I taught physics at a local campus of the University of Maryland, from 2002 to 2019. It used to be a nice, lowbrow student body of athletes and elementary education majors, often the first in their families to get a college degree. It was so uncomplicated. I taught because I loved the students.
Something in 2016 things started to roll downhill. The school did away with SATs, and started actively aiming to boost black enrollment, despite there being a good HBCU twenty minutes down the highway. And then it was that someone took a Sharpie marker and put some silly racist graffiti on the walls of a stairwell at my school. Oh the uproar! The platitudes! The moaning! A list of woke demands was pushed at the campus admin. Meanwhile the same thing happened down at the HBCU. They quietly cleaned the graffiti off and said nothing about it.
The graffiti appeared twice more in my school. There were security cameras that identified the perp. In 2019 he was arrested. He's a local 35 year old black man and has been sentenced to some hard time. But not sure how much he's served.
Because the school chose to make such a woke stink over the event despite knowing the perp was black, black enrollment plummeted. Backfire, seemingly. Or maybe not. Maybe the admin wanted an excuse to hire a DEI expert, to answer directly to the University President, at 200k+/year.
And the agenda moves forward. A friend who teaches history there, an Africanist, a left-leaning ninny, made the mistake of reading a historic document with the word "nigger" embedded in it. His students were so outraged they went to the Dean to demand he be fired.
As Dennis Prager likes to say, Jews in Germany in the 30s never needed to fake a hate crime, there were plenty of real ones to go around. Yet in America these days, just about every one turns out to be a hoax…
What made this one really destructive was, despite the security cameras on campus making his skin color obvious the administration plowed ahead as if they didn't know. This gave the radicals (whom I suspect of paying the perp to post his stupid graffiti) time to push a list of demands at the University. Some examples: a DEI inspector present at all search committee meetings, a week or two of DEI indoctrination camp for faculty in the summer, promotions and tenure tied to DEI accomplishments.
It's so eerily like the Soviet Union and the men from the Politburo everywhere.
“Take a look at what your child’s “dream” college celebrated as its highest good at this year’s festivities, and ask yourself: is that what I want my kids to worship?”
Okay, so… last year my UT grad skipped the all-campus commencement with the sports speaker. This arguably upholds the UT tradition of always worshipping sports. Our family only attended the no-speaker “college level” event.
My youngest has her sights on Baylor for brass performance. I could not find a speaker, but their mini commencements opened with a brass ensemble arrangement of Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah (Pilgrim through this barren land). Quite appropriate!
Now I do harbor concern that Baylor may well be the Christian university equivalent of a RINO, but it would work out for us far better than the alternatives.
In between a few guffaws I read two haunting words - progressive groupthink - which made my laughter a bit heavier. Fortunately I’ve kept my open minded teaching hat on for the grandkids and rather than avoid discussing the worlds cray, we discuss it. The ones old enough to understand think the world is mad in some ways; they know who they are and remind me that most of their peers do too. I’m ready for anything but my greatest lesson, I hope, will be love.
It was pretty great. Top tier education and exposure to greats like Dr. Esolen etc. The friendships forged there are still our deepest friends. And I fulfilled all stereotypes and met my husband there as well!
I am never amazed at my alma mater Harvard. I have not contributed to it for decades and send as many grenades (figuratively only) its way as possible. It is so disheartening and I hope that some of the graduates can understand the moral, spiritual and intellectual corruption of Harvard as they move on.
Wonderful! You’ve done what I thought impossible--made me laugh while reading how dystopian our premier universities have become. Loved this!
Thank you!
Hilarious! Very well done. East coast bias though - Stanford is demanding a seat at the table.
I’ve not looked into it, so, could be very wrong, but I bet the Claremont Colleges are also chomping at the bit. McKenna was a holdout.
I taught physics at a local campus of the University of Maryland, from 2002 to 2019. It used to be a nice, lowbrow student body of athletes and elementary education majors, often the first in their families to get a college degree. It was so uncomplicated. I taught because I loved the students.
