Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Hokies, Join the Resistance!

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by

James A. Bacon
in , ,

From Campus Reform:

Virginia Tech prof accuses student of spreading misinformation, threatens to delete discussion board posts

A pro-life student at Virginia Tech was publicly accused of spreading misinformation by her professor after submitting a discussion board assignment expressing pro-life views.

After being admonished publicly, student Alyssa Jones met with her professor and recorded the conversation. “I hadn’t really been thinking the way you want me to I guess,” she said. “I didn’t say anything that was factually incorrect in my discussion post, and I’m just a little bit confused as to why you told the class that I was spreading misinformation.”

Bacon’s bottom line: Push back. Document everything. And take your case public. Students, there are people who will help you,

By the way, Hokie alumni, where the heck are you? You’ve got the most politically conservative (or least “progressive”) students among the major Virginia universities. Why aren’t you standing up for them? Join the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, James Madison University, and Washington & Lee in forming an alumni resistance group. We’re happy to help. Contact me at jabacon@thejeffersoncouncil.com.

— JAB

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58 responses to “Hokies, Join the Resistance!”

  1. kls Avatar
    kls

    Welcome to higher learning in Blacksburg…….. former USMIL students are treated the same way by some profs. The disdain for different view points which don’t match up with the ivory tower dogma is astounding…… I experienced it as well.

    FYI — I had AJ in one of my classes….. she is a great, thoughtful, hard working, articulate, and intelligent student.

  2. keydet16 Avatar
    keydet16

    Maybe its just me, but I really don’t see these alumni rebellions lasting past 2025.

    1. RKW Avatar
      RKW

      What makes you think that?

      1. Not Today Avatar
        Not Today

        Death.

      2. keydet16 Avatar
        keydet16

        There’s a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that people will move on without them and their sole source of influence (if you can even call it that) is Gov. Youngkin. He’s term-limited, and its very likely (imo) that a Democrat will win in ’25, and with that these groups will become entirely irrelevant.

        Edit: This is also not the first time that this has happened. Remember CAP? The Concerned Alumni of Princeton? That group was formed when African-Americans and Women started attending the institution(?) and they made a lot of hay, but ultimately the wheels of time ran them over. For VMI, there were ‘privateers’ who tried to take the school private in the 90s after the admission of women, but they abysmally failed too.

  3. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    The real issue …

    “Jones ended up receiving a 55% on the assignment and scheduled a follow-up meeting with her professor.”

    The prog-lib professor just couldn’t resist, I guess.

    1. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      It’s a public university!

      If a class assignment “required students to share their thoughts,” those thoughts should not receive a failing grade because they take a different stance on a controversial issue than that of the professor.

  4. Thomas Dixon Avatar
    Thomas Dixon

    More reason to go to a trade school.

  5. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Well JAB, since she has your ear, publish her posts. Let’s see what she claims is not misinformation or misleading.

  6. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    Difficult if not impossible to judge this dispute without the content of the “misinformation” statement. In any event, the prof erred in publicly criticizing the student.

    Rallying others at VT may be premature.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      In a message that is visible to the entire class, Goldensher wrote, “Alyssa’s citing some misinformation that’s important to correct.”

      According to the article, the professor never actually identified the “misinformation”.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Apparently, the alleged misinformation related to the effects of abortion causing medications. Over my pay grade.

        1. CJBova Avatar
          CJBova

          The professor brushes off the possibility of ER visits for side effects of oral abortifacients mentioning only that they “can be painful.” Yet, even if rare, Mifeprex has an FDA black box warning of “serious and sometimes fatal infections or bleeding.” Ironically, pain is not among the label’s additional list of adverse reactions.

          https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf

          1. James McCarthy Avatar
            James McCarthy

            The ingestion of abortifacients is off topic.

          2. CJBova Avatar
            CJBova

            The comment shows the professor’s misinformation in her response to the student.

          3. James McCarthy Avatar
            James McCarthy

            I’ve seen that movie: Misinformation v. Misinformation. The crux of the dispute between the two relates to life at conception. Both also are not on the same page with respect to potential effects of abortifacients.

