by Corinne Murdock | Nov 16, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona State University (ASU) announced last month that they redesigned their Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Science in Design (BSD) program to expand admissions for the sake of inclusivity, removing a built-in competitive edge that used GPA to reduce the number of second-year students from several hundred to 45. Competitive cuts are common practice for architecture programs: traditionally, the massive reduction affords students more one-on-one instruction and ensures a ratio of 10 to 20 students to one professor. ASU’s new take on their architecture program will have a ratio of 150 students to one professor, with about 10 teaching students to buffer. ASU is currently the only university to expand its architecture program in this way.
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (HIDA) architecture professor and Associate Director Catherine Spellman explained in the university’s announcement that it was “heartbreaking” to have to make hard cuts essentially based on GPA.
“We’ve rewritten the undergraduate course in architecture to be completely inclusive,” said Spellman. “It used to be that we had room for 45 students in the second year going forward, but we’ve rewritten the undergraduate BSD in architectural studies to accept everyone who has a 3.0 grade point average.”
In an interview with AZ Free News, Spellman explained that the students that made the cut under the previous program structure usually had around a 3.7 or higher GPA. Spellman made the case that GPA doesn’t directly measure intelligence or ability – instead, it reflects opportunity.
“A lot of what a GPA is, is a measure of a student’s opportunity. It’s one thing if you have a student that’s fully funded and doesn’t have to work to subsidize their education, is not raising a family – well, then that student is in a situation that they can achieve the GPA that they care to achieve,” said Spellman. “The next student may be a nontraditional student [like] a first-generation student that is perhaps working 40 hours a week and working to pay the mortgage for their family home. The university opportunity is still important to that student but the possibility of a [higher] GPA is different.”
When AZ Free News asked if there were concerns that the divestment of a built-in competitive nature to the program would lead to a reduced quality of students and their output, Spellman said that perspective was framed around privilege and a misunderstanding that quality in education necessitates exclusiveness. Spellman characterized competitiveness as advantageous for students of privileged backgrounds: those who aren’t necessarily representative of their community and society at large.
“The type of university we are is trying to make a place for all types of students and not just students that represent a type of privilege,” said Spellman. “[We are] really trying to be open-minded and inclusive, rather than exclusive and competitive about [the program].”
Spellman referenced ASU’s charter to explain their urgency to support inclusivity, asserting that the university’s role is to educate for success and not exclude.
“There is an attitude about quality in education that means exclusiveness. That, however, is not the university we are at. Our charter says that we are here to educate students to succeed, not to exclude people,” said Spellman. “You could say that a lower GPA means that the students aren’t as competitive but I would argue the more people we educate what architecture is about, the better we’re serving society. Architecture is a very important discipline relative to society. You learn literature, history, math, science, structures, [and] social behavior.”
Architecture professors restructured their teaching approach to accommodate the influx of students. One recent example of this was a mass exercise mimicking on-site conflicts. First-year Architecture 101 students had to work within a group to recreate assigned circular patterns on an outdoor field using butcher paper, while mitigating challenges presented by their “on-site” location, such as wind.
Spellman said that the transition to larger group work also came from a purposeful effort to deemphasize the idea that a one-to-one experience between faculty and students is the only way to conduct studio teaching (a method of hands-on instruction used in architecture programs). She noted that one-to-one experience was still available in ASU’s professional programs.
“It limits the numbers of students that you can have in a studio space if you teach in a one-to-one kind of way,” said Spellman.
AZ Free News also spoke with Marc Neveu, the head of ASU’s architecture program. He noted that their student expansion was just one component of a greater redesign of the program that began before his arrival four years ago.
“The basic premise [behind the redesign] was that ASU has a mission for being known who we include and how they succeed rather than who we exclude,” said Neveu. “Architecture schools are very competitive. Sometimes that competition may be good. More often than not that competition is very bad. It’s not healthy to stay up all night, it’s not healthy to protect your work from other people. It doesn’t actually model the way the professional practice works which is inherently collaborative. Rather than being competitive, we’re being collaborative, [like] working in teams.”
The complete overhaul of the program for inclusivity’s sake stopped short of challenging the grading system. That traditional scale remains, according to Neveu.
“We do have grades, we do have critique and feedback. It’s just that we’re not trying to pit students against one another,” explained Neveu. “My experience in undergrad – not by design – was that I learned more from my peers than from my faculty. [Here at ASU,] we’ve tried to design intentionally peer-to-peer learning, [such as] learning those sorts of soft skills.”
