No Jared — the University of Nebraska is the result of a merger between a Normal School (teacher’s college) and a Land Grant College. Massachusetts’ Horace Mann started the Normal School (Teacher’s College) movement to train elementary school teachers and Vermont’s Justin Morrill’s efforts to teach “scientific agriculture and mechanical arts” so as to enable Vermont’s children to obtain a living from the rocky soil of Vermont (and not move out to Nebraska).

This is an important point when we discuss student loans because the very purpose of this institution was (and arguably still should be) to provide vocational training. Of course there was an interest in also making good citizens, but the primary purpose was the professional training for educators, scientists, and engineers.

That said, what I don’t understand is that if this “performance” was his doctoral dissertation, how he was able to avoid a public defense of it. At least at UMass, any professor with “Graduate Faculty Status” — in *any* field — could show up and ask me any question that he/she/it damn well pleased. None did, it was only my committee, but any professor could and in something like this — the check on something like this, is the professor of something else (e.g. Polymer Science) showing up and asking the questions that you did. Which should be asked for all the ones you asked and one more:

“Exactly what artistic merit does this have?”

It’s not just that it’s “cliché and intellectually shallow” but that it’s nothing but intentional inflammatory. Would you get a doctorate for shouting “Fuck Mohammed” at the top of your lungs?

And the worst part of all of this is that this schmuck, with his doctorate in music, is likely to wind up as the Director of Music at some K-12 school system where he can exhibit such judgment as he demonstrated here. And some rural Nebraska district will be glad to get him. Sad…..