My direct experience here is that "academics" are just as politically oriented as politicians themselves and that "power corrupts" just as much in academia as anywhere else.
I am pretty much as powerless here on my own campus as I am in front of Columbus City council or the State legislature. It really angers me! It angers me that they don't "play fair" either. I've (indirectly) had my job threatened here when we (me and another grad student who developed our self-defense course) fought against the system after they sacked our self-defense program. If anyone is interested in what OSU lost when they got rid of us, here's the link if you like to read :
http://www.selfdefenseforums.com/forums ... .php?t=544
The reason I write this is not just "social."
Ohio State has been home to the "Second Amendment Research Center" now for a couple years. It is financed mainly (IIRC) by the anti-self-defense Joyce Foundation and headed up by our own Bellisile--I mean Dr. Saul Cornell.
Here's the link:
http://www.secondamendmentcenter.org/index.asp
Here's their description of themselves:
Established in 2003, the Second Amendment Research Center at the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at The Ohio State University is a nonprofit, nonpartisan center promoting scholarship on issues concerning the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and firearms regulation.
SARC's goal is to aid in the creation of solutions to the problem of gun violence that are both effective and constitutional, and that recognize equally the widespread private ownership of firearms in the United States, the many legitimate uses of firearms in American society, and the high levels of firearm violence in our country.
SARC believes that such solutions must be informed by the work of scholars from a wide range of scholarly disciplines and a broad spectrum of perspectives. The Center seeks to model the sophisticated use of high-quality, multi- and inter-disciplinary academic scholarship to inform the process of making public policy.
In partnership with the Department of History and the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University, and supported by a generous grant from The Joyce Foundation of Chicago, Illinois, SARC serves as a clearinghouse of information and a catalyst for new scholarly work.
I've been thinking we need an entity right here on campus to engage the SARC in friendly discourse.
I'm willing to work at it. I do need to join up with the DCM folks in Converse Hall so maybe they'd be interested (or maybe they're already at it?).
Anyone else? Any ideas? Thoughts?
Karl Spaulding
OSU Pariah
MODS: If you think this will go better somewhere else, feel free!