Neveu concluded by noting that the newly-redesigned program remains a work in progress, but expressed optimism in the promise of its unique nature.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 16, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Around three weeks after privately sending an apology to its members for its controversial letter asking the Biden Administration to investigate parents for domestic terrorism, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) posted their apology memo on their website’s news page and backdated it to make it appear as though they’d publicized the apology on the same day they’d sent it.
After state associations began disaffiliating with and denouncing the NSBA for its letter, the NSBA sent its members an apology memo on October 22. Per our original reporting on October 30, the NSBA hadn’t publicized that apology memo on their news page. They also hadn’t deleted their celebratory press release about the Biden Administration heeding their call to investigate parents. As of press time, the apology memo was listed as one of their most recent news releases.
Archived versions of the webpage on October 23 show no record of the apology that they allegedly publicized on their site on October 22. Rather, the news at the top of NSBA’s page that day concerned the appointment of Dr. Viola Garcia to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). In fact, the memo wasn’t published on their news page until some point between November 11 and 14. That’s when they also chose to delete their celebratory press release about the Biden Administration heeding their call to investigate parents, although as of press time they hadn’t deleted the affiliated tweet or Facebook post issued the same day as the press release.
“@TheJusticeDept’s swift action is a strong message to individuals with violent intent who are focused on causing chaos, disrupting public schools & driving wedges between school boards & the parents, students, & communities they serve,” read the NSBA post.
Over the last few weeks, school board members and other education leaders have received death threats and have been subjected to threats and harassment, both online and in person. The individuals who are intent on causing chaos and disrupting our schools—many of whom are not even connected to local schools—are drowning out the voices of parents who must be heard when it comes to decisions about their children’s education, health, and safety. These acts of intimidation are also affecting educational services and school board governance. Some have even led to school lockdowns. The U.S. Department of Justice’s swift action is a strong message to individuals with violent intent who are focused on causing chaos, disrupting our public schools, and driving wedges between school boards and the parents, students, and communities they serve. We need to get back to the work of meeting all students’ needs and making sure that each student is prepared for a successful future. That’s what school board members and parents care about.
They’d also tweeted and posted to Facebook about their letter to the White House on the same day that they publicized the letter on the website.
However, NSBA didn’t announce the apology memo on either their Twitter or Facebook. Initial news reports on the apology memo didn’t link to the post allegedly available at the time on NSBA’s website, either.
Unlike some of NSBA’s other state associations, the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) hasn’t denounced or withdrawn from the NSBA over the White House letter, only publicizing their support for it.
Instead, ASBA has remained silent on that issue indicative of the conflict between public schools and parents – even as those tensions have come to a head in their own backyard. Last Tuesday, it was discovered that the father of newly-demoted Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg had compiled a secret Google Drive dossier on parents and other political enemies. Greenburg reportedly had access to the drive and sent a picture of it to one of the targeted parents.
One day after the initial news of the Greenburg dossier broke, ASBA announced a webinar event educating members on how to be a good school board president on Facebook and Twitter. The webinar occurred Wednesday – two days after SUSD demoted Greenburg from the presidency in a special meeting. Greenburg refused to resign his membership, claiming that the board didn’t have “all the facts” and making multiple remarks insinuating that investigations currently underway would exonerate him. Both SUSD and Scottsdale Police Department (SPD) are investigating the dossier; Greenburg inferred that at least one private investigation was also underway.
“Being board president used to look easy, even though it wasn’t,” read the webinar description. “Now being board president is even more complex given the amount of public interest in school board meetings. Learns [sic] the ins and outs of board presidency and decide if it’s right for you.”
The event will be hosted by ASBA Leadership Development Manager Julie Bacon and ASBA Interim Director of Legal Services David DeCabooter.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 15, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
After a court ruling against them earlier this month, Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) honored the religious exemptions of two students who objected to the use of fetal cell lines to develop, test, and produce the COVID-19 vaccine. The two nursing students, Emily Thoms and Kamaleilani Moreno, were needing to complete clinical rotations to finish their final semester of MCCCD’s nursing program. Thoms and Moreno were given their requested 36 hours of capstone experience in clinical care, scheduled to begin and end in time for their expected graduation date next month.
