VPR….and scholar. Spending money is what the man can do. Pastides is NOT a world-class trained PhD academician!!!! Institute of Medicine? Nope – American Academy of Arts & Sciences? Nope- American Association for the Advancement of Science? Nope! Clemson’s president is a world class scholar – look him up….Pastides moved into admin in his mid thirties and his publication record would not be enough for tenure in many departments!
Hmmm,….let’s recap,….Three graduate degrees from Yale, five published, juried articles since 2000, earned full-prefessorship tenure at U Mass Amhurst, Department Chairmanship. I’d say he’s a bit more academicly qualified than McConnell is. You may not like him but he is fully qualified to do what he’s doing. The same can’t be said about many in public service leadership positions in our state.
More qualified than McConnell, can you pick a weaker comparison? W was also at Yale, right? To argue he is a great scholar is BS. He is an astute politician but his values and his ethics are those of a politician. And his tuition time out showed that his tactical skill are not that great…are you also from Yale?
This article is poorly written. As a result it provides this website’s usual dose of misinformation or disinformation. Obviously another Howard Rich payment came in.
This article states “the University of South Carolina is ignoring a state law which requires it to offer courses on the United States Constitution and other founding documents.” This is obviously not true, USC offers numerous courses on the Constitution and founding documents. Only a nut would believe otherwise. The University offers degrees in Political Science and History.
The article in the Gamecock alleges there is a requirement under state law that USC require all students to take a course on the Constitution and Founding Documents for a full year. First, I don’t know that this is true. The law seems a bit vague as to the timing and nature of the requirement. But even if the allegation is correct, USC requires all students to take three hours of Social Studies, which must include US History. That has been the rule since I graduated. The basic course taken by most Freshmen or Sophomores to meet this requirement does in fact cover the Constitution and Founding Documents. History, Political Science, and Education Majors get a lot more coverage.
If the University does in fact have to adjust its requirements to require a full year devoted to the Constitution (Note “full year” is not defined in the legislation, but I would assume that means two semesters) it is going to actually be quite an expensive undertaking for most students and their parents. Such a requirement would most likely add an additional semester on to the degree of most students. Not an inexpensive undertaking by any stretch of the imagination.
South Carolina has an interesting relationship with the US Constitution. Some folks get all in a huff when USC reportedly won’t teach classes on it, but yet SC led the charge in 1861 to secede from the Union so the South could permanently enshrine the enslavement of Africans into law.
Another example would be S.C.’s blood lust of every man, woman and child and the family dog and cat having several guns each and carrying them around in holsters to bars, clubs, movies, or what have you as per the 2nd Amendment….yet remain hostile to the 1st Amendment’s establishment clause.
How can we be forced to teach the constitution to students who can barely read and are seldom sober?
Hang him …. file petitions with the SC Supreme Ct seeking an emergency court order that he be removed and jailed. We can not tolerate this kind of conduct by a lawless liberal rogue. He has to be punished with removal – PERIOD.
USC’s no smoking ban on campus property is a joke. Just look over at the Darla Moore School of Business.
It’s funny to see the president of just about any SC university at this point “worry” about the tuition costs thrust upon students and/or their parents.
I would rather the legislature actually reign in the bullshit going on and force state colleges to perform their purpose of giving a quality education at an affordable price.
Wouldn’t the constitutional law class count? Undergrad students take it sometimes.
The Catholic Channel on cable has inspired some to have a 24 hour channel of people chanting the Constitution in a large, echoey building.
Maybe if the founding fathers had taken a half time break in writing the constitution to play football, then it would be taught at USC.