Conservative columnists have been trying to make a big deal about a paper that Barack Obama wrote when he was a student at Columbia University - they seem to think the fact that no one has a copy is a sign that Obama has something to hide. MSNBC's First Read has the whole story.
Here's the reality - which I happen to know as a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University:
1. Colleges and universities do not usually keep or formally retain copies of undergraduate papers. If we do not return them to students at the end of the term, we might hold on to them in our offices for a few months into the next term, in case a student wants to come by and pick up the paper. That's it - they're gone after that (even in my messy office).
2. PhD dissertations and sometimes Masters theses are indeed kept on file both by universities, and by central repositories (such as University Microfilms - UMI). But Obama's paper was neither a doctoral dissertation or a masters thesis.
3. In fact, it would be a violation of a student's privacy for a professor to provide any journalist with a copy of a student paper.
4. Students are of course free to do with their papers as they please. But how many of you still have copies of your college papers? I don't (though for some reason I did keep a high school paper I wrote about Charles De Gaulle way back when. Go figure.) But there's no reason to think that Obama kept any of his college papers.
Hey, this whole subject is a good topic for a paper - maybe I'll assign it to my students at Fordham this Fall.
9 comments:
what was this paper supposed to be about? Hell I have had professors that can't keep my paper for 2 weeks without losing it, people expect stuff to be on file this long?
did the guy write about bringing socialism to America or something?
I think its a stretch to say its a conservative red herring- both liberals and conservatives try to hold each other to asinine standards.
like when Carolyn McCarthy tried to ban barrel shrouds without knowing what they were and what they did. . .
but thats a gun story for another day.
It's one of those "when did you stop beating your kid?" questions that makes you look bad no matter how you answer.
I agree, though, who keeps their old schoolwork? I wonder if the people writing the story have archives of their own school papers? I doubt it.
Considering how nasty the game of politics becomes it is amazing to me that anyone would want to submit himself and family to such a strain.
Still, I think it would be fascinating to see which of these accusations and stories which have surfaced over both McCain and Obama will resurface when the debates begin and which ones will be used by the candidates themselves.
In Slate Magazine just a few months ago, Christopher Hitchens tried proving that Michelle Obama was a black separatist based on one of her undergraduate papers. I can't believe any serious journalist (not saying I put Hitchens in that category) would use an undergraduate paper as proof of an adult's political views. How far do these reporters have to reach for an interesting story? This isn't fair game for reporting. There is nothing here to take facts from or gauge the person on. It's ridiculous.
yea. and what happened to that nefarious picture he drew in second grade. The one his mother should have kept on the refrigerator for her lifetime.
how silly this is all becoming. i believe even those on the right are becoming a little weary of it all.
Cooper - I'm an incurable optimist, but even I wouldn't go that far about what those on the right are getting weary of ...
Jessica - these aren't objective journalists ... they're ideologues on a mission ... (in contrast to all of us here, of course, who are totally objective :) (though, seriously, I can't imagine any supporter of Obama going crazy about not being able to see a McCain college paper)...
Stewart - I woulodn't be surprised by anything raised in the debates...
John: My guess is those writing the story do have copies of their college papers - all written with crayons...
Mike: who knows what the paper was about ... probably not about Charles De Gaulle, like mine ...
Hey - thanks for the comments everyone!
Evidently, Professor, you were wrong. http://tinyurl.com/ykea7jh And to answer the person who said, "did the guy write about bringing socialism to America or something?" it appears that the correct answer is "yes. Something like that." As to Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis, it was an extended whine about how hard it was to be black at Princeton (in other words, to no one's surprise, it was All About Her.) Also it is very badly written and amateurishly sourced.
Just so you know.
Wrong about what?
I said universities do not usually keep copies of papers. If Columbia did for Obama's, that's fine, and does not contradict what I said about usual practices.
As for your literary criticism of Michelle Obama's writing - who cares?
Let people read it and come to their own conclusions.
Furthermore, Dr. Mom, you were taken in by a hoax - there is no extant paper or thesis by Obama from Columbia.
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