美国国家公共电台 NPR--An Idaho community college faces closure due to criticism from conservative trustees

An Idaho community college faces closure due to criticism from conservative trustees

Transcript¹

Conservative trustees fired a community college president over a mask mandate² and events since then look likely to shut the school down. At stake are essential workforce³ training programs.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

When George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police three years ago, a lot of colleges issued statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement - among them, a small community college in ultraconservative north Idaho. The resulting backlash set off a chain of events that might now result in that college closing its doors. Northwest Public Broadcasting's Lauren Paterson reports.

LAUREN PATERSON, BYLINE⁴: North Idaho College is a two-year school with a campus on the picturesque⁵ shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. It offers degrees in things like dental hygiene⁶ and diesel⁷ technology. But when the school's diversity council expressed support for Black Lives Matter and other causes, conservatives charged educators were pushing a liberal agenda, conservatives like Todd Banducci, a college trustee.

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TODD BANDUCCI: Those agendas are being woven into the curriculum. And, you know, who controls the kids, who controls their minds, who controls the college student, you know, controls the voter of the future and controls the populace.

PATERSON: Banducci was speaking on a podcast called "Idaho Speaks." He doesn't talk to mainstream⁸ media and declined an interview request for this story. The local Republican Party helped get a majority that agrees with Banducci on the college's board following the statement supporting BLM. When the college president imposed a mask mandate in 2021, they fired him. They then put his replacement⁹ on administrative¹⁰ leave when he questioned their ethics¹¹ in hiring. Dozens of faculty¹² and staff have since left. Now the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities is reviewing the school's accreditation¹³.

BRIAN SEGUIN: So for those in the community who were thinking that everything's going to be fine and that there are guardrails in place, there are not.

PATERSON: Brian Seguin is a librarian who's quitting at the end of the semester.

SEGUIN: There's, you know, conspiracy¹⁴ that has been woven by this board, with mentions of a deep state and liberal indoctrination, that folks have completely bought into and has made our jobs very difficult.

PATERSON: NIC has about 4,500 students. Patrick Murphy (ph), a nurse who graduated from the college, says the local hospital, Kootenai Health, relies on the school.

PATRICK MURPHY: A lot of people, especially, like, from my nursing class, you know, they got hired right out of nursing school to go work at Kootenai. And NIC in general is a pretty big labor¹⁵ pool for this area.

PATERSON: North Idaho College is also important to Native American students from the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, which is located on the lake nearby.

VICTOR BEGAY: Tribal¹⁶ communities tend to be very communal¹⁷, so lots of people rely on each other. So the idea of going far away to college really is antithetical to the idea of a Native community.

PATERSON: Victor Begay taught American Indian studies at NIC before leaving last year. He says most Native students start at two-year schools.

BEGAY: It'd be a great loss. But even more so, I think the financial, the economic toll¹⁸ would be felt decades, if not one or two generations down.

PATERSON: Christie Wood served on NIC's board of trustees for 18 years before resigning last year. She's also on the Coeur d'Alene City Council and says she's heartbroken that the school's future is at risk.

CHRISTIE WOOD: We're an example of what can happen. We're a tragic¹⁹ example. When people put their politics before a community, lives are going to be affected²⁰ by this.

PATERSON: The commission in charge of accreditation is visiting the campus at the end of the month. It's expected to decide whether to withdraw accreditation this summer. If it does, students could lose federal financial aid, and the school could be forced to close.

For NPR News, I'm Lauren Paterson.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

6 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

7 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

8 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

9 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

10 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

11 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

12 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

13 accreditation   

n.委派，信赖，鉴定合格

参考例句：

• a letter of accreditation 一份合格证明书
• This paper gives an overview of the Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A) in High Level Architecture(HLA). 对基于高层体系结构(High Level Architecture,简称HLA)的仿真系统的校核、验证与确认(Verification, Validation and Accreditation,简称VV&A)问题进行了详细的介绍及分析。 来自互联网

14 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

15 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

16 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

17 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

18 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

19 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

20 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。