In court, MCCCD argued that a blanket rejection of religious exemptions was necessary for their nursing program due to the vaccination requirement of some of their clinical partners and their program’s random assignment of clinical rotations. U.S. District Judge Steven Logan rejected that rationale based on the arguments of Thoms and Moreno: their lawyer pointed out that MCCCD gave similar accommodations to other students for both religious and non-religious reasons.
Logan asserted that Arizona’s Free Exercise of Religion Act (FERA) was enacted to prevent the very choice that MCCCD was forcing Thoms and Moreno to make.
The burden imposed here by denying Plaintiffs their nursing degrees […] cannot be characterized as ‘trivial, technical, or de minimis.’ […] By denying Plaintiffs their nursing degrees, Defendant prevents them from becoming licensed and employed as nurses. They will be unable to join the profession to which they have devoted themselves for the past two years. Given the time and money that Plaintiffs have invested in their nursing education, Defendant’s Policy undoubtedly places substantial pressure on them to modify their behavior in violation of their beliefs. Plaintiffs are faced with the choice of, on the one hand, compromising their religious beliefs to complete their clinicals and graduate as expected […] or, on the other, adhering to their beliefs and giving up the nursing degrees to which they are otherwise entitled and all their associated benefits for the indefinite future.
Another argument MCCCD presented was the claim that Thoms and Moreno were only facing a temporary delay, not complete removal from the program. However, they couldn’t guarantee when, if ever, Thoms and Moreno could complete the program. The ability for Thoms and Moreno to finish relied on clinical placement with a partner that didn’t require vaccination: a future contingency which MCCCD couldn’t guarantee completely. Logan asserted that MCCCD’s inability to decisively ensure completion of the program wasn’t a “mere delay.”
“It is difficult to characterize these circumstances as a mere delay when there is no clear end date when the Plaintiffs will be able to graduate,” ruled Logan.
MCCCD’s prompt compliance with the court order was likely influenced in part by the language of Logan’s ruling. The judge asserted that the harm Thoms and Kamaleilani would’ve experienced under MCCCD would constitute “an injury of the highest order” pertaining to the Constitution’s religious freedoms.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of both of their claims, that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm absent injunction, and that the balance of equities and the public interest weigh in their favor,” wrote Logan. “Their case is not doubtful, and the harm that they have alleged – the violation of their constitutional and fundamental right to free exercise – is an injury of the highest order under the Constitution and the law. Such an injury cannot be remedied by damages.”
Logan heard the case last month, and issued a preliminary injunction against MCCCD that same week. Logan’s order is reproduced below:
The Court enters a preliminary injunction as follows: 1. Defendant is preliminarily enjoined from enforcing against Plaintiffs its requirements that nursing students satisfy the vaccination policies of their assigned clinical partners and that nursing students must complete their assigned in-person clinical rotations in order to complete their academic programs. 2. Defendants shall make available to Plaintiffs a suitable accommodation that will allow Plaintiffs to satisfy the clinical components of their coursework and complete their academic programs as scheduled in December 2021. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Court exercises its discretion and waives the requirement of a security bond accompanying this preliminary injunction.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 15, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
According to the special meeting agenda released on Saturday, the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board will consider the election of a new board president in addition to the resignation of their president, Jann-Michael Greenburg, in tonight’s meeting. This latest development comes on the heels of the discovery of a secret Google Drive dossier on parents and other political enemies compiled by Greenburg’s father, Mark Greenburg. It appears from the nature of some of the dossier’s contents that the younger Greenburg may have been aware of the dossier, if not complicit.
Apart from their consideration to remove Greenburg from his presidency and the board entirely, SUSD announced they are investigating a separate issue: whether Greenburg used SUSD resources to access or create the dossier.
The Greenburgs aren’t the only focus of parents and community members’ ire. Some of the victims are alleging that Superintendent Scott Menzel as well as Board Members Zach Lindsay and Julie Cieniawski were equally complicit in the dossier. These allegations come from the original discovery of the dossier by one of the victims, who received a screenshot of the dossier from Jann-Michael in an email also sent to Menzel and Cieniawski. Access permissions were given to Lindsay’s account name, “zachary99_00,” along with Jann-Michael’s account. Mark Greenburg apparently also updated access permissions to allow anyone who had the drive link to access the dossier.
Amy Carney, a Scottsdale mother of five, asserted that SUSD has failed to protect its families.
