The College Fix

I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again – college administrators need to take Parenting 101 lessons. They have got to toughen up or these whiny, petulant, narcissistic crybullies running today’s college campuses are going to keep pushing for more and more control.

But no, administrators keep … giving … in.

Three times in just the last week student protesters on campus have gotten their way — their complaints have helped prompt administrators to agree to shut down speech on campus with which offended students disagreed.

EXHIBIT A: Paleoconservative John Derbyshire’s speech at Williams College was canceled Thursday after students complained having him on campus would be akin to “violence” and would “dehumanize” them.

EXHIBIT B: Cal State University Los Angeles on Monday canceled a planned speech on campus by conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro after liberal students objected to his appearance and organized a counter-protest in support of safe spaces. (Shapiro has vowed to show up anyway).

EXHIBIT C: The administration at Gettysburg College sided with campus protesters who were upset over a pro-life poster campaign that utilized the #BlackLivesMatter slogan, saying in an email to the campus community Tuesday that the conservative group that hung them needs to reframe their message to be less offensive. The students who tore down the posters? Not even a slap on the wrist.

Certainly some student protesters have genuinely had their feelings hurt (all one need do is watch this video to see some of that raw emotion on display.)

The problem is instead of the grown ups in charge telling students “welcome to the real world, where free speech and open debate is allowed,” they kowtow to the demands of the students they’re charged with teaching and leading and create ridiculous “safe spaces” that don’t help these students mature.

And here’s the thing with these campus crybullies, as brilliantly summarized by longtime Professor Bruce Fleming recently in the Washington Free Beacon:

The more powerless you claim you are, in short, the more powerful you are on today’s campuses. Any group that sees itself as marginalized can literally shout down professors whose views they disagree with and demand that speakers whose views they disapprove of be banned. Faculty and administrators, wringing their hands in agony at having been so awful as to produce this reaction, typically fold. Have we gotten it right this time? Is this what you wanted? Please reassure us! Do you now feel safe?

It’s really all about power, although it’s sold as liberation. This might seem ironic, but it isn’t. When the guerillas come down from the hills, what they preach is death to dictators, but all they really want is to take over the presidential palace for themselves.

But in the present case, radicals can only take the power they demand if the rest of us give in to their tantrums. Of course we must refuse to give in if there is to be anything left of the university as we know it. The system of universities, like the system of democracy, is based on everyone agreeing to ground rules. In the case of democracy, this is our agreement to use the ballot box rather than coups d’état. In the case of universities it is to use rational argument rather than throwing bombs or offering intellectual rationalization for emotional outrage …

If only administrators would heed such advice.

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