It’s now been about sixteen months since all the fracas happened at The Evergreen State College (TESC) in Washington State, beginning with biology professor Bret Weinstein refusing to leave campus on the “Day of Absence,” and the students calling him (and his wife, biology professor Heather Heying) racists, despite the pair’s history of anti-racist work.

The students then took TESC President George Bridges hostage, surrounding him, humiliating him (though, evincing a bizarre version of Stockholm Syndrome, he seemed to go along with his humiliation), and even making him ask to go to the bathroom and accompanying him on his micturations. Some students, incensed beyond all reason, took to roaming the campus, goonlike, with baseball bats.

Further reporting on TESC, some of it on this site (see selection of pieces here), showed what a toxic university it was: the very epitome of Authoritarian Leftism—a place where no dissent was permitted.

Weinstein and Heying eventually left TESC after the college gave them a $500,000 settlement. In July of this year, the former police chief of TESC, Stacy Brown, filed a tort claim against the College for subjecting her to a hostile work environment and failing to protect her from gender-based discrimination.

The upshot? Anticipated enrollment of new students began to decline. In May, I noted that projections suggested it might drop as much as 20% for this year’s entering class, a projection that forced the College to cut $6 million from its budget.

But it’s way worse than that. An update at Heterodox Academy (HA) by Mike Paros, another TESC biology professor, and one sympathetic to Weinstein and Heying, suggests enrollment may be much lower than expected:

This fall, we expect less than 300 freshmen to attend Evergreen, a fifty percent drop from two years ago.  It is the only four year institution in the state of Washington that has seen a decrease in applications, and is currently publicly funded for 4200 students, far greater than this year’s anticipated total attending class of 2800.

TESC disputes these figures, but not the big drop in enrollment. HA adds this:

Editors note: A representative for The Evergreen State college has reached out with an update on anticipated enrollments. They expect around 350 freshmen to attend in the fall. Also, they expect 3000- 3100 total full-time enrolled students in 2018 (out of the 4,200 they are funded for). While both of these numbers do represent significant decreases as compared to before the 2017 unrest, they are marginally less bleak than Dr. Paros’ estimates, which were based on earlier information. These are still just estimates, however. The official enrollments for Fall 2018 will not be determined until after the 10th day of enrollment.

Marginally less bleak, but bleak nonetheless. Note that TESC accepts fully 95% of its applicants, so this reflects not an increase in selectivity, but a decrease in applications.

And I have to confess to a bit of Schadenfreude here: any college as authoritarian and—let’s face it—as unhinged as TESC is not a place a sane parent would want to send their kids. Moreover, TESC has not attempted to rectify its problems. As Paros writes,

Advocacy and activism rather than the pursuit of truth and knowledge is being promoted as a way of recruiting desperately needed new students (In 2011 Evergreen changed its official mission statement to read:  “Evergreen supports and benefits from a local and global commitment to social justice”).  Bringing in new faculty or guest speakers with conservative or centrist political perspectives is considered risky and out of the question at the moment.  Fear and self-censorship is pervasive among Evergreen faculty, especially under the existing budget crisis.  An “independent” External Review Panel exonerated the president and administrators while blaming Evergreen’s woes on Bret Weinstein and ‘alt-right’ agitators prompted one journalist to ask, “Who Will the Evergreen Mob Target Next?”

Paros will also be teaching a now module at TESC, one that I suggested last November would doom him, though I’m glad to report it hasn’t:

On a personal note, I am doing well despite a past public condemnation of the current president’s handling of student protesters and former colleague Weinstein.  As the only remaining Evergreen professor who is a member of HxA, I have found refuge with like-minded academics that share a wariness of like-minded academics.

In fact, although I am a professor of biology and environmental sciences, I was moved to develop a program called “A Liberal Education in the College Bubble,” which I will be teaching this fall. It embodies the spirit of HxA [Heterodox Academy] while utilizing readings, tools, and techniques developed by our members and the newly developed OpenMind platform.  And I’m pleased to report that the class is full, despite catastrophic drops in enrollment that has resulted in massive layoffs of Evergreen faculty and staff.

Paros, while still at TESC, is surely a pariah to many students and colleagues, and I applaud him for his bravery and independence.

In the meantime, go to the article, where Paros asks faculty members at other schools to help him with a survey about whether things like the Evergreen fracas may, as some have suggested, be due to a generational difference in parenting styles.

In the meantime, TESC is getting what it deserves under the “leadership” of President George “Invertebrate” Bridges, who refused to use the campus police to quell the disturbances at TESC, or even to protect Weinstein and Heying. I wouldn’t be upset if the damn place went under, except that there are still decent and committed people like Mike Paros working there.

h/t: cesar