I remember how it was -- JR
Monday, November 30, 2020
UVA and the Dangerous Politicization of Our College Campuses
It is no secret that our colleges and universities have witnessed a sea change in campus culture over the past two decades. Political correctness has run rampant. High-profile incidents such as the Yale Halloween costume controversy and phenomena such as safe spaces and building re-namings have captured public attention.
College officials, however, assure us that such incidents are aberrations and that our institutions of higher learning are still places where fairness and the free exchange of ideas prevail. But those of us who have recently experienced life on a college campus, or have studied recent surveys of student experiences, or who regularly read such websites as Campus Reform or The College Fix, know that such platitudes from those officials do not remotely reflect the current reality at most colleges.
The fact is that there is an endemic rot of indoctrination, politicization, and intellectual intimidation that is eviscerating the historical purpose and nature of our institutions of higher learning.
Accordingly, if you believe that a university should be an institution for unfettered and free discourse, where students, faculty, and administrators can espouse differing viewpoints without fear of reprisal—you should be concerned, very concerned. And if you believe that universities should be institutions where all groups are treated equally and where achievement is based on merit and ability alone—you should be concerned, very concerned. Further, if you believe a college student’s experience should be a time for expanding intellectual and social horizons and enjoying the once-in-a-lifetime joie de vivre of freedom and friendships—then you should be concerned as well—very concerned.
The main culprit behind these problems has been the purposeful politicization of our college communities.
And that has mostly come in the form of the codification of a social justice agenda in the name of the “holy trinity” of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion. I say “so-called” because, as applied on campuses, these terms take on a different meaning than advertised. Diversity comes in the form of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity—not intellectual diversity, which should be the most important type of diversity on campus. Equity comes in the form of equality of results rather than the American ideal of equality of opportunity. And inclusion becomes a misnomer, as the focus on racial and ethnic identification—rather than community identification—results in a “balkanized” student body that is more exclusive than inclusive.
The dangers implicit in this social justice agenda have been delineated brilliantly in an article by Anthony Kronman, the former dean of Yale Law School, entitled “The Downside of Diversity.” But it is not just the “downsides” of diversity that present the greatest dangers to the academic integrity of universities. It is the fact that so many college administrations have adopted such agendas as the official policy of the school—thus explicitly politicizing the institution.
I was a student leader and journalist at the University of Virginia during the turbulent anti-Vietnam War period of 1969-70. The politicized atmosphere on campuses during those days of turmoil most closely approximates current conditions more than any other time. Back then, there was a strong debate among UVA faculty as to whether the University should take a stand on the war.
One leading professor who was opposed to doing so asserted that a university is an institution of learning and should not be available for use by anybody as an ideological base or political instrument. Another leading professor specifically identified the dangers of doing this. He noted that, by taking sides, the administration had made the university an instrument of oppression against faculty or students who disagree with this position. Rarely has such a statement been more prescient—because that is exactly the state of affairs that has now afflicted most colleges for some time.
It is becoming more and more evident that our universities now face the greatest threat to their academic freedom and integrity in their history. This view is supported by both anecdotal and statistical evidence. I moved to Charlottesville six years ago to fulfill a lifelong dream to write a book about my four years as an undergraduate at UVA and to get involved in everything UVA. Since that time, I have had ongoing dialogues with numerous students, faculty, and administrators. The stories I heard of intellectual intimidation, opinion suppression, and fear of social and professional ostracization were legion.
My own anecdotal experiences have been confirmed on almost a daily basis by stories of thought suppression emanating from multitudes of college campuses. Indeed, as I am writing this article, Supreme Court Justice Alito asserted in an address to the Federalist Society that
Unfortunately, tolerance for opposing views is now in short supply in many law schools, and in the broader academic community. When I speak with recent law school graduates, what I hear over and over is that they face harassment and retaliation if they say anything that departs from the law school orthodoxy.
