Ah. There it is.

@nprofile1q... Of course, for the folks passing these laws and writing these rules, these would be examples of *good* content.

@nprofile1q... Exactly. Back when I taught Western and US political thought to political theory students I assigned some horrible stuff for them to read. Like George Fitzhughes's 'Cannibals all!' arguing for the superiority of US Southern chattel slavery over industrial labor arrangements. Or Carl Schmitt's Political Theology.

By the way: It wasn’t a good idea for instructor/location info to be public anyway. That system could have been restricted to users with campus emails, for example. I can imagine and I’ve heard stories of how this information gets abused. But think about why it’s only now the school is pulling it.

Third: with the obvious exceptions of people who happen themselves to be educated in the relevant fields, publics—and legislators and state officials and political operatives and journalists and political commentators—are *even less qualified and able than students* to evaluate these materials.

And finally:

Students register for courses months in advance.

The Iowa Board of Regents syllabus template is due complete on the first day of classes.

The university’s template is due on the fifth day of classes.

In some courses students would find this information interesting and helpful. But in many, probably across campus many more cases than not they couldn’t properly evaluate the topics and materials—yet. That’s what the course is for! And many courses, in most programs, are required anyway.

In any case, the longer the syllabus, the less likely students will read it on their own. The problems with Canvas and other course management systems are legion, but one thing they do help with is organizing and linking content. Students don’t have to find everything in one document.