Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: All Your Minds Are Belong To Us
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Student government is supposed to be a chance for students to learn how to be independent leaders with their own ideas that have the support of the student body… well at least as long as those positions are not doubleplusungood.
“Clemson administrator has proposed requiring student government candidates to pass an “intercultural competency” test before being permitted to run for or hold office.
“The ‘intercultural competency’ test requirement for Student Government candidates who wish to run for office was just one of the ideas Altheia Richardson, Clemson’s Director of the Gantt Multicultural Center, proposed in a recent presentation to Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) Senate. As an alternative, Richardson also suggested group training for CUSG members once elected.
“‘So when it comes to this whole idea of intercultural competence, what would it look like to have a standard for if you’re going to be elected as an officer, or hold a seat within CUSG, that you have to demonstrate that you have a certain level of intercultural competence, before you’re allowed to take that office, or that seat,’ Richardson stated, according to CUSG Senate’s public livestream.”
But what about those pesky students who don’t serve in “leadership”/lapdog positions?
Re-education workshops of course!
“The University of Oklahoma is defending its decision to offer students in greek life a series of ‘unlearning’ workshops on topics such as racism, sexism, ableism, and classism.
“OU Student Affairs, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and the Center for Social Justice are jointly sponsoring ‘Unlearning: Workshops for the Greek Community,’ the first of which is scheduled to take place Friday, with seven additional sessions throughout April”.
All this is building up to making college a safe-space for the proper ideas and where other doubleplusungood ideas are safe to censor… unless those pesky free speech advocates turn Leviathan’s power against them!
“Multiple state legislatures are considering bills that would guarantee First Amendment rights on campus. The University of Chicago, which has an institutional commitment to free speech, has even proposed hiring ‘free-speech deans’ to serve as pseudo-bouncers at events to remove disruptive students.
“It’s not enough, but it’s a start. Ideally, more universities should be working to educate their students on free speech, not slashing enrollment like UCLA’s doing to a popular course on free speech in the workplace, where students are so eager to take the course that they are literally sitting in the aisles.
“Maybe if the University did so, they wouldn’t have students blocking access to books or disrupting speakers.
“While all of these incidents may seem minor, today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. The first Millennials are now getting into Congress, and in a few decades’ time, the Supreme Court—which makes the rulings involving freedom of speech—will be made up of Justices who were educated in this kind of environment.
“That’s a dark future for our freedom and one we ought to be fighting like hell to avoid.”
TTFN.
Pingback: In The Mailbox: 08.17.17 : The Other McCain