        2. CJBova Avatar
          CJBova

          The professor brushes off the possibility of ER visits for side effects of oral abortifacients mentioning only that they “can be painful.” Yet, even if rare, Mifeprex has an FDA black box warning of “serious and sometimes fatal infections or bleeding.” Ironically, pain is not among the label’s additional list of adverse reactions.

          https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf

    2. walter smith Avatar
      walter smith

      Read the Campus Reform article linked at the top. You are correct the admonition on the Board in front of all the other students was wrong, but so was telling the student her opinion was “misinformation.”
      Seems kind of abusive of the professor’s position of power, doesn’t it?

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        No. Having read the exchange, the student characterized her statements as true versus the prof’s misinformation. The gravamen of the exchange is whether life begins at conception. That is debatable.

        Was the prof’s response indiscreet? Yup!

        1. walter smith Avatar
          walter smith

          Where is Larry when you need him? Most professors say life begins at “fertilization” (I guess conception is too religious?)
          So if a majority of professors agree, it’s case closed, right?
          (In Larry’s world consensus means you cannot challenge it)

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Nope. Only if you want to misrepresent what I think.

          2. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Come on Larry – you know you have hidden behind “consensus” to shut up people who question the mRNA jabs being forced on the world and the “climate change” religion.

          3. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Nope.
            That’s you.

          4. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Huh? Feels like you are doing the na na na na boo boo thing. I have always been willing to challenge the so-called orthodox SCIENCE! du jour that you seem to feel not challengeable. Like Dr. St. I am Science Fau(x)ci.

          5. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Your problem Walter.

          6. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            I’m like rubber
            you’re like glue
            bounces off me
            and sticks on you!

    3. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      I too would like more information. For starters:

      – The written assignment given by the professor
      – The student’s submission for the assignment
      – The rubric for grading the assignment
      – Any pertinent guidelines for the class or assignment

      But from my reading, it sure sounds like the professor asked for it.

      One of the assignments, a discussion board post, required students to share their thoughts regarding the reasoning behind getting an abortion…

      Don’t ask for thoughts if you don’t want to hear them. To fulfill an assignment of this type, her thoughts cannot be separated from the facts and reasoning behind them.

      Jones ended up receiving a 55% on the assignment and scheduled a follow-up meeting with her professor.

      Based on what I see of the exchange, it’s the professor who should be getting the failing grade, not the student. The student had receipts, the professor didn’t. Her reference does appear to be outdated.

      At the college level, professors sometimes learn from students. If a professor can’t do that, then I would question their suitability for the job.

      I’ll reserve final judgement until there’s more information, but it is in no way premature to draw attention to this incident.

      1. kls Avatar
        kls

        most profs don’t have ‘rubrics’ — it’s subjective.

        1. Nathan Avatar
          Nathan

          That’s most unfortunate.

          Advantages of Using Rubrics

          https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/rubrics.html

    4. CJBova Avatar
      CJBova

      The Campus Reform screenshot shows the professor said, “the ideas that misoprostol and mifeprestone are asssociated with complications that aren’t tracked by health agencies is not true.” The second screenshot shows the student says, “Your source is from 1999 before the FDA decided they were only tracking deaths.”
      This 2018 FDA statement of adverse effects from 2000 to 2018 only lists deaths. They cover a wide range of causes which are not quantified beyond the related deaths.
      https://www.fda.gov/media/112118/download

      1. CJBova Avatar
        CJBova

        This study shows the FDA was not providing reliable information in 2009-2010 about adverse effects.

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8724996/
        ConclusionsThere are significant discrepancies in the total number of AERs and specific AEs for 2009 and 2010 mifepristone abortions reported in 1. Cleland’s documentation of Planned Parenthood AEs, 2. FAERS dashboard, and 3. AERs
        provided through FOIA. These discrepancies render the FAERS inadequate to evaluate the safety of mifepristone abortions.

  7. Donald Smith Avatar
    Donald Smith

    If Wokesters and SJWs in academia harass you, sue! There is plenty of case law precedent out there to support you, and quite a few legal foundations who will defend you. The Wokesters and SJWs gamble on being able to bully people into silence. Push back! Take them to court and force them to testify under oath.

    And, go to your delegate or state Senator. This is an election year.

  8. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    After being admonished publicly, student Alyssa Jones met with her professor and recorded the conversation. “I hadn’t really been thinking the way you want me to I guess,” she said. “I didn’t say anything that was factually incorrect in my discussion post, and I’m just a little bit confused as to why you told the class that I was spreading misinformation.”