“Jann-Michael Greenburg is not the only one who must resign from the Scottsdale Unified Governing Board for his bad behavior and involvement in the secretive digital dossier kept on parents and community members. Fellow board members Zach Lindsay and Julie Cieniawski, along with Superintendent Scott Menzel, were also privy to the Greenburg’s Google Drive and must be held accountable for their failure to protect SUSD families,” said Carney. “[Cieniawski and Menzel] were recipients of the email from Greenburg containing the screenshot of the Google drive address and folders. In a subsequent email response, [one of the mothers named] Kim Stafford brought the Google drive to their attention, saying, ‘[T]he fact that you have a Google drive folder with my name on it is, on the one hand, fascinating, on the other disturbing.’”
The dossier has become more than a localized incident between a school board member and parents: law enforcement are also investigating. Scottsdale Police Department (SPD) said in a statement on Saturday that they are looking into the dossier.
“The Scottsdale Police Department is aware of the allegations against Scottsdale Unified School District President Jann-Michael Greenburg,” stated SPD. “We are conducting an investigation into the matter and will report our findings once it is complete. Anyone with information regarding the case can contact the Public Information Office at (480) 312-5562.”
SPD told AZ Free News they couldn’t provide further details on this active investigation.
The board announced the meeting immediately following news of the dossier’s existence.
SUSD’s special meeting will take place at 6 pm in the administration building. Members of the public are welcome to attend in-person, or they may watch the meeting live-streamed on YouTube.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 14, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board will hold a special meeting on Monday to decide whether Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg must resign over his connection to a secret dossier on parents and other political opponents. Greenburg’s father, Mark Greenburg, was the owner of the Google Drive dossier, and Jann-Michael reportedly had access to it – as evidenced by the listing of his name among those granted access to the drive, and his sending a picture of the drive to one of the parents targeted within it.
As AZ Free News reported Thursday, there are other indicators that Jann-Michael may have had more involvement in the dossier than he’s let on, according to past admissions and discoveries of shared computer activity with his family and the nature of some of the dossier’s contents. On one of the bodycam videos on the dossier taken by Mark Greenburg, Mark is heard saying that he and another, unnamed individual hired a private investigator to spy on parents. Additionally, there were recordings on the dossier in which Jann-Michael and Mark could be heard conversing about Mark’s actions – and Jann-Michael doesn’t question why.
Board Member Dr. Libby Hart-Wells’ requested the special meeting to decide on the resignation of Greenburg. The request came around the same time that over 700 parents, elected officials, lawmakers, and community members signed onto a letter demanding Greenburg’s resignation. The letter is reproduced in its entirety below:
On November 9, 2021, The Scottsdale Independent published an article ‘The Greenburg Files: Is there a file on you?’ demonstrating the expansive and disturbing activities of Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg. The ‘Greenburg Files,’ discovered from an email sent directly from Mr. Greenburg’s SUSD email to a former SUSD parent, contains documents specifically surveilling at least 47 community members and numerous others peripherally. Our community is rightfully alarmed. This also comes on the heels of Mr. Greenburg saying, ‘Jesus f****** Christ, you people’ twice during parents’ public comments and disrespecting a requested moment of silence at the August 24, 2021 governing board meeting. As evidenced on the Greenburg Google Drive, during that meeting Mr. Greenburg’s father, Mark Greenburg, was photographing and videotaping children in the parking lot of Coronado High School as they waited to give those public comments stating ‘We’ have hired a private investigator to surveil the parents.
The ‘Greenburg Files’ contain many disturbing documents, audio files, and video recordings of several individuals, including photos of SUSD students. There is no legitimate purpose for any of these background checks, deeds, marital records, financial documents, professional certifications and more to be curated, stored, and shared in such a manner by Mr. Greenburg. The files also contain un-redacted SUSD emails shared with drive editors and viewers and screenshots that included open district email tabs – bringing even more concern that SUSD resources may have been shared or used outside of their intended or legally allowed purposes. Additionally, during the August 17, 2021 Special Governing Board Meeting, Mr. Greenburg admitted to working under the name ‘Mark Greenburg’ on his computer making clear he works under multiple names on his computer.
We are committed to returning excellence, integrity, and trust to our community and the negative and appalling words and actions from this official who was elated to serve this community. We are horrified that such unkind, divisive, and disrespectful behavior has been exhibited against members of our own community, including adults and children.
