[Tfug] CIS faculty at PCC west disavow existence of Linux classes

[Harry McGregor]

On Wed, 22 Jan 2003, James Blanford wrote:

> I went in to talk to Dave Druml about taking his "C" programming class.
> It was obvious he didn't want to bother paying any attention to
> prospective students.  He barely spoke beyond grunts except to announce
> firmly that he could make no special accomodations for any student. Mind
>  you I wasn't asking for any accomodation, but he obviously wasn't
>  paying any attention to what I was saying.  He was just responding to
>  key words that penetrated through his academic haze.
>
> The only other things he said were rather curious:
>
> 1)  Harry McGregor was not a member of the CIS department and no one was
> teaching any Linux classes at Pima.  I guess this guy is so threatened
> by Linux he has achieved a special advanced state of denial.

That is actually true, I am part of the Adjunct faculty for the CIS
department, and not part of the "department", so to speak.

> 2)  No one could use a Linux computer to do the assignments in his
>  class, because he requires assignments to be turned in on a disk
>  readable in Windows.  He even argued that one for a couple sentences
>  and then gave up and admitted that it would be possible.

I know that Kyle has taken that specific class, with that instructor, and
has done all assignments in Linux.

> 3)  The University of Arizona offers no "C" programming class.  I
>  don't know, maybe he just isn't aware of anything that happens outside
>  of his office.

I would strongly suggest talking to John Skapura (the department chair),
and Mike Curry (sp), the division dean, about your feelings, they need to
be voiced through Pima, so that Pima is aware of what you feel is going
on.


> I think I'm going to complain to the county supervisors.  I'm sick of
> sky-high real estate taxes going to pay for a community education system
> that arrogantly ignores the educational needs of the citizens.  And I'm
> sick of my tax money going to pay for proprietary software products so
> that old hacks (not hackers) can stick around and perpetuate the Bill
> Gates hegemenoy.
>
> I'm glad I didn't sign up to take that course (why is another rant).
> Does anyone here know where I could learn "C" in an emvironment that
> isn't hostile towards Linux?

Every once in a while Mr. Taber teaches "C" at Pima (he also teaches
CIS137 intro to Unix, and every once in a while CIS 225, Linux
Networking), and he is full time faculty at the CIS department.  To teach
the "C" class, he utilizes the onsite, debian based Linux server, gort
(http://gort.wcn.pima.edu:8080).

Sorry for how late this email is, I have been very busy at Linux World
Expo, in NYC, and am just getting to my email.

			Harry

>      -  Jim
>
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--
Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
Hmcgregor@osef.org, (520) 661-7875 (CELL)
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