    Well? If she recorded the conversation, what’d the professor say in response? Or, didn’t anyone bother to listen to the recording before going off half baked?

    Perhaps, just pull a Vincent van Gogh and lop off your left ear. Can’t seem to listen to anything from that side anyway.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      yes.

  9. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Oh, NOW I get it! How could I have missed it! This article is an example of one of James Sherlock’s snowflakes in the previous article!

    https://www.baconsrebellion.com/graduating-snowflakes-into-the-workforce/

    “ It appears that White females experience the highest level of emotional distress — even though they earn college degrees at higher rates than males and earn slightly higher grades in college, on average. Some demographic groups, I would argue, are more vulnerable than others to debilitating cultural fads and contagions that affect mental wellbeing.”

    Cultural fads? Like, uh, oh say, calling people “woke”, joining MAGA, believing QAnon theories, etc., etc.? Militancy is not a substitute for being mentally well adjusted.

    A little bump in the road sends these poor children running for the crying towel.

    And lookie, lookie, nearly the entire BR RW contingent runs to kiss her widdle boo-boo. ENABLERS!!

    1. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      “This article is an example of one of James Sherlock’s snowflakes in the previous article!”

      Nonsense!

      Pushing back after public ridicule and a failing grade on an assignment at a public university because one’s views differ from those of the professor is not an example of a snowflake.

      If there are snowflakes in this case, it would appear to be the other classmates who needed protection from being exposed to opposing views.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        This isn’t her first rodeo. In an earlier incident involving Turning Point, she claims to have met with a school official who put out a signed public statement that he never met with the woman, and accused another dean of making statements to her that, again, put out a signed statement denying the claim.

        Maybe Santos isn’t alone.

        https://mobile.twitter.com/somatosavory/status/1378057284983619588

        1. Nathan Avatar
          Nathan

          That tells me only that she has learned from the experience. She’s got screen shots and an audio tape this time.

          Makes it a bit harder to say it never happened.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Project Veritas LITE?

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Of course, it could be she just confused the two school deans Lots of deans at VT, I’m sure.

            I await the recordings.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Is “QAnon” even still a thing?

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Theory is.

  10. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    FWIW, while we don’t have the student’s claim specifically, we do have the public admonishment, well, at least in part.

    “And a quick note for other students-•Alyssa’s citing some misinformation that it’s important to correct. No medication can be used without any risk of complications, but the idea that misoprostol and mifeprestone are associated with complications that aren’t tracked by health agencies is not true.”

    It appears from this that Alyssa made a claim, “the idea”, that health agencies are NOT tracking certain complications. We cannot know from the sources what complications she’s claiming, but Ms. Bova has provided a link in the discussion below,

    https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2023/020687Orig1s025Lbl.pdf

    that clearly shows that health agencies do track complications. See Tables 1 and 2 and surrounding discussions concerning studies of complications, and §6.2.

    We also don’t have the rules or the topic of the discussion board, but there appears to have been some ground rules prohibiting the discussion of abortion as “life ending” and “inviting debate” which Alyssa admits to bending.

    1. VaPragamtist Avatar
      VaPragamtist

      It appears from this that Alyssa made a claim, “the idea”, that health agencies are NOT tracking certain complications. We cannot know from the sources what complications she’s claiming, but Ms. Bova has provided a link in the discussion below, that clearly shows that health agencies do track complications.

      Sure. But because we don’t know what complications she’s referring to, we don’t know if they’re in the list of complications being tracked in the link you provided.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      I’ve been wondering if the professor admonished any of the pro-abortion students for posting “misinformation”. At least one other person in that class must have posted something that was incorrect, mistaken and/or debatable.

    3. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      “…there appears to have been some ground rules prohibiting the discussion of abortion as ‘life ending’ and ‘inviting debate’…”

      Tell me, how does one “share their thoughts regarding the reasoning behind getting an abortion” without some degree of inviting debate, particularly if those views are contrary to those of the professor?

