

Harvard courses: final exams abolished - jackfoxy
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/09/harvard-courses-final-exams-abolished.html#more

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hga
A rather mild tone from Luboš Motl, but overall a good and detailed essay on
why this, or especially what its major proponent say, is a really bad idea.

I'm not sure why Motl left Harvard, but after this I suspect he's glad he's no
longer associated with it.

What I wonder is if this could do some serious damage to the Harvard brand.
Will "dropping the H-bomb" become a futile act some years from now?

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jackfoxy
Given what we know about the characteristics of Harvard and Luboš, I surmise
leaving Harvard involved a non-disclosure agreement and a settlement. How else
could he completely resist writing about the event all this time? And while
his blog is popular enough to generate some cash from advertisements, his
apparent lack of other employment suggests a behind the scenes benefactor.

The Harvard final exam issue reminds me of the Doonesbury sequence a couple of
decades back in which the Ivy League slacker sued his professor for not giving
him an A. I don't think the Harvard brand will suffer. It's been as much about
who you know as about academic accomplishment for over a century.

~~~
hga
One does wonder, but we do have to factor in that this part of Harvard
generally doesn't do tenure track, so his separation could in part be related
to his knowing he was never going get tenure or his time was simply up.

Hmmm, I'll bet Harvard's standard separation package for these professors
includes a non-disclosure agreement to not publicize their "system" and
includes a nice consideration in return.

Anyway, my point here is that except for his not returning to formal academia
and _his_ silence over the separation there's absolutely nothing unusual here.

