Higher education today is a mess. Many institutions are
involved in an arms race, strongly competing to attract students with
scholarship and student loan money they bring with them. Institutions are
building facilities that are much more fancy, thus more appealing, than ever
before. New dorms, sports and fitness centers, student centers, dining
facilities; the list goes on.
And the “everybody needs to go to college” craze has put thousands
on campuses that don’t need a traditional college degree.
Those of us who went to college many years before this arms
race began endured sparsely appointed dorms and other comparatively plain-Jane
facilities, but managed to come out with a solid education. That austere
environment is not good enough anymore.
A 2014 survey by the University of
California Los Angeles showed that there are five times more liberal professors
than conservative professors on college faculties these days. The worst aspect
of this is that many of them have taken on the role of proselytizers, forsaking
their duty to guide learning and maturation in their subject area in favor of
indoctrinating students into the poisonous world of leftist politics, which
they now refer to as “progressivism,” since “liberalism” is no longer credible.
The liberalization of the college campus has led to a
disintegration of the traditional college atmosphere at many institutions, where
students once were exposed to and challenged by a broad range of ideas. That healthy
environment has become an intellectually stultifying atmosphere where students
are afraid of their own shadows, and ideas differing from their narrow range of
acceptable ideas send kids running to hide under the bed in their hotel-like
dorm room.
“Trigger warnings” are expected or required to protect those
who desire only peace and harmony in their environment from “unsuitable”
content, and “safe zones,” where students may seek refuge from the rigors of life,
are routine. Student demands played a part in these developments
The recent focus on transgenderism, and the bending-over-backward
efforts to accommodate it, has produced a policy at West Virginia University, where
anyone failing to use the personal pronoun preferred by each and every person who
claims to be transgender is breaking a federal law on sexual discrimination,
and will be treated as a lawbreaker by the university, despite that
transgenderism has absolutely no grounding in science
whatsoever.
Two questions arise: (1) How does someone know which of
WVU’s 29,000 students claims to be transgender, and (2) in the event they
actually are able to discern this, how are they supposed to know which of the
30 different pronouns approved by WVU applies to which person?
“According to one study of
the 2010 census,” notes breibart.com, “the population of transgender people amounts
to one in every 2,400 Americans, or 0.03 percent of
the adult population.” Another question: How few people are too few to propel the
politically correct into action, spawning another uproar over some thought or
action that has virtually no affect?
Back in the 60s and 70s a long and often-troubled struggle
to desegregate schools and put black and white students in the same learning
environment reached its peak. Forty years later, some want to reverse that. Everything
old is new again.
Columnist and professor Walter Williams writes, “Hampshire
College will offer some of its students what the school euphemistically calls
‘identity-based housing.’ That’s segregated housing for students who — because
of their race, culture, gender or sexual orientation — have ‘historically
experienced oppression.’” This idea extends to racially segregated classes
where students will feel better when surrounded by those just like them.
In his column titled “College Campus Lunacy,” Williams supports
that title by listing some course titles that if completed successfully confer
college credit on students: “Philosophy and Star Trek,” “Demystifying the
Hipster,” “Recreational Tree Climbing,” and “Kayne vs. Everybody.” Such
courses, he said, are the work of faculty, to whom college presidents and
trustees have apparently surrendered the running of those institutions.
Now, however, an institution of higher education has decided
that it’s time to call a halt to political correctness. University of Chicago Dean
of Students John Ellison warned incoming students in a letter that there is no
tolerance for the kind of student demands that have emerged recently. “Our
commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger
warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove
controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’
where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their
own.”
“Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write,
listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship,” Ellison wrote. Noting
the importance of civility among and between parties, he stated, “We expect
members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even
disagreement. At times, this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.”
A college education should help prepare young people to cope with life, not to fear it. Political correctness is an infection threatening the nation. Getting rid of it on campuses is a big step toward producing young Americans that are educated, grown up, and prepared to experience life.
Cross-posted from Observations
A college education should help prepare young people to cope with life, not to fear it. Political correctness is an infection threatening the nation. Getting rid of it on campuses is a big step toward producing young Americans that are educated, grown up, and prepared to experience life.
Cross-posted from Observations
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