There has been a lot of buzz this week about this asinine article that appeared in The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of The University of Texas (where I’m a doctoral candidate) on Tuesday, November 15. It was authored by someone named “Samian Quazi,” whom the article states is a “nursing graduate student.” No such name appears in the UT Directory and the UT registrar’s office confirmed to me today that it has no record of a student with that name enrolled in the university. Granted, the student may have requested that this information be kept private, but is this what student media has come to? Is this responsible journalism? Is it a pseudonym? What if all journalism was conducted this way? There is no evidence that equal space was devoted (in the November 15, 2011 issue) to an opposing viewpoint.
The article advocates defunding arts programs in universities because artists don’t meaningfully contribute to the economy, and because there are no jobs anyway, so one shouldn’t bother.
Who would stand to gain from such an article? Many outraged students in UT’s College of Fine Arts have suggested that the article originated from a member of the College of Fine Arts itself (to generate the impassioned and well-informed comments that follow the article on The Daily Texan’s website), from someone on the Board of Regents, and even from the Governor’s office. The content of the article is ridiculous enough; with no facts and no statistics, it appears that no research was done before writing it. It also appears that The Daily Texan printed a column authored by someone using a pseudonym without giving equal space to the opposing view in the same issue of its paper. This is what fairness in journalism is predicated upon, and The Daily Texan has dropped the ball. I intend to make these observations known to Texas Student Media, the parent organization of The Daily Texan, as its Executive Committee meeting and its Board of Operating Trustees meeting take place tomorrow afternoon at 12:30pm and 1:00pm, respectively. For information about these meetings (which are open to the public, though the agendas were set about a week ago, before the offending article appeared), go here.
The phone number of The Daily Texan is (512) 471-4591. Call this number and demand to speak with “Samian Quazi.” Demand to know why The Daily Texan gave print space to this and not to an opposing viewpoint.
Finally, hear me now…..I hereby challenge Samian Quazi to a public debate on the subject of his pathetic article, based on terms that will be agreed upon in advance by both sides. The debate will take place within the College of Fine Arts. I dare such an individual, if he actually exists, to come onto our turf and repeat what he wrote. Samian Quazi, show thyself. My name is Lane Harder, and I’m in the UT directory. Email me at: lane@whatmusicis.com.
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This would be funny if it wasn’t so profoundly wrong.
There has been a lot of buzz this week about this asinine article that appeared in The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of The University of Texas (where I’m a doctoral candidate) on Tuesday, November 15. It was authored by someone named “Samian Quazi,” whom the article states is a “nursing graduate student.” No such name appears in the UT Directory and the UT registrar’s office confirmed to me today that it has no record of a student with that name enrolled in the university. Granted, the student may have requested that this information be kept private, but is this what student media has come to? Is this responsible journalism? Is it a pseudonym? What if all journalism was conducted this way? There is no evidence that equal space was devoted (in the November 15, 2011 issue) to an opposing viewpoint.
The article advocates defunding arts programs in universities because artists don’t meaningfully contribute to the economy, and because there are no jobs anyway, so one shouldn’t bother.
Who would stand to gain from such an article? Many outraged students in UT’s College of Fine Arts have suggested that the article originated from a member of the College of Fine Arts itself (to generate the impassioned and well-informed comments that follow the article on The Daily Texan’s website), from someone on the Board of Regents, and even from the Governor’s office. The content of the article is ridiculous enough; with no facts and no statistics, it appears that no research was done before writing it. It also appears that The Daily Texan printed a column authored by someone using a pseudonym without giving equal space to the opposing view in the same issue of its paper. This is what fairness in journalism is predicated upon, and The Daily Texan has dropped the ball. I intend to make these observations known to Texas Student Media, the parent organization of The Daily Texan, as its Executive Committee meeting and its Board of Operating Trustees meeting take place tomorrow afternoon at 12:30pm and 1:00pm, respectively. For information about these meetings (which are open to the public, though the agendas were set about a week ago, before the offending article appeared), go here.
The phone number of The Daily Texan is (512) 471-4591. Call this number and demand to speak with “Samian Quazi.” Demand to know why The Daily Texan gave print space to this and not to an opposing viewpoint.
Finally, hear me now…..I hereby challenge Samian Quazi to a public debate on the subject of his pathetic article, based on terms that will be agreed upon in advance by both sides. The debate will take place within the College of Fine Arts. I dare such an individual, if he actually exists, to come onto our turf and repeat what he wrote. Samian Quazi, show thyself. My name is Lane Harder, and I’m in the UT directory. Email me at: lane@whatmusicis.com.
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