We believe that hate, harassment, bullying, stalking, and intimidation are not part of SUSD. We seek a restoration of SUSD’s values: Excellence, Integrity, Empathy, Trust, Inclusion, and Unity.
The SUSD Governing Board policies are clear regarding ethics of the board and are outlined by BCA Board Member Ethics. This policy includes: setting positive examples of good citizenship by scrupulously observing the letter and spirit of the laws, rules, and regulations; maintaining a deep sense of social responsibility as a trusted public servant; dedication to the highest ideals of honor, ethics, and integrity in all public and personal relationships; conducting oneself so as to maintain public confidence in the governance of the District and in the performance of the public trust; using the power and resources of public office only to advance public interest, and to not attain personal benefit or pursue any other private interest incompatible with the public good.
We are looking to you to uphold these standards of ethics in spite of Mr. Greenburg’s repeated failure to do so. His actions have made it unequivocally clear that he is unfit for public office. The manner in which you respond will reflect on SUSD and the City of Scottsdale. We stand together in requesting the immediate termination of Jann-Michael Greenburg as SUSD Governing Board President, and we further demand his resignation as an SUSD Governing Board Member.
Signed by other 700 parents, students, teachers, grandparents, alumni, and community members[.]
This latest discovery comes on the heels of a contentious year for Greenburg. In August, Greenburg enjoyed a maskless night at a bar after pushing for mask mandates in his schools. The board president chalked criticism of his decision to not mask up a “baseless attack.”
A few days before that incident, as the demand letter cited, Greenburg uttered an expletive into a hot mic directed at aggrieved parents.
“Jesus f**king Christ, people,” said Greenburg.
In May, Greenburg shut down a meeting over “belligerent parents,” in reference to those parents who’d shown up to discuss or protest masking and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the district.
The special meeting to determine Greenburg’s continuance on the board is scheduled for Monday, November 15, at 6 p.m. at SUSD’s administration building.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 14, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) may not prohibit nursing students with a religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine from completing clinical rotations due to being unvaccinated, according to the U.S. District Court for Arizona. U.S. District Judge Steven Logan issued the ruling Friday, as he’d promised at the hearing on Monday. The two plaintiffs – nursing students Emily Thoms and Kamaleilani Moreno – were granted a preliminary injunction against MCCCD’s vaccination requirement. Thoms and Moreno will be able to complete their nursing programs one way or another, whether by accommodation or through regular clinical rotations, by their scheduled graduation date next month.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of both of their claims, that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm absent injunction, and that the balance of equities and the public interest weigh in their favor,” wrote Logan. “Their case is not doubtful, and the harm that they have alleged – the violation of their constitutional and fundamental right to free exercise – is an injury of the highest order under the Constitution and the law. Such an injury cannot be remedied by damages.”
While MCCCD claimed that they required universal vaccination due to their clinical partners’ requirements, Logan cited evidence given by the plaintiffs to the contrary. This evidence included MCCCD previously providing similar accommodations to other students for both religious and non-religious reasons: simulated clinicals, extra assignments, finding new clinical sites, and swapping assigned clinic sites requiring vaccination with those that didn’t.
Logan did note that Thoms and Moreno hurt their case by framing the lawsuit as a challenge to a “vaccine mandate,” because MCCCD doesn’t define its vaccine requirements as a mandate. For that reason, Logan modified their request for relief.
“The only vaccine mandates in this case belong to Defendant’s clinical partners, who are not parties before the Court. Rather, Defendant’s Policy is a set of requirements that together, when applied to Plaintiffs, are likely to substantially burden Plaintiffs’ right to freely exercise their sincere religious beliefs in violation of FERA and the First Amendment, to cause Plaintiffs irreparable harm, and to go against the public interest,” wrote Logan.
Both Christians, Thoms and Moreno objected to the COVID-19 vaccine due to its reliance on fetal cell lines during its testing, development, and production.
MCCCD Board Member Kathleen Winn criticized the district’s decision to hire a group of attorneys just to fight two nursing students. She also asserted that the nursing department head lied in court.
When this started back in August the administration could have done what this judge ordered us to do here. Instead we hired 5 attorneys to fight against these nursing students who represent thousands more in our state. The head of our nursing department lied in court, was caught and the judge made the best decision for these students allowing them their religious exemptions. If we appeal we are using taxpayers money to do so. Stand with these nursing students…I am proud of them and the moral courage to put it all on the line for the greater good!
Read the full court ruling here.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
