Letter of Complaint to Dr. Foltz

Here is an email complaint to my former Poetry & Drama professor Dr. Foltz that I sent in December 2003.

Dr. Foltz,

I didn't tell you this earlier, but screw it, I'm telling you this now!

Remember after summer session, when you got all the evaluations? Do you remember at least one negative evaluation? I wrote one of them!

I don't question your intellectualism, but I will question your attitude and professionalism.

You, sir, are the worst professor I had so far! I dont say this lightly!

1) you BS the class when you say that poetry doesn't have hidden meaning! What a bunch of crap! And you demand all the students to get the same hidden meaning that you have gotten from the poem, and you have belittled and humiliated students who gave an answer you didn't want!

You say you want us to think! BS, you want us to kiss your a--. But now that I no longer need to worry about being graded by you, I will not kiss your a--!

You say you want class participation? Then why do you belittle students who give a different answer from what you want by saying yelling "NO!"? By doing that, you are indirectly discouraging class participation. I have mentioned this to at least 20 people, they all agreed that your tactics doesn't encourage critical thinking at all, it only serves to humiliate!

You want respect, and then treat us with respect!

2) You tell us that we the students should keep all the books we bought! Only someone who spent the last few decades in an ivory tower (like YOU) will say something like that! Dont you realize that the students and the students are struggling with the high cost of living, and are making sacrifices just to buy books that you profs assign? Why should we not sell them back at the end of the semester when we get our $$$ back!

And DAM RIGHT I SOLD THOSE BOOKS BACK! I only took your class to get a core requirement out of the way! So I have no reason to keep your assigned book. So I sold it back, to get at least a small percentage of my hard earned money back! Why should I waste shelf space with boring fiction books that I only got to get a core requirement over with? Though I did sell those books, I think those books would've been put to better use as toilet paper!

I do keep some little books assigned by my profs, but not the big textbooks, and NONE of your assigned books!

However, if English lit wasn't required, the English Dept. would need to lay off some profs and you'll be out of a job.

3) You say that students should be forced to take 15 credits if they want to be full time students! I said "that's too much for us students to handle". You said "No, that's not".

I NOW say "GET OUT OF THE IVORY TOWER!" Who are you to say whether students can handle 15 credit course-load. My parents are struggling to live in this high cost state and help my college finances, so they aint got enough to help my day to day finances! So i get a part-time job to get some $$$, work experience! Plus, nobody hires people w/out work experience, even if they a good GPA! So how am I supposed to juggle that with a 15 credit load, sleep, meals and time to rest my mind! I am a 12 credit a semester person and DAMM PROUD OF IT! If you dont like it, it's none of your biz!

4) You wasted class time expressing opinions on things unrelated to Poetry and Drama and you belittled anyone who disagreed! My friend Stuart said in a letter to Ka Leo : One or two stray remarks is understandable, but a professor's REGULAR carping about his or her hatred of a politician or businessperson is also a waste of class time if the subject is juvenile delinquency, geology, English literature, etc. If the poetry professor is so concerned about telling his students what he thinks about foreign or fiscal policy, he can arrange a get-together with WILLING pupils and they can all talk about it on their OWN TIME.

You, sir, wasted my time, my $$$, my family's $$$ and the taxpayer's $$$!

5) Finally, I'm OK with the C in that class, since I dont give a dam about literature anyways. (By the way I printed my grade off the old PA'E system last July)

I'll still be around campus next semester, might see you in Kuykendall since I got classes there next semester! You make the first move! You act civil, I'll be civil. You act like a punk, I'll show you a side of me you haven't seen in class! I usually have good restraint, but only for a limited time! Treat me civil, everything will be cool!

Your former student

Pablo Wegesend

It was the last paragraph that got me in trouble. I got a notice from the dean claiming that email was "harassing" and "threatening". I had a meeting with the dean who claimed that last paragraph was a "veiled threat" and that I had to take anger management counseling.

Interestingly, the dean said she had Dr Foltz as a professor when she was a student at the university, and she understood my frustration with Foltz, and said that Foltz made students cry in class. But also that the alleged "veiled threat" within my email wasn't acceptable.

I had to also remove a copy of the email to Foltz from my blog.

But now that I've graduated from the university, I can repost the email on my blog again. So here it is!

Tobin Jones's Supplements

A fan wanted me to go over the atrocities of Mega-Leftist Tobin Jones and his shepherd Dr. William Foltz for the new generation of readers. So here I go!