The anecdotal evidence noted above is more than supported by statistical evidence. A recent survey of nearly 20,000 students at 55 colleges regarding free speech on campus was commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Anybody interested in this subject matter should spend some time reviewing the results. In addition to including individual stories of intellectual intimidation and indoctrination, the survey tabulates the results of a series of questions posed to the students. In my view, the most relevant question was: “Have you personally ever felt you could not express your opinion on a subject because of how students, a professor, or the administration would respond?”
In an incredible indictment of the current state of our college campuses, a full 60 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative. Think about that—3 of 5 college students are experiencing intellectual and speech intimidation and suppression. Every college administrator should take note—is this the type of institution of learning you aspire to? It is a national tragedy that needs immediate attention and action.
A further threat to fairness on our college campuses flows from how the concept of “equity” is being transformed by social justice agendas. The essence of an equitable society has been traditionally measured by equality of opportunity with results based on merit and achievement. This concept was very well expressed by Martin Luther King Jr.’s hope that our nation would be one where people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Unfortunately, current social justice agendas have turned this concept on its head by advocating for results to be based on how people are born rather than who they are. Thus, many decisions at all levels of student and faculty life are now based on race, ethnicity, and gender rather than achievement, a corruption of the American ideal. The one area of university life that this agenda has thus far not intruded is athletics. One does not often hear that college football and basketball teams are anti-Semitic or anti-Asian based on the dearth of those groups on such teams.
Finally, the politicization of our college campuses has also apparently taken a toll on the mental, emotional, and social well-being of our students.
Over the past decade, college student health facilities have been inundated with cases of depression and anxiety in numbers never before encountered. I have had numerous conversations with senior administrators dealing with student life and they have noted, in effect, that many students are too serious and just don’t know how to have a good time. Apparently, social justice agendas frown on having fun when there are so many social evils to redress. In its own way, this result may be the most damaging for the future well-being of our society.
So, how to deal with the ramifications of the increasing politicization of our campuses? These initial steps would be helpful:
Every institution of higher learning should adopt the Chicago Principles of freedom of expression or something similar—and then make sure they are vigorously adhered to.
Political and social agendas should be debated on campuses, not dictated.
College administrations should actively seek diversity of thought in their faculties and students in the same manner they seek racial, ethnic, and gender diversity.
One major question remains: do administrators have the wisdom and courage to take these steps?
New Poll Shows American Education System Has Totally Failed in One Key Area
Let’s move on from the 2020 election for a second. In four years, we’re going to have another presidential election and many more after that. In the interim years, we have the midterms. And while this cycle will continue, the Democratic Party’s leftward lurch will probably become more explicit. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wasn’t successful in clinching the Democratic nomination in 2016 or 2020. He has a following. He has a devoted base, but black Democrats in the south were the firewall against a total socialist takeover. That will not last. There will be a Democrat of the Sanders-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez mold who will be able to do well enough with this key demographic south of the Mason-Dixon line to win the nomination. Will that be in 2024, 2028, 2032? We shall see, but a recent poll from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation does not bode well. It not only highlights a threat to the country, but also zeroes in on how our education system has either a massive blind spot or has totally failed in educating younger generations about the authoritarian, corrupt, and murderous history of far-left politics.
Socialism is on the rise and on the move. In a press release that accompanied the poll, Marion Smith, Executive Director for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said, “In a year where Bernie Sanders and lawmakers such as AOC and The Squad normalized socialism as top-tier politicians, and young Americans have taken to the street to protest inequality, it’s clear socialism, communism, and Marxism have a new appeal to Americans,” he said. On the education front, he warned, “when one-in-four Americans want to eliminate capitalism and embrace socialism, we know that we have failed to educate about the historical and moral failings of these ideologies.”
Some of the brief overviews of the survey show that 40 percent of Americans view socialism favorably, which is a four-point increase from last year. Among those in Generation Z, favorability ticked up nine-points resting at 49 percent. It was 40 percent in 2019.