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        I have no clue and neither do you what the discussion subject was.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          YUP

    4. CJBova Avatar
      CJBova

      See my comments above showing FDA only tracks fatalities as the student said. The FDA black box label warning identifies the adverse effects. We just have no way of knowing how many happen. If there were no adverse effects, there wouldn’t be a black box warning. There are no FDA statement about requiring reporting of adverse effects.
      This article (with citations) discusses the underreporting of adverse effects and gives numbers gathered from Medicaid funded abortions. https://lozierinstitute.org/analysis-fda-decision-ignores-data-on-complications-puts-women-at-risk/

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Once drugs go through approval the FDA continues to track adverse effects, among other errors, labeling, dosing, etc., via Adverse Event Reporting. The system has limitations.
        https://www.fda.gov/drugs/surveillance/questions-and-answers-fdas-adverse-event-reporting-system-faers

    5. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      I’ve been wondering if the professor admonished any of the pro-abortion students for posting “misinformation”. At least one other person in that class must have posted something that was incorrect, mistaken and/or debatable.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        By must, you mean surely? With high probability.

        Maybe not. Again, we’ve no idea how far afield from the stated objective of the discussion Alyssa may have strayed since we know nothing of the rules.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Yes. Surely. Sorry about that. Poor choice of word.

        2. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Yes. Surely. Sorry about that. Poor choice of word.

      2. Nathan Avatar
        Nathan

        I strongly suspect that criticism and grades were determined more by the degree to which student submissions agreed or disagreed with views of the professor than anything else.

  11. VaPragamtist Avatar
    VaPragamtist

    Hat off to Alyssa for standing up for herself and calling out the postdoc on her own misinformation. Reading the exchange, Goldensher cited an article from 1999 to refute the young lady’s argument: “Mifepristone is associated with even fewer emergency room visits than over-the-counter medications like Tylenol. See Bond and Hite 1999.”

    I’m having a hard time finding Bond and Hite 1999. But several pieces of “misinformation” here:

    –As Alyssa rightly points out, that cited article (assuming it exists), was published in 1999, before the drug was FDA-approved.

    –Similarly, when the drug was given before FDA-approval, it would have been for clinical trials, rather than readily available to the population at-large (like OTC medications). Using this article as irrefutable evidence of the safety of a drug today is faulty. An analogy: the puff adder’s venom is less toxic than that of the black mamba, but the puff adder is considered more deadly because it’s more aggressive and prevalent and bites more people. That doesn’t mean the black mamba is safer.

    –Most egregious, Goldensher ends with “some people feel that [abortion] ends a life, and is thus unsafe for that life. But as the course guidelines state, in this course, we won’t be debating the question of whether terminating a pregnancy is ending a life, and we won’t be trying to convince one another of a particular answer to that question. Stay tuned for the next several weeks when we’ll learn more about. . .the ways in which these definitions of life and safety were constructed and disseminated by social movement actors!” So in this “Abortion in Society” course, a student can’t express their personal beliefs on abortion if your stance is pro-life. But the course content will include tearing down the pro-life movement. That’s indoctrination, pure and simple.

    Students should be allowed to express their beliefs in the classroom. They should have their viewpoints challenged by each other, and be presented with information and resources that further challenge them. Faculty can have thoughts and opinions and should challenge their students. But this postdoc is clearly creating an echo-chamber in her classroom in which only one perspective on a contentious issue is allowed.

  12. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    On a more basic level, the class is called “Abortion in Society”.

    While many people, possibly even most, think abortion should be legal at some level, a significant portion of society is opposed to abortion.

    Society is split on the subject, and a large part of the split comes from people’s differing ideas as to when life begins, and whether abortion ends a life.

    That being the case, why would a professor who is teaching a course called “Abortion in Society” refuse to allow discussion about what is essentially the main topic of debate regarding abortion in society?

    Having such a prohibition listed right in the “course guidelines” for the class is a big “tell” for me that the course likely consists of a pro-abortion professor demanding students regurgitate her/his pro-abortion positions in a pro-abortion echo chamber. In other words, a completely useless exercise with no educational value.

    1. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      “…the course likely consists of a pro-abortion professor demanding students regurgitate her/his pro-abortion positions in a pro-abortion echo chamber…”

      Absolutely. And judging from the professor’s message, the indoctrination is about to get more intense. Did you notice her last sentence?

      Dr. Liora O’Donnell Goldensher
      “Stay tuned for the next several weeks when we’ll learn more about both how misinformation like this has been deployed and the ways that these definitions of life and safety were constructed and disseminated by social movement actors!”

      Boy howdy! I hope we can stay tuned. Sounds to me like the students are due for an abortion activist’s rant against opposing views, posing as a class.

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