There's Now A Boohoo Department At The University Of Portland
I now typically describe college as "nursery school with beer."
Greg Lukianoff, at theFIRE.org, the campus free-speech-defending organization, explains that students conflate being emotionally safe and being physically safe.
There's yet another example of that at the private Catholic college, the University of Portland, reports Michael McGrady -- a sort of "If you hear something, say something" website:
The University of Portland has launched a "Speak Up" webpage that encourages students to report "incidents of discomfort" to its Public Safety department."We ask members of our community to SPEAK UP and report alleged incidents of discrimination and incidents of discomfort regarding observed or experienced interactions of intolerance," the university states on the webpage.
..."The University of Portland takes seriously its responsibility to provide an inclusive environment for all UniversityPortlandSpeakUpmembers of our community," said Rachel Barry-Arquit in an email to The College Fix. Barry-Arquit is the university's director of marketing and communication.
Isn't it the University of Portland's job to provide an environment for unfettered learning -- the sort that fosters debate (and through that, further learning and growth)?
The Beacon campus newspaper reports Speak Up was created at a time when "students of color feel isolated on campus" through the widespread use of microaggressions on campus.
Well, when you leave campus, you're going to be ill-prepared for the world around you, in which people are going to say things that upset and even "microaggress" you all the fucking time.
Jonathan Haidt just talked about Nassim Taleb's Antifragile
JONATHAN HAIDT: That children are anti-fragile. Bone is anti-fragile. If you treat it gently, it will get brittle and break. Bone actually needs to get banged around to toughen up. And so do children. I'm not saying they need to be spanked or beaten, but they need to have a lot of unsupervised time, to get in over their heads and get themselves out. And that greatly decreased in the 1980s. Anxiety, fragility and psychological weakness have skyrocketed in the last 15-20 years. So, I think millennials come to college with much thinner skins. And therefore, until that changes, I think we're going to keep seeing these demands to never hear anything offensive.
News from FIRE about the idiots enrolled at UCLA:
Nearly half (43.2 percent) of freshmen responded that they "agree strongly" or "agree somewhat" with the statement that "[c]olleges have the right to ban extreme speakers from campus." And a large majority (70.9 percent) of respondents "strongly agree" or "agree somewhat" that "[c]olleges should prohibit racist/sexist speech on campus." When this same statement was presented to students in the early 1990s, around 60 percent of students agreed.
Yes, it should go very well for you in life if your expectation is not that you debate people you disagree with but that you merely -- Disney-style -- make them "POOF!" go away.
Personally, I find that debate -- including waking up to people in these blog comments telling me what an idiot I am for posting or thinking something -- makes me a better thinker and more careful in what I post. (Which isn't an invitation to go all willy-nilly calling me an idiot, thanks!)
Wait till they encounter macroaggressions out in the Real World. Boy, that's going to be a hoot.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 16, 2016 6:24 AM
I can almost understand coddled children wanting to continue being coddled in college.
What I don't understand is how these college administraters consciously continue the coddling, knowing they are not preparing these students for the life after college in the real world.
Jay at February 16, 2016 7:28 AM
Why do all these college administrative "speech code" defenders seem to be women with hyphanated last names? (I know that remark is probably hate speech, but so what)
Jay at February 16, 2016 8:42 AM
The administrators continue coddling because it gives them more power and bigger budgets.
When I was in college, anyone who proposed a snitch line would have gotten a two-word answer: "East Germany". While the Cold War was IMHO more harmful than helpful to civil liberties overall, there's no denying that Not Wanting To Do What The Other Side Is Doing imposed at least some restraints.
eb at February 16, 2016 9:52 AM
"The administrators continue coddling because it gives them more power and bigger budgets."
And because it creates a generation of dependents who rely on government for their very existence. A built-in bloc vote for bigger government. It's a downward spiral and I don't see any way out of it, short of several centuries of a new Dark Age.
Cousin Dave at February 16, 2016 10:08 AM
What I don't understand is how these college administraters consciously continue the coddling, knowing they are not preparing these students for the life after college in the real world.
Never ascribe to malice that which can be simply chalked up to naked greed. Those administrators aren't going to make 6 figure incomes with what they're capable of doing any where other than in academia.
And the academy is dependent on financial aid in one form or another. If you have to get a student loan, well, that's not their problem.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 16, 2016 10:17 AM
Also related: the customer is never wrong. In education that is a balancing act: yes, you need to be responsive to your customer and their needs, but you also have to give them something that has long-term value.
In the ye olde days, that meant a challenging curriculum. Now a days, that seems to be getting "A"s, partying down, and staying in school 5 or 6 years just to get to the Bachelor's degree, let alone anything more advanced.
Once they start inflicting this nonsense on the sciences and engineering, then we'll get Cousin Dave's coming Dark Age.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 16, 2016 10:24 AM
They're idiots.
But what do we expect? They've been shown by Hollywood that even violent criminals are simply misunderstood wretches in need of love and understanding.
We've promised them a society in which unpleasant things are locked away, where the greedy rich will be forced to pay their fair share to fund hot cocoa for all, where everyone gets a trophy and no one goes home a loser.
We forgot to tell them that monsters are real, that sometimes you run out of other people's money, that losing sucks, and that living a simple life in the woods subsisting on the bounty of nature often means starving to death - so eat the GMO.
We did't tell them that Star Trek is fantasy, not science, and they won't grow into a future where everyone automatically knows advanced mathematics and science without effort, disease can be cured with a flashlight, and food can be created out of thin air.
In ye olde days, the parent was the customer, paying the college to educate the progeny efficiently.
Today, with social media, youth-obsessed marketing, more open college slots than qualified students, and student loans, the student is the customer. And the customer wants a toga party, a warm blanket, and a puppy ... and an A+.
Conan the Grammarian at February 16, 2016 11:26 AM
I greatly fear that the big reset is coming. What will these fragile little snowflakes do when the world really turns to crap? Die is what. When they are cut off from the massive social and physical support system that is Western Civilization they will die like fly's and that blood will be on the hands of those who thought they were helping by coddling these kids.
Sadly the universe has no concern for anything but the strong and Mother Nature is a bitch.
warhawke223 at February 16, 2016 11:49 AM
"Okay, Diane, your turn - how's your first project coming along?".
*OMG I can't believe you're microaggressing me like this!*
"You're fired. You can leave your badge and laptop with me. Next order of business: charity softball event."
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 16, 2016 5:27 PM
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