Yet, most concerning is that 26 percent of Americans support the phased elimination of the free market system in the United States. They want to replace it with a more socialist model. That radical shift is supported by 31 percent of those in Gen-Z and 35 percent of Millennials.
There are other troubling signs, but the conclusions are clear. Socialism has a strong foundation among the American electorate, which is bound to grow unless confronted. That is not going to happen immediately, and it could be a long slog. The institutions of higher education are quite fond of cultural Marxist nonsense and favorable analyses of these butcher governments.
This is a long war here, educationally speaking. It will take time and patience and an all-out assault within the institutions of learning who undoubtedly gloss over the Everest-sized death tolls that came out of Mao’s Great Leap Forward and Stalin’s gulags. In fact, one ironic aspect of the history of communist China is that when Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping eventually took over and led to a massive period of growth in China by instituting…market reforms.
UK: Equality minister criticises ‘certain campaigners’ in school curriculum debate
Equality minister Kemi Badenoch has criticised “certain people” for demanding that a new, overly one-sided history curriculum be taught in British schools.
Ms Badenoch, a Tory MP, said that some campaigners wanted the “UK history curriculum” to be taught “in a way that [suggests] good people [are] black people” and “bad people [are] white people”.
“I think that’s wrong,” she told BBC podcast Political Thinking, explaining that children must be presented with the whole picture - and that teachers must speak in facts.
In the aftermath of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s deaths, dozens of campaigns have sprung up around the UK - particularly in relation to private schools - urging governing bodies to “decolonise” Britain’s history curriculum. But Ms Badenoch warned that some of the changes being requested would encourage an overly simplistic version of events.
Ms Badenoch said on the podcast that what her daughter is being taught now is “completely different” to what she was taught in history at school.
“I wouldn’t want her to have what I had but what she is being taught is a history that just can’t be separated from European or white history, and which has an oppression narrative around it,” she explained.
She said “there is so much more to black people than being oppressed and being victims” but that it was important children had history lessons that showed “both good and bad black people, people who did good things and people who did bad things”.
The nation’s history curriculum became a talking point amid the global resurgence of the the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement this summer. Multiple protests saw campaigners demand that universities and schools review how they were teaching students about controversial historical figures.
The history of the British Empire and the UK’s part in colonisation are what tend to be at the centre of various drives to overhaul the current curriculum.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, spoke out on the same issue last week. He told reporters at the time that schools must at least try to teach both “the good and the bad about history”, and that young people deserve to know “the rich diversity and tapestry that has made our nation so great”.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Williamson said: “I would always want schools to be celebrating our great nation’s history and the important role that we have played in the world and shaping the world for the better.”
Students began writing to past and present headteachers in summer, calling for future generations to be provided with a more robust racial history. In one letter addressed to Bruce Grindlay, the headmaster of Sutton Valence School - a private school in Kent - hundreds of students wrote to question “the lack of British colonialism / racial awareness taught in the curriculum”.
The letter said that during their time at Sutton Valence, students felt encouraged to support “the vulnerable, such as military veterans injured during combat, children and adults suffering from cancer”. For this to stand up, though, “the same energy must be applied to tackling racism by educating pupils on British Colonialism and the structures of institutionalised racism” students said.
“It is the responsibility of all teachers and educational institutions to improve the teaching of these important issues,” the note concluded.
Some schools have announced plans to modify their history lessons since receieving letters similar to - if not exactly the same as - the one sent to Mr Grindlay. Ampleforth and Winchester schools, for instance, are said to be “formulating new approaches” to instruct their students about the history of colonisation.
Back in June, a cross-party group of 30 MPs wrote to Mr Williamson, to ask for a re-evaluation of the UK history syllabus, and to address the lack of education around issues being raised by BLM activists.
“We all have a duty to make sure the next generation, at least, has a better understanding of the historical injustices contributing to institutional racism that persists in the UK and elsewhere today,” the group wrote.
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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)
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