Category Archives: Colleges acting badly

Tulane University cancels book event because book is on the KKK—portraying it in a horrible light

August 9, 2020 – 9:30 am

Well, we have another cancellation by the Woke Left. A new book by Edward Ball came out on August 4 (click screenshot below) about the author’s investigation of an ancestor who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan right after the Civil War. Highly praised, it apparently paints a sad and devastating picture of […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in books, Cancel Culture, racism | Comments (45)

At long last, the University of Chicago contravenes its own principles of political and ideological neutrality

July 23, 2020 – 12:00 pm

One by one, elite American colleges and universities (as well as the less prestigious ones) are giving in to Wokeness, rushing to embrace Critical Race Theory, trying to suppress “hate speech,” and indoctrinating students with a preferred ideology when they arrive on campus.  The University of Chicago hasn’t been immune to this, but I’ve taken […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities, freedom of expression, freedom of religion | Comments (38)

A hard case to make a good law: the ideological impurity of David Starkey

July 14, 2020 – 12:15 pm

The original saying I paraphrase above, from Oliver Wendell Holmes, is “hard cases make bad law”, meaning you shouldn’t erect general principles based on extreme cases. But in this instance, regarding the defenestration of scholars who say things unpalatable to their peers, or odious things in general, these are the hard cases that should be […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in academic freedom, censorship, colleges and universities, freedom of expression, freedom of speech | Comments (36)

Harvard backs down on punishing students who join extra-University “final clubs”

July 2, 2020 – 1:00 pm

Several years ago, Harvard University decided to punish students who joined off-campus “final clubs” whose membership was limited to members of one sex only. (These were both all-female and all-male clubs.) Given that these clubs had nothing to do with Harvard, I and others objected to Harvard’s punishing students for off-campus activities that involved freedom […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities | Comments (5)

A reasonable criterion for assessing whether to topple statues, remove names, and so on

July 2, 2020 – 10:45 am

Glory be! Ross Douthat, the conservative New York Times columnist, has finally confected an argument that makes a lot of sense. (Almost everything I’ve written on this site about Douthat has been critical, usually taking issue with his weird religious ideas.) But his NYT op-ed below lays what seems to be a reasonable way to […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities, racism | Comments (72)

Should we eliminate standard testing for college and graduate-school admissions?

May 26, 2020 – 1:15 pm

In one section of new post on his website Shtetl-Optimized, computer scientist Scott Aaronson decries the continuing trend of eliminating standardized tests for college admission. Click on the screenshot to read his plaint. Scott points out that the University of California system has just eliminated the requirement of submitting SAT and ACT standardized test scores […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities | Comments (34)

Emory University’s ideological indoctrination of its students and its hedging about free speech

May 25, 2020 – 10:30 am

Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia reports that, at the urging of students and by a big majority of faculty, it has instituted a general education requirement that “focuses specifically on the histories and experiences of people of color.” This will be a required course for all students, though there may be different courses in different […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in college students behaving badly, diversity, freedom of expression, freedom of speech | Comments (10)

Brian Leiter on “diversity statements”

April 15, 2020 – 10:00 am

I’ve written several posts on the mandatory “diversity statements” now required by the University of California, which will soon be required on campuses elsewhere. These statements are used to weed out candidates for academic jobs before their academic credentials are even assessed, and they require candidates to do three things: they must express their philosophy […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in colleges and universities, diversity, law | Comments (18)

“A sea of people engaged in a shared delusion”: a three-part video about the fracas at The Evergreen State College

April 5, 2020 – 12:45 pm

I don’t know how I missed this article and the three video segments it discusses, as it came out in Areo a year ago, and I’ve been following the saga of The Evergreen State College (TESC) since 2017. That’s when the trouble began with the “Day of Absence” at the College, when biology professor Brett […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in college students behaving badly, video, wokeness | Comments (39)

Writer excoriates the University of Chicago English Department for its opposition to free speech

March 6, 2020 – 12:30 pm

 Education should not be intended to make people comfortable; it is meant to make them think. Hannah Holborn Gray, former president, The University of Chicago   Ben Schwarz is a well known editor and writer who was national editor of The Atlantic for 13 years after 2000, and won plaudits for his work, described in […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in college professors acting badly, colleges and universities, freedom of expression, freedom of speech | Comments (11)