Last spring, as students were returning to campus from their J-Term break, many students, myself included, returned only to discover Gustavus had decided to unilaterally dissolve the Chinese department. The decision was founded upon financial constraints which “forced” the Gustavus administration to eliminate a program of study.
At the time of the announcement, (which was never made in an official capacity to the Gustavus student body – it was announced from Student Senate in a condemning statement) the Chinese department had one professor who formally taught in the classroom, Dr. Nan Li. Dr. Li was well-respected amongst her students and she worked hard to make sure they understood the new tonal language which differed greatly from our West Germanic language (English). Li was a visiting professor who had previously taught at Gustavus for a couple of years before being informed her scholarship and expertise would no longer be needed beginning this fall.
Now, Gustavus claimed the reason for the dissolution of the Chinese department to be due to financial constraints, but Dr. Li earned only $4,000 per month to teach her courses. To put that into perspective, perhaps you have seen the giant fenced off area behind Chapel and the giant crane that stands above all else on campus. Yeah, that whole Nobel expansion is costing Gustavus $70 million. Aside from that, Gustavus currently has a $168 million endowment. That basically means they have $168 million in the bank.
If Gustavus were truly concerned about saving money, $4,000 per month would not be the first place I would look to save, relatively, pennies to those tens of millions of dollars being spent elsewhere.
Gustavus claims they are a bastion of diversity and mutual understanding because of their cultural and linguistic education. How can this be the case when they brazenly attacked the second-largest spoken language in the world and kicking it off campus? One-fifth of the global population speaks Chinese so wouldn’t it be valuable for students to learn the second most common language in the world?
Moreover, China is the second largest economy in the world and one of the largest trading partners of the United States. The economic relationship China and the United States have is strong and will only continue to grow as time progresses.
Just like English, Chinese has become a language for businesses throughout the world and it would behoove those who are interested in global economics to have the opportunity to study Chinese.
Lastly, Gustavus is working on implementing a new curriculum aimed at increasing global citizenship and stewardship. It seems counterintuitive to push for this new curriculum while simultaneously alienating the Chinese department.
The administration’s unwillingness to reach out and receive input from the student body and overarching community on such a large decision was repugnant.
A bigger slap in the face is that Chinese is still an option when selecting a class on WebAdvisor. Students click the link in curiosity only to have a red bar with black text reading, “[n]o classes meeting the search criteria have been found” appear.
Furthermore, if one is to search “Chinese” on Gustavus’ home website, they are met with a nice home page dedicated to Chinese which says the Chinese department is being “reconstructed” and that Gustavus anticipates offering Chinese in “the subsequent years” which is laughable. The claim that Gustavus may offer Chinese again in the future is an attempt to quell an outraged student body who received no input on the subject matter.
Finally, because of the decision to dismantle the Chinese department, student organizations like Global China Connection (GCC) struggle to stay active on campus. GCC, which facilitates relationships and networks for those interested in Chinese languages and culture, has been prominent in recent years on campus for sponsoring events like Open Mic Night, a cultural mixer, International Games Night, and the Lunar New Year celebration. Unfortunately, the Chinese department was the only department who would advise GCC and now they are attempting to find another department to advise their organization, so they may continue to be present and active on campus.
The Chinese department was invaluable to strengthening international relationships and education. Now, it is contingent upon the student body to demand the administration reimplement the program and honestly seek feedback from the Gustavus community before another brazen act can occur again.
. Hold on, that’s not what we’ve been told, right? Aren’t conspiracy theorists old, wacky guys who believe that reptilians run the universe? Yes, those conspiracy theorists definitely exist. Just like there are people who go full crazy on just about any other subject available. While the idea about reptilians might have been true, and very well could still be, such thoughts have been ridiculed and laughed at so many times that even the expression ‘conspiracy theory’ is being stigmatized.
Well, if conspiracy theorists were once seen as being a movement for oddballs with unconventional ideas about the world, that is about to change. Instead, it is now turning into a full scale online movement. With the world wide web allowing new information to be publicly available because of freedom activists who risk their life leaking documents, the conspiracy theorists are not the same people as they once used to be. In fact, I would like to make the point that we are all, or at the very least should be, conspiracy theorists.
Conspiracy theories exists along all magnitudes. A small conspiracy theory would be that your college coach doesn’t play you because your hair is brown. Stupid, for sure, but that is a conspiracy theory nonetheless. However, internet movements found on sites like 4Chan and Reddit - whose r/conspiracy recently moved up to top 60 of all subreddits - seem to all agree that a larger, global conspiracy is now entering one of its most critical phases. It involves Syria, it involves the Clintons and it involves pretty much anything tied to the the monetary system, a system which was empowered by an idea put forth by the Rothschild family almost a century ago.
You know, the Rothschilds? The family who helped set up the Federal Reserve and the central banking system which is now one reason why just about every country on the planet is in debt to someone else? Yes, the Rothschilds are the founding fathers of the monetary system, the same monetary system whose only factor of credibility is that it heavily relies on that everyone relies on it. Quite frankly, it’s a joke, and the punchline won’t make you laugh.
When the advocations for ‘cash-less’ societies are being put forward, and you don’t think it’s a bad idea because, after all, who can keep track of all those damn coins anyway, what will you think when a negative interest rate removes money out of your account on a monthly basis, just like a tax?
Sometimes, the easiest way to understand a disease is to look closely at the symptoms it produces. How is it that in times of financial trouble, the only industry that does decently well is the one that includes banking? If we move the perspective even closer to our everyday life, why are all football stadiums all named by banks? If everyone else is llosing and only one industry is winning, I’d insist that the game is heavily distorted to encourage that industry.
N ew topic, same conspiracy. Who could tell me what is actually going on in Syria? There is a war, sure, it would be hard to fake images of buildings being bombed. However, who could specifically tell me who is fighting who, and what the final goal of the war is? To defeat ISIS? Sure, how about this;; define ISIS for me. It is not hard to understand why the conspiracy theorists are getting more grist to their mills. Who benefits from the wars, not just the Syrian wars, but any war? There are obviously a variety of answers to a question like that, but broadly speaking, it causes two things. First of all, it causes mass movement, meaning people are forced to go places they normally wouldn’t. This creates debt, because as people who have nothing tries to enter places where people have things they need capital to be able to sustain a decent life. Who benefits from this? Creators of debt. Banks. Secondly, what do you do when a
building is bombed? You rebuild it. With what money? Debt. What is interesting is the fact that in 2000, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Iraq were among the few countries who did not have a Rothschild structured central bank. In 2016, those countries are now Syria, Cuba, North Korea and Iran. How that might be is up to your own interpretation.
It does get scary when you realize that almost everything that effects everyday lives are tied to the senseless monetary system we are forced to endure. The Clintons are definitely involved, all you have to do is follow the campaign money. Is Trump involved, maybe. Probably. Most likely.
The ability to view the grand perspective is of highest importance. This is what conspiracy theorists do best. They can understand how dots connect on the bigger picture scale. So before you dive head in to back any presidential candidate this fall, please take a step back and ask yourself one question.
What the hell is going on?