I remember how it was -- JR
Survey Paints Grim Picture of Academia, But Signs of Hope
“Unless reforms come from outside the academy,” writes Eric Kaufmann in The Wall Street Journal, “universities will continue to be monocultures in which conservative ideas aren’t given a fair hearing.”
The article, a summary of his recently published CSPI report, “Academic Freedom in Crisis: Punishment, Political Discrimination, and Self-Censorship,” is the largest and most comprehensive survey of academics and graduate students in the US, Canada, and the UK.
The data were shocking.
Estimates include that roughly 1 in 3 conservative faculty have been disciplined or threatened with academic disciplinary actions. Over 75 percent of conservatives have worked in a hostile environment and felt threatened and self-censored. Four out of ten American academics have declared that they will discriminate against hiring a Trump supporter.
Likewise, in Britain, only 18 percent of Brexit-supporting academics would share their views comfortably. In the US, only 9 percent of Trump-supporting academics would do the same.
Discrimination and self-censorship aren’t limited to conservatives. Feminists critical of the new LGBT ideologies are also silenced on campus—sometimes more than conservatives. For example, only 28 percent of American and Canadian academics would feel comfortable having lunch with someone who opposes the idea of trans women accessing women’s shelters.
The report highlights that the new progressive authoritarianism is disproportionately among the younger academics, similar to media organizations across the country. Millennials who would back at least one dismissal campaign is between one-third and one-half, and PhD students (mostly in social sciences) are 10-20 points more in favor of cancellation than academic staff.
The most important part of the report is the policy suggestions, which takes a different position than relying on the “marketplace of ideas” and “debate and persuasion.”
The report also mentions the Martin Center’s Blueprints for Reforms. “Two complementary yet distinct policy documents are the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal’s ‘Blueprints for Reform,’ and the National Association of Scholars’ ‘Freedom to Learn’ principles,” the report notes. Ideally, the libertarian approach and the interventionist approach should work hand in hand to return to an ideologically diverse and balanced academic environment.
The report supports external intervention to bring back order and balance in academia.
“One policy option is for government to proactively apply the law to universities, instituting fines for institutions that repeatedly breach individuals’ academic freedom while opening up a means for plaintiffs to appeal around their universities to a regulatory ombudsman,” it states. “While this report makes no policy recommendations, this approach has been largely adopted by the British government.”
The report divides traditional policy prescriptions between libertarian and interventionist. The libertarian approach relies on the market and cultural change, predicated on convincing progressives and fanatical ideologues. Examples of these are Heterodox Academy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, as well as left-liberals such as Yascha Mounk and Helen Pluckrose.
Interventionists differ in the sense that they proactively seek an authority to restore balance as an arbiter of justice.
“Though welcoming libertarian approaches, interventionists believe that only democratic government policy can alter the incentive structure that currently permits hard and soft authoritarianism in universities,” the report argues. “Proponents of government intervention, be it federal or state, argue that individual rights are more important than the autonomy of institutions like universities. The role of government intervention would be to proactively enforce the law.”
Interventionists have had influence in the UK, where the government has acted to uphold free speech with legislation and fines to universities that fail to promote viewpoint diversity, as well as instances in Canada.
Though free speech is in danger on campus, some momentum is developing to fight back against the closing of the academic mind.
**************************************
Law School Class President Facing Recall For Not Believing Classmate’s Demonstrably False Claim Of Racism
Activists at the University of North Carolina’s law school are recalling a minority student from his position of power after he exonerated a peer whose out-of-context comments upset the woke echelons.
Sagar Sharma is a first-year law student at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where he serves as the first-year class co-president. Sharma is facing a recall election after he refused to condemn comments that were taken out of context.
Activists will host the recall on Tuesday, March 9, which requires two-thirds of the student body to vote him out of office.
The recall process began after two first-year law students got into a heated debate about colonialism in North America. According to a transcript of the recorded conversation, “Student A” claimed that Europeans brutally colonized the west while “Student B” pointed out that brutal practices, conquest, and enslavement were commonplace before colonization.
Student B suggested that Student A — a black man — look at the ongoing battle in Cameroon for an example of modern-day colonization. Student A claims that Student B explicitly told him to “return to Africa.” Those words were never uttered.
