A Letter to an Old Friend
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40 responses to “A Letter to an Old Friend”
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Your approach sounds an awful lot like a Fairness Doctrine for universities… my how Conservatives have changed as of late…
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Or, “how to elevate fringe opinions only because they exist…”
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When universities create ideological litmus tests in the form of mandatory “diversity statements,” conservatives are left with no alternative.
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“We only support government intervention when it benefits us! Then we are left with no choice!”
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“We only support government intervention when it benefits us! Then we are left with no choice!”
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My suggested is a version of the University of Chicago statement on free speech. The difference is that mine has teeth with single sanction consequences for violators.
You know, just like the student honor code at UVa had for 200 years.
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except you wanted state law and prosecutors?
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I want to emulate in the school administrations the same process that has been in place for over 200 years at the University in the form of the student-run Honor Committee. The administration at UVa may already have that authority.
The reason I suggest it be a law for all state universities is the obvious need to have uniform compliance among them. And the need to have that law to back the administrations.
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“uniform compliance” means the AG will investigate and bring charges?
you serious?
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No, Larry. It means that the same internal rules and adjudication system will be set up at each University. Give it up. It is an issue with which you are not familiar.
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who insures the same policy is set up at each University? who investigates complaints that they’re not following the “law”?
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Each has an Assistant Attorney General as its legal officer.
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Ah – their on-site reps for the AG? So you very much do want the AG to do this?
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Uniform compliance means that all public colleges and universities will have the same free speech policy in place. Adjudicating violations would be left to students.
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but the “uniform policy” is a state law defining it and how it works and the AG will investigate the “compliance’ issues?
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Or, how to elevate fringe opinions only because they exist…
“In contrast to the theory we’ve just examined, some researchers believe it is a large disk riding on the back of a giant tortoise…”
re: ” Who in the General Assembly would vote against a law requiring state employees and students at state universities to treat other staff and students equally and with respect? We should find out.”
This is hilarious. As much as Sherlock rails against DEI and star chambers, here he comes with his own version.
What kind of office would review and determine if people treated others equally and with respect?
indeed. let’s see what the GA can cook up.
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They can mirror the student honor code and honor committee that is more than 200 years old at the University, Larry. Not rocket science.
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so you want State Law and criminal prosecution?
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see my response above.
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saw that. now answer the question. You want the State to make this a crime?
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Sherlock: “I would ask them to certify as part of their employment contracts that they will expend every effort to make both progressive students and faculty and those of traditional personal beliefs welcome at the university. Not only their persons, but also their opinions and open minds.”
I like this idea, although I would phrase it more simply. Faculty would expend every effort to make all students feel welcome at the university, regardless of race, sex, gender, religion, or belief system.
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Do you mean like a statement that they’d not discriminate like is probably already in their contracts?
And you’d want the GA to mandate it and create sanctions for non-compliance and a process for prosecution if they are accused of violating the terms?
Ya’ll are downright hilarious at times…
talk about your authoritarian instincts!
You want us to do what the Chinese do and have the Govt in charge of Higher Ed “thinking” and writing?
yes indeed.
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I don’t know what school you may have attended, Larry, but UVa has had a student honor code and student-run honor court in place for more than two centuries. Until this year, that court had a single sanction for those found guilty – expulsion. Not a new concept.
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No, but that’s NOT what you are proposing. You are proposing the State codify a process and enforce it but your “defense” is that it’s just like the UVA honor code.
Nope. It’s not. When you bring the State into it – it’s not at all.
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Both your words and mine are versions of the University of Chicago statement on free speech. The difference is that ours has teeth with sanction consequences for violators.
In the spirit of the 4th of July, what UVA really needs is a voice of dissent to emerge from the student body. Thomas Paine certainly performed that role and his voice changed minds for the better. Oh, for the want of “Common Sense”.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d58c497c78789366418246d9a8a6eec33d10c556117be33ed8f57abe47b703a2.jpg
Have you considered this possibility? Progressives view the universities as a place for secure, well-paid employment. They’re willing to drive conservatives and moderates out of the faculties and off of the curriculum, because that leaves more jobs and money for themselves. They’re betting that many of us are so emotionally attached to our alma maters that we’ll keep sending our kids there, paying the higher tuitions and supporting state funding for them.
The answer is to speak honestly with our children and tell them what we think our universities have become. And, if they decide to go, they’ll go with no illusions.
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I reject the idea that citizens have no voice in how their public institutions are run. The answer in America is to handle this politically through our elected officials.
The challenge with this idea is the definition of stifling free speech. If somebody says, “Trump was a failure as president” and I respond, “shut up, you don’t know what you are talking about” … have I stifled free speech? Should I be permanently dismissed from school?
Even the existent honor system has definitional issues. The so-called “Jackie” from the Rolling Stone article, “A rape on campus” clearly lied. Yet she was not brought before the honor committee and dismissed. Perhaps she skulked away of her own volition before that could happen.
At the most, I think stifling free speech or expression should be a judicial offense. The first offense might be a semester probation. The next might be a suspension.
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so.. you don’t want the AG doing this? The one who decides “what free speech is or is not” . Won’t the AG become the “decider” if someone complains the University is not following the law?
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I assert we need a law to position the same rules on protection of freedom of speech in all state universities and enforce them.
I have offered a model – the UVa honor system and its enforcement and brand new, expanded new sanctions (plural) regime.
You seem to concur with the basic assertion and offer different ideas on sanctions and the administrative process to enforce them.
Your ideas are surely as valid as mine.
Maybe better as long, in my view, that dismissal from the University is on the authorized sanctions list.
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Comon, DJ, you KNOW this is a manifestly BAD idea – to put the Government in charge especially so with the likes of someone like Miyares or Cuccinelli !
This is a gross misuse of govt.
Sherlock confirms my suspicions that Conservatives in their heart of hearts are authoritarians!
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If the greater society is bitterly divided among progressives and conservatives, what steps can be taken to diminish that divide at UVA and elsewhere? Collectively, it seems the responsibility is upon the adults in the polity to resort to civility and accommodation. The “we” and “they” views only exacerbate the situation. I am not convinced that legislation nor enforced honor codes are remedies. Time to think outside the silos.
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Students at UVa are, almost always, adults. When they agree to take on student debt they do so as adults. When they haze people during fraternity rush they do so as adults. When they stifle free speech they do so as adults.
It’s time to stop infantilizing college students.
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Exchange the black and white positions…
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How Creationism enters the Biology 101 curriculum.
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Please share your thoughts “outside the silos” to address the issues.
You may have a good idea we can use.
Something to remove the fear expressed by UVa students of contesting progressive dogma in the classroom. Something to ensure no idealogical litmus tests for hiring. Something to eliminate the DEI political watchdogs.
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something = a Virginia Law that the AG will then investigate and prosecute.
… and probably a “TIP” line… for those aggrieved, no doubt.
Job interviews will be taped. All correspondence will be subject to review by the AG to ensure “compliance”.
cam’t happen?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_of_Virginia%27s_climate_science_investigation
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Science by definition is open and transparent. If it not, then it cannot be duplicated, tested, and confirmed or denied. Secrecy and science are diametrically opposed concepts. No researcher who wants their findings treated as scientific should want their methodology, data or conclusions hidden from other researchers. When their work is paid for by taxpayers, openness is even more compulsory. Cuccinelli was right.
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