I was driving along the road bordering FSU and, walking in my direction of travel was a nicely black student with his books. Coming towards me was a white student with Ferrari red hair oddly coifed in a bun, but shaved on the sides. He was dressed in a leather skirt and sockless yellow sandals. As he passed the black guy, the black turned and watched him with a look of total disbelief. The white guy is one of those safe zone students, so easily injured by contrary views. Just gosh. I have to wonder what serious classes Mr. Ferrari Hair was taking, but I’ll bet he had a student loan for them.
College is no longer a place for serious studies. When I officiated at a design contest at FSU’s engineering school, they wanted to make sure every student “won.” I said, “You can’t do that. The winners get money to make their design a reality. If they all “win” who gets the money?” You could see the one older proff got it but the younger ones took some convincing. They were afraid to tell the losers that they hadn’t won. (It was the last time I was invited.)
You could have pointed out that all of the contestants “won”, by virtue of competing. All serious competitors doubtless learned many valuable lessons, from the process of preparing their entry. One of those lessons being how well their efforts stacked up against the best.