The Black Law Student Association (BLSA) ran with the false recollection of the conversation and circulated a letter accusing Student B of being a racist for suggesting “that a Black peer should return to Africa.”
In his capacity as co-president, Sharma reviewed the transcript over the contentious conversation and sent out a letter to his peers confirming that no student told any other student to “return to Africa.”
“Upon reviewing ALL of the evidence presented to me, I simply cannot come to the conclusion being disseminated within the law school,” Sharma wrote. “It is not rooted in genuine fact. The BLSA Letter refers to a specific incident. One that, within context, cannot be classified as racism or hate speech.”
Sharma was immediately met with calls for resignation and threats for a recall. The recall efforts have been spearheaded by Student A who claims that Sharma used his position of power to “advocate against diversity and inclusion.” Student A insists that Sharma is denying the existence of racism because being “anti-racist” involves believing the lived experiences of black people — even if they’re verifiably false.
The recall petition said Sharma’s letter is, “demonstrating his self-endowed entitlement to weigh in on BLACK people’s subjective experience with racism and white supremacy.”
Student A has a history of making controversial comments in the law school’s group messaging apps. Student A once called the coronavirus “ethnic cleansing” and dubbed America a “little colonial settler state project.”
“Hope this brings this moment full circle as we endure the ongoing ethnic cleansing known as COVID-19. Perhaps think about how those not acting as actively anti-racist will be written about in another 100 years as more white people die than are being born and the numbers flip,” Student A wrote. “Good thing black people just want equality and not revenge for this little colonial settler state project. I hope you all may think of this everytime [sic] you hail the 13 stripes representing the 13 original colonies on the American flag.”
Sharma has been subjected to bullying by other students as well. During a Zoom call, a student — who intends to run against Sharma for class president in the fall — said that Sharma exonerated Student B because he wanted to be welcomed to the “white boys club.”
“My guy clearly wants to be welcomed into the ‘white boys’ club so of course, it makes him feel good.”
The university refuses to launch an investigation into the bullying campaigns against Sharma and Student B, who was falsely accused of being a racist.
“Sometimes [being a lawyer] means taking a tough position on a controversial issue and speaking up when others won’t,” Sharma told The Daily Wire.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/unc-activists-want-minority-student-recalled-from-position-of-power
******************************************A Parent Who Criticized Critical Race Theory Has Been Placed on a Hit List for Harassment
Former Justice Department official, consultant and concerned parent Ian Prior recently wrote a lengthy op-ed in The Federalist criticizing critical race theory (CRT) being promoted or taught in Virginia's taxpayer-funded schools. Here are some portions from his piece:
Critical race theory rejects all nuances and statistics that might explain racially disparate outcomes, while well-reasoned and articulated disagreement is considered evidence of white supremacy. This radical view, even in the abstract, should concern every American who was raised to focus on the individual, not racial categories or skin color.
Elements of critical race theory have been present in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) for some time, but it appears to have been supercharged following one elementary school trying to teach about the Underground Railroad during Black History Month in 2019. The game involved students setting up an obstacle course and allegedly one of the students who was designated to play a slave was black. This was no doubt a misguided attempt at teaching about the Underground Railroad, but LCPS reacted by fully embracing the indoctrination of staff and students in critical race theory.
In March 2019, the LCPS board formed an “equity committee” that was tasked with reviewing LCPS policies and practices to enhance “equity.” The term equity sounds noble, but it has a special meaning in this context. While equality focuses on providing everyone with the same opportunity regardless of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any immutable characteristics, equity is something different.
Loudoun County Public Schools were once considered the best in the country. But the school board and the administration are either ignorant of just how racists and dangerous critical race theory is, or they are willfully using children as Guinea pigs in their unconstitutional experiments in race-based communism. Either way, it’s time for Loudoun County’s parents to join together and stand up to this destructive force.
Now, his leftist neighbors, who have advocated for illegal behavior like hacking and destroying websites opposed to CRT, are putting him on a list.
A woman named Jen Morse recently posted to the "Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County" Facebook page, which is kept private, and urged 636 members to do the following:
-Infiltrate (create fake online profiles and join these groups to collect and communicate information, hackers who can either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages)
-Spread information (exposes these people publicly, create online petitions, create counter mailings)
Another woman in the group named Emily Morford is seen listing Prior, along with a number of other parents, for targeting. And there's more, this time from school board member Beth Barts.
