What Students Really Learn at University
Perhaps no one has written more about the plague of identity politics on America’s college campuses than MTC's contributor, Philip Carl Salzman. Salzman, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at McGill 
University, and a contributor to many public policy organizations, has now published some of his most powerful essays in an e-Book collection called Universities Today. Salzman writes, "Since the 1980s, universities have increasingly turned away from producing and disseminating knowledge and taken up as their objective neo-Marxist radical social reform, often labeled ‘social justice.’ Today, universities focus on political propaganda and activism and are increasingly like closed religious cults."
Attention Middle Easterners! You Don’t Have to Be White Anymore
So says Harvard University in a convoluted explanation of race, identity, culture and white privilege. According to Harvard, “Since 1944, Middle Eastern- and North African-Americans have been legally “white,” having to check the “white” box on demographic surveys like the U.S. census.” OMG—what a burden! Well, fear no more my Lebanese and Syrian friends, my pals from Iraq and Iran—you no longer have the burden of being white—you can be a MENA! A middle-eastern north African. What a joy to shed the mantle of white privilege once and for all. How wonderful to have such a joyous moniker of peace, achievement, cultural contribution, and tolerance to wrap around oneself.
If You're On Time, You're a White Supremacist
The National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, or NCORE, will feature a “pre-conference” session led by an educational consultant who believes being on time is a form of “white supremacy.” The story appears in The College Fix. NCORE is a function of the University of Oklahoma’s Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies. This year, Heather Hackman of the Hackman Consulting Group will speak about “…Racism and Whiteness and Achieving Racial Justice.” Hackman is a former professor of multicultural education at St. Cloud University who, at 2016’s “White Privilege Conference,” informed attendees that “the racial narrative of White” includes “making sure you’re not tardy.” Individualism, honesty, discipline, and rigor were other factors.
Peggy Noonan on the Coming Fall of ‘Woke’ Progressives
"The past decade saw the rise of the woke progressives who dictate what words can be said and ideas held, thus poisoning and paralyzing American humor, drama, entertainment, culture and journalism. In the coming 10 years someone will effectively stand up to them. They are the most hated people in America, and their entire program is accusation: you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic; you are a bigot, a villain, a white male, a patriarchal misogynist, your day is over. They never have a second move. Bow to them, as most do, and they’ll accuse you even more of newly imagined sins. They claim to be vulnerable victims, and moral. Actually, they’re not." -- The Wall Street Journal, January 4 -5
Let's Ban the SAT and ACT!
That's what a coalition of civil rights lawyers wants to do in California in order to end discrimination based on merit for Latinos and African Americans. According to a report in The New Yorker, the only tests the lawyers would allow are Advanced Placement exams. The shell game of accepting test results, then distorting them to achieve a "racially balanced outcome," has been known for years at some of the most prestigious schools in the country. But two events have prompted this action in California: One is the ongoing challenge by Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard to level the playing field for Asian students, who score high on grades and tests. The other is the changing makeup of the Supreme Court, which has become more conservative in the last few years. Does anyone care that American students continue to decline in global matchups against other developed countries?
If You're White, You're Wrong
Following a growing trend in higher education, a Dartmouth professor called for mandatory white privilege courses. Dr. Emily Walton wrote an op-ed in USA Today calling for all students to take courses in white privilege and black history. She accuses white people of being afflicted with "white blindness" or a state in which racial privilege is invisible. She also claims the K-12 public schools perpetuate "white blindness" (read discrimination) by not mandating ethnic studies classes. To top it off, she equates the meritocratic system of hard work with white discrimination against minorities.
All this moaning and groaning about “corruption” in the admissions process assumes that there is a Platonic standard for “fairness.” Just SAT’s? And, does this Platonic standard apply equally to all schools? Can somebody enlighten me on this ideal standard. Once established we can then calibrate degree of unfairness. Until that time, this is all posturing.
My wife’s brother is managing partner of a large venture capital company. He told me they won’t even look at applicants that haven’t graduated from a very short list of schools (MIT, Caltech, most Ivy’s, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, UT Austin, U. of Washington) . They are also unlikely to fund entrepreneurs who haven’t graduated from the same list.
This is just the Nordstrom version, I’m waiting for the WalMart version to break.
There are lots of mid-level state schools and I have no doubt the same sorts of games being played there as well.
And it’s not just to get in but to stay in — to get junior back in after he’s been booted for misbehavior. For example, UMass Amherst kicked a lot of kids out for the various riots, with some mysteriously reappearing without explanation. Rumor had it that $30K-$40K in cash would get junior back in.
I agree that this story has a long way to go – and I’m waiting for the Massachusetts nexus to appear as there has to be one for the Massachusetts US Atty to be bringing these cases. The other two wild cards are the failed Mt Ida College and the failing Hampshire College — who knows what an intrepid forensic accountant might have found, or who so found might have been willing to make a deal.
And could this be the pin that bursts the Higher Ed Bubble?
It’s important to pay people who might otherwise be corrupted well. That’s one if the reasons why we shouldn’t complain about police officer pay. Test center proctors and administrators are given next to nothing. Big mistake.
The students who were admitted under false pretenses should forfeit their degrees, whether they knew or not.
If our best and brightest aren’t actually our best and brightest, the future of our country is certainly compromised.