Go Bucks!
Posted on 12/18/2006 7:31:32 AM PST by Unam Sanctam
The agents of political correctness who police the nation's college and university campuses generally use shame and scorn to beat down free expression deemed offensive by the tiniest minority.
But sometimes, institutions aren't content to merely marginalize those who fail to embrace a worldview that emphasizes the rights of groups over those of individuals. Rather than engage these free spirits in open debate in a classroom setting -- isn't that what college is all about? -- administrators seek to re-educate these malefactors on the proper way to think.
Michigan State University has taken the multicultural mantra of indoctrination to a new extreme. Students whose speech or behavior is deemed inappropriate for a university setting are ordered to complete, at their own expense, the school's Student Accountability in Community Seminar.
This program bills itself as an "early intervention" for those who take "any action of obscuring, concealing, or changing people's perceptions that result in your advantage and/or another's disadvantage." In other words, any behavior that might make someone feel bad. Seminar participants have included students who've argued with professors or cracked offensive jokes -- constitutionally protected free speech.
Once enrolled in the seminar, students are forced to complete written questionnaires about their behavior, sometimes several times, until an instructor believes the student has taken "full responsibility" for his actions. If a student refuses to enroll in the seminar, the university won't let the student register for classes, a de facto act of expulsion.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting free expression, civil rights and educational freedom on college campuses, has demanded that Michigan State University dismantle the program.
"As bad as it is to tell citizens in a free society what they can't say, it is even worse to tell them what they must say," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said in a news release. "Michigan State's program is an immoral and unconstitutional program of compelled speech, blatant thought reform, and pseudo-psychology."
The university has told FIRE that the program is under review. We were unable to secure further comment from Michigan State officials.
The existence of seminars such as Student Accountability in Community is an affront to the values that institutions of higher education should hold dear. Universities should aspire to give students the intellectual skills and information to discuss issues and refute arguments, not shelter them from the kinds of ideas and expressions that roam free outside campus walls.
But Michigan State has gone an unconstitutional step further, seeking not only to protect students from ever having their feelings hurt, but to control students' collective conscience.
Diversity = Big Brother
| The Top Politically inCorrect Words for 2006 |
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| Posted by mfnorman On 12/18/2006 8:57:26 AM CST · 13 replies · 604+ views The Global Language Monitor ^ San Diego, California (December 13, 2006) Macaca, Global Warming Denier, Herstory and Flip Chart top the list of the most egregious examples of politically correct language found in 2006 by the Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) in its annual global survey. |
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So, if I held a pro-war rally there, I would have to go to "diversity training" because I offended someone? Can someone say lawsuit???
But doesn't this seminar hurt students' feelings?
Then shouldn't school administrators be forced to attend?
Won't their feelings be hurt?
This country was a lot better place when tarring and feathering wouldn't get you put in prison for 20 years.
Next step: Reindoctrination/Reeducation camps...
Such scoundrels only fear lawsuits. I would encourage students who have been oppressed this way to obtain a large nest egg to help them start life as a graduate. Since the insurance underwriters of the university would demand they settle, it could be a quick and painless way of making a few hundred thousand dollars.
" This country was a lot better place when tarring and feathering wouldn't get you put in prison for 20 years. "
Just a thought -- perhaps this country was better off when tarring and feathering was an acceptable substitute for putting you in prison for 20 years....
Not exactly an opinion (yet) -- just an interesting (to me, anyway) thought to explore.....
Undoubtedly worth an education ping. I don't have the ping list handy, so I was hoping you could ping the rest...
Looks like everyone in ROTC at MSU is going to have to go through this "Training" because in the eyes of the liberals there, they are most succeptible to do "antidiverse" things.
Just another step in the march to Communism in this country. PC ness has two purpose - thought control and adding another law we are all bound to break sooner or later. That gives the government the right to control you and what you think and do.
Hillarycare is the next step. Then they can tell us what to eat, how much to sleep, exercise, rest, work, etc. They are paying for it so they can control it. Anyway, it is "for our own good, or at least the good of the children" so shut up and take it.
All non smokers should realize that smoking bans are not about health as they say, it is about control and those in favor of the ban are aiding and abetting their own loss of freedom.
Those Communists are sneaky devils until they gain control. Then brutality is the norm. Look at any country that has experienced Communism, if you can get the truth, and the evidence of what I say is ample.
The Women's Studies, Queer Studies and Black Studies majors have to work somewhere.
Ideological job creation at work, celebrate the mess.
What do you mean NEXT!?
Classic Reeducation Camp, of the Maoist style, paid for by the perceived offender and brought to you by the local Academic Thought Police.
I thought the rivalry was OSU and U-M?
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