Something in 2016 things started to roll downhill. The school did away with SATs, and started actively aiming to boost black enrollment, despite there being a good HBCU twenty minutes down the highway. And then it was that someone took a Sharpie marker and put some silly racist graffiti on the walls of a stairwell at my school. Oh the uproar! The platitudes! The moaning! A list of woke demands was pushed at the campus admin. Meanwhile the same thing happened down at the HBCU. They quietly cleaned the graffiti off and said nothing about it.
The graffiti appeared twice more in my school. There were security cameras that identified the perp. In 2019 he was arrested. He's a local 35 year old black man and has been sentenced to some hard time. But not sure how much he's served.
Because the school chose to make such a woke stink over the event despite knowing the perp was black, black enrollment plummeted. Backfire, seemingly. Or maybe not. Maybe the admin wanted an excuse to hire a DEI expert, to answer directly to the University President, at 200k+/year.
And the agenda moves forward. A friend who teaches history there, an Africanist, a left-leaning ninny, made the mistake of reading a historic document with the word "nigger" embedded in it. His students were so outraged they went to the Dean to demand he be fired.
As Dennis Prager likes to say, Jews in Germany in the 30s never needed to fake a hate crime, there were plenty of real ones to go around. Yet in America these days, just about every one turns out to be a hoax…
What made this one really destructive was, despite the security cameras on campus making his skin color obvious the administration plowed ahead as if they didn't know. This gave the radicals (whom I suspect of paying the perp to post his stupid graffiti) time to push a list of demands at the University. Some examples: a DEI inspector present at all search committee meetings, a week or two of DEI indoctrination camp for faculty in the summer, promotions and tenure tied to DEI accomplishments.
It's so eerily like the Soviet Union and the men from the Politburo everywhere.
This hoax had an agenda.
Yes it does. Awful.
“Take a look at what your child’s “dream” college celebrated as its highest good at this year’s festivities, and ask yourself: is that what I want my kids to worship?”
Okay, so… last year my UT grad skipped the all-campus commencement with the sports speaker. This arguably upholds the UT tradition of always worshipping sports. Our family only attended the no-speaker “college level” event.
My youngest has her sights on Baylor for brass performance. I could not find a speaker, but their mini commencements opened with a brass ensemble arrangement of Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah (Pilgrim through this barren land). Quite appropriate!
Now I do harbor concern that Baylor may well be the Christian university equivalent of a RINO, but it would work out for us far better than the alternatives.
In between a few guffaws I read two haunting words - progressive groupthink - which made my laughter a bit heavier. Fortunately I’ve kept my open minded teaching hat on for the grandkids and rather than avoid discussing the worlds cray, we discuss it. The ones old enough to understand think the world is mad in some ways; they know who they are and remind me that most of their peers do too. I’m ready for anything but my greatest lesson, I hope, will be love.
Fits very well with your latest movie suggestion, Bananas. You’re narrating this “competition” like a true TV sports anchor!
Outstanding article Sir!!
🎯
Thank you!
I don’t know, Apoorva Mandavilli is a pretty heavy hitter for Team Groupthink.
As a graduate of Patrick Henry College I enjoy the irony of it once again being compared to Harvard. :)
Great post. Keep PHC and Hillsdale in your prayers as they daily fend off the devil at their doors.
Thanks! PHC is so cool, I wish I had gone there, I’m jealous!
It was pretty great. Top tier education and exposure to greats like Dr. Esolen etc. The friendships forged there are still our deepest friends. And I fulfilled all stereotypes and met my husband there as well!
I am never amazed at my alma mater Harvard. I have not contributed to it for decades and send as many grenades (figuratively only) its way as possible. It is so disheartening and I hope that some of the graduates can understand the moral, spiritual and intellectual corruption of Harvard as they move on.