Author Topic: The hatred that envelops this campus  (Read 3493 times)

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Offline Plantains

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The hatred that envelops this campus
« on: October 29, 2009, 11:35:13 AM »
While perhaps my thread is late, there will be another incident that makes it relevant... unfortunately.

If any of you hadn't been made aware, UND Aerospace had another accident last week. This time it was a Piper Seminole (a light twin) that happened to land with the landing gear up. While I could care less about the accident happening, I would like to state simply that it is very likely that things may seem insane to someone who is not involved in aviation. People think that putting the gear down would be first on their list of things to do before landing. It is, but very few people have any idea what the workload is like during that phase (or any phase for that matter) of flight. I'll field any questions if people genuinely want to know, and aren't being asinine.

My point however is the blatant racism and general hate for UND Aerospace, that is apparently rampant throughout the community? The Grand Forks Herald wrote an article regarding the story here: (you may need to log in) http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/138161/

The article was decent as far as media goes, but this is still not my point. The comments... dear God, the comments. http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/comments/id/138161/

Many of them have been deleted, but the remnants are still there. I can't believe that so many people are willing to comment on a story written by a professional member of the media and blatantly make racist comments towards our China Airlines students that are studying here, and are so willing to comment against the professional training that is received by our students in general. People HATE the flight school that is attached to this University, and a HUGE out of state AND national source of recognition might I add. I don't know why? Yes some of the aerospace students are jerks, but isn't that true of nearly any sub-culture of people?

So why the hate? In fact... why the blatant and strong hate? Why the open racism?

Its so unfortunate to see such a nice community so misrepresented in a public forum.

Discuss?
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Offline Sal Atticum

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Re: The hatred that envelops this campus
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2009, 12:15:29 PM »
I can't comment on any racism because most of the comments involving Chinese students were gone by the time I looked.

My experience with the comments by Herald readers is that most of them are negative and promote views that at times have nothing to do with the story on which they are commenting.  Newspaper sites (like YouTube) seem to concentrate people who want nothing to do but anonymously insult others.  I wish I knew why.

Aerospace may be a problem for some locals because it's blatantly obvious that these students are going to take their degrees and leave the state (because there are no jobs here) which, although aligning with the typical ND reaction of "if you don't like it here, leave," must be taken as an insult to ND.

Less-than-perfect plane landings are news, and news has to be blamed on someone.  Cue the peanut gallery to blame everyone involved without looking at the overall safety record.
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Offline Plantains

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Re: The hatred that envelops this campus
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2009, 12:27:44 PM »
The thing with the taking their degrees and leaving though is that if NYU was offering the same caliber of aviation degree, I would be taking my degree and leaving NYC as well? Its extremely narrow minded, and while I won't offer an excuse for behavior, there are better reasons to dislike or hate someone.

I agree that less than perfect landings are news, and that blame has to befall on someone. I just felt that people should realize that they have such a skewed concept of aviation that the comments they make are so completely off base to a pilot. Thats another issue.

I'm just consistently shocked by the significant dislike of the aviation program.
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Offline Sal Atticum

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Re: The hatred that envelops this campus
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2009, 12:59:16 PM »
NYC doesn't care what people think of it, which is why NYC has that "survival of the fittest" reputation associated with it, even today (although probably much less so than in the past).  Grand Forks is a place that has been told repeatedly that it sucks, and even though people here may get really excited about how not-sucky the town is, being told that their town sucks probably gets old after a while, and so people deciding that they want to go to school here but not live here may be the icing on the cake that broke the camel's back.

I admit that it's like decorating your apartment and inviting your friends over, only to have them eat your food and tell you how much your apartment sucks.  Why the aviation program in particular gets the brunt of the attacks--maybe you're so high-profile?  At times it seems like UND is an aviation school with some other programs tacked on.
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Offline Plantains

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Re: The hatred that envelops this campus
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2009, 03:28:54 PM »
I see your point I suppose. One of the reasons I dislike UND is because they kept telling me to get lost repeatedly. So I should expect a similar scenario.

Its rather unfortunate though that people don't embrace something that gets them such national recognition. Ideally that could be used to draw students to their other programs and perhaps expand their greatness. This is again what happened to me with Criminal Justice. A universities program though is directly a representation of its staff and to a lesser extent its student body which is then further linked to the community.

There is also a stark contrast on campus in the sense that the aviation program here is regarded as a top program in the nation, as opposed to say their criminal justice program which is likely (though not confirmed) far down the list. That enables more selectiveness I suppose.

Its just a shame that an accident that will likely have a serious effect on someone's future is also used to fuel such hatred. For the aviation program, towards a demographic of people, and towards the "pilot factory" in general. Society... ::)
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