Tobin Jones considers politically biased rants a "supplement" to one's education, even if those rants are UNRELATED to the advertised topic of the class!

Here's an example of what Tobin Jones considers a "supplement". It's from an email from David Horowitz, a socialist-turned-conservative.

Today, leftist professors are openly calling for America's defeat in Iraq and in the war on terror. Robert Jensen, for example, is a professor at the University of Texas. As American marines engaged Sunni terrorists in a fierce battle in Falluja on December 03, 2004, Jensen wrote: "The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that's a good thing.... I welcome the U.S. defeat... it's essential the American empire be defeated and dismantled."

Today, leftist professors assign exams with essay topics instructing students to "Explain why George Bush is a war criminal" (this actually happened at a university in Colorado).

Meet Brett Mock. He is a political science major at Ball State.
Last year he enrolled in a course called "Introduction to Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution."

He expected to study various ways of resolving conflict, including the use of military force.
Instead, he found a radical professor, George Wolfe, who believed that fighting back against violent aggression is never acceptable.

As we've come to expect from academic leftists, no opposing opinions were tolerated. Brett's grades were lowered when he wrote papers arguing against Professor Wolfe's beliefs, on the grounds that Brett clearly "didn't understand how peaceful resistance worked."

But when Brett, worried about his final grade, wrote a positive review of an anti-American book by Noam Chomsky, he received an A+ and 10 extra-credit points!

America's colleges and universities are producing a generation of young people who are being taught that their country is a source of evil, that war is never justified, and that our enemies have truth and justice on their side.

I've spoken to many, many parents who were heartbroken when they innocently sent their children off to college only to see them indoctrinated instead of educated and turned into radicals by their professors.

Tobin Jones, Dr Foltz and ideological conformity at colleges

Now that I'm no longer a student at the University of Hawaii, I can now re-post the facts about Dr. Foltz and his protege Tobin Jones

Dr. Foltz retired and moved to Wisconsin. I sent him an angry email 13 months ago about his negative attitude. Instead of replying to my charges, he ran to the dean and tried to get me expelled!

And in political correctness news, here's what Thomas Sowell wrote:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050107.shtml

There are a few good small conservative colleges like Hillsdale or Grove City, but Ivy League schools have no conservative rivals of comparable size and prominence, and neither do most state universities.

A student can spend four years at many colleges and universities and graduate with no real awareness of any other viewpoints than those on the left.

College and university faculties do not simply happen to be leftist. Too often ideological questions are asked at faculty job interviews and ideological litmus tests are applied in hiring. 

One reason for the prominence of conservative think tanks is that so many top scholars who are not leftists do not find a home in academia and go to work for think tanks instead.

Not even visiting speakers with a conservative viewpoint are tolerated on many campuses. It seems incredible that there would be fears that a one-hour lecture would undo years of indoctrination. But perhaps it is just sheer intolerance that creates hostility to anyone expressing ideas contrary to the prevailing notions of the left.

A student at Lewis College in Colorado was actually kicked by a professor for wearing a sweatshirt proclaiming his Republican views. This happened at a birthday party, of all places, and the professor has been quoted as saying that her only regret was that her kick was not "harder and higher."

Of course, bloodshot eyed Tobin Jones will call that kick a "supplement"! Maybe Tobin needs a growth supplement both physically and in maturity.

The End of Cheapo's

I just found out that Cheapo's store in Puck's Alley will close down this Saturday. It was a popular store for University of Hawaii students who wanted to buy used CDs and used books.

I am so sad to see it go. I'll have to go soon for one last time.

New Year's Resolution

To prevent myself from being a total packrat.

This past week, I have thrown a lot of junk I have collected over time and I'm not even done.

One of my hobbies I gained the last few years is collecting newspaper and internet editorials. I'll have to cut down on that this year. If not, I'll end up like one of my former co-workers (no names mentioned) who has still kept college catalogs from the 1970s. I onced joke about being able to find the Declaration of Independence in that colleague's collection of material.

Though my pile is NOWHERE near the size of that colleague's pile, I dont want to ever face that crisis. Which is why I'll continue to through out junk, and reduce my collection of editorials.

The New Year

This is the first post for 2005.

While many are celebrating the New Year, many in Asia are suffering from last week's tsunamis.

Hawaii hasn't had any tsunami in last few decades, but we are vulnerable. The safest bet is run towards the mountains.