***************************************
Can We Save Our College Students from the Woke Left?
Recent college graduate Davis Soderberg of St. Charles, MO is sounding the alarm about the extent to which the Left has a stranglehold on college campuses across the country.
“If you were to walk into a college classroom, you could quickly identify which students were the liberals and which students were the conservatives,” explained Soderberg, who recently graduated from a public university in Virginia. “The liberals are always the most outspoken because they know their viewpoint is protected and is always favored. It was favored by a majority of their classmates and the professors, which is really scary because students look to the professor as sort of an intellectual higher being.”
Soderberg is now an associate for the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research where in a recent article, An Escape Route From The Liberal Campus Mousetrap, he explored policy solutions to stop the spread of socialism on college campuses.
“We need an increased resistance to Leftism on college campuses,” Soderberg explained. “Many students have fully embraced a progressive, big-government ideology and once they’re working adults, playing important roles in society, it will likely be too late to sway their political opinions.”
Soderberg says the liberal indoctrination can be subtle and many students may not even realize it’s happening. He described one class in which the professor shared a slide show entitled, “The four biggest problems facing American society.” Listed were, income inequality, the lack of universal healthcare, racial inequality and the lack of diversity in corporate hierarchies.”
“And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Why don’t we debate as a class what the biggest problems are?’ The professor just decided for us,” Soderberg explained. “And then the professor said ‘Okay, everyone, let’s discuss.’ He was basically acting like he had a godly sense of knowing what was wrong with the world and the best ways of solving societal problems. All the students were taking notes as if his opinion was an undeniable truth. Then, they take that out into the real world without hearing any counterarguments. And that is a big problem.”
Soderberg believes a large reason his generation is embracing leftist policies is because they don’t take the time to fully consider the long-term consequences of policy proposals.
“They see free college, they see universal health care, they see AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] calling for $20 minimum wages and in their heads that sounds awesome,” said Soderberg. “But, too often, they only read the headlines, they only hear the talking points. They don’t take the time to research the unintended consequences of these policies. It’s a result of the fast-paced nature of the world they’ve grown up in. They want their information in under 15 seconds.”
Soderberg remembers thinking when he entered college, that he “had been thrown into a woke-indoctrination machine with a pre-determined agenda by which students were meant to be hypnotized.”
In his search for a way out of the “liberal campus mousetrap,” Soderberg found a recent report by the National Association of Scholars. Freedom to Learn provides a guideline of 40 detailed suggestions for legislative reforms. In particular, Freedom to Learn calls on Congress to strengthen protections for students, to develop a detailed intellectual freedom charter, and to reform civics education.
Suggested reforms include:
Ensure that students learn civics as factual knowledge in the classroom, not as “civic engagement.”
Limit Chinese government influence, by barring funding to colleges and universities that host a Confucius Institute, employ a professor who has received money from the Thousand Talents Program or similar program, possesses a branch campus in China, or received undisclosed funds from the Chinese government or Chinese citizens.
Require colleges to develop a detailed charter of intellectual freedom.
Make intellectual diversity protection a condition of Title IV eligibility.
Sunset the diversity bureaucracy.
Defund components of higher education that have become irredeemably politicized, such as “service-learning,” “community service,” and “sustainability,” which have become euphemisms for social justice advocacy.
Soderberg said it can be hard for conservative students to fight back against the dominant liberal culture on campuses. “You have so many other things to focus on, you ask yourself, ‘Is it really worth it for me to dive into a deep discussion and go against the liberal mob?’ There is a fear that the mob will revert to calling you bigoted or racist, or closed-minded, just because of your political viewpoints.”
“One of my biggest regrets is not doing more to boost conservativism on campus. When I look back at it now, I feel like I let those outspoken students get away to easily without them having to answer to my counterarguments,” Soderberg shared.
“If I could give advice to a college conservatives, I would tell them to speak up and let their voice be heard,” Soderberg concluded. “Come prepared. Have an in-depth understanding of the policies you support. The current generation of college conservatives will be remembered if they stand firm in this ideological fight.”
https://dailytorch.com/2021/03/can-we-save-our-college-students-from-the-woke-left/
***********************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
*******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment