EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION
A prominent sign on a table in Temple University’s Student Center implied a somewhat less than friendly welcome to some students headed back to class this week.
Under the public university’s logo, the sign read:
“In this community, we believe:
“Black lives matter.
“Women rights are human rights
“No human is illegal.
“Science is real.
“Love is love.
“Kindness is everything.”
It appeared on a table alongside fliers and brochures promoting the campus newspaper, housing options, suicide prevention resources, and other information.
However, Temple’s Turning Point USA chapter, which noticed the sign and posted photos of it on social media, questioned the implications in a post Thursday on X. The listed slogans have been used by the Left to promote abortion, illegal immigration, COVID lockdowns and mandatory vaccines, among other things.
“So what does that say to students who don’t share every one of these beliefs—that we aren’t part of the Temple community?”
Significantly, the sign was “Temple-branded,” too, the chapter noted.
“This is posted directly outside Student Center Operations—the office responsible for serving student organizations across the political and ideological spectrum. That should be one of the most viewpoint-neutral spaces on a public university campus, not a place where students are told what ‘this community’ believes,” the chapter wrote.
But the opening week messaging isn’t unique to the Philadelphia institution.
At Yale University, for example, one of the most important things its leaders apparently thought new students should know about is the campus “all gender restrooms.”
The university specifically highlighted this resource on its new students webpage alongside the orientation calendar of events, public safety information, campus alerts sign ups, and off-campus dining options.
Meanwhile, Penn State University’s “Welcome Week” includes Drag Bingo – a “staple” event, according to the Daily Collegian student newspaper.
The University of Michigan also is advertising a “Pride Outside” event for “LGBTQIA2S+” students. Organized by the university’s Spectrum Center, the welcome back event includes “lawn games, a drag show, shaved ice, t-shirt giveaways, resource tables, and more.”
Then, there’s the University of Nevada where one of the first academic-focused events on the calendar is about “tribal sovereignty and environmental justice.”
This week kicked off the fall semester at hundreds of universities across the country, accompanied by the expected inspirational convocation speeches, free pizza, game nights, dances, athletics events, and other school pride (note the lower case “p”) events. There also were the increasingly common mental health events like this “De-stress with Pets” get-together at Colorado State. Most are seemingly non-political.
But the sign at Temple is a reminder of how often progressive politics hide right out in the open on college campuses, as if they are normal, as if they are truth.
The Temple TPUSA chapter noticed and called it out for good reason. When a university only promotes one view, it fails all of its students, right, center, and left. It’s the freedom to discuss, disagree, challenge, and debate that gets students to not only understand their own views better but also to explore what is true. And that’s what universities should be all about.
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