Posted on 06/04/2019 3:31:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
When you send your youngster off to college, you might not mind that they will have to walk on eggshells, respect taboos, snitch on fellow students for politically incorrect jokes and learn to use ad hominem arguments as a means to attack ideas they find "disagreeable." If that's your preference, you can choose from a wide variety of America's top-ranked colleges. If you want to send your youngster to colleges that are seriously committed to civil and diverse debate, pick up a copy of the June 2019 edition of Reason magazine for some guidance.
Professors Debra Mashek and Jonathan Haidt authored "10 Colleges Where You Won't Have to Walk on Eggshells." Mashek and Haidt are, respectively, faculty members of Harvey Mudd College and New York University. Haidt is the co-founder of the Heterodox Academy and Mashek is its executive director. Heterodox Academy is nonpartisan and boasts a membership of more than 2,500 faculty and college administrators who advocate for open inquiry and civil disagreement on college campuses and in academic disciplines.
The Mashek and Haidt article discusses 10 colleges in alphabetical order. Among them is Chapman University, whose president, Daniele Struppa, is "an outspoken advocate of academic freedom and freedom of speech." Struppa has little tolerance for the political correctness so prevalent at most of the nation's colleges.
The University of Chicago has set the gold standard on free speech and open inquiry. In 2014, it created its "Statement on Principles of Free Expression" (aka the Chicago Principles). Those principles provide the framework for thinking about the importance of dissent as well as the role of the university for establishing the platform for debate. University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer says, "We have an obligation to see that the greatest variety of perspectives is brought to bear on issues before us as scholars and citizens." The Chicago Principles, or substantially similar ones, have been adopted by 55 schools across the nation. In June 2018, the University of Chicago received Heterodox Academy's Institutional Excellence Award in recognition of its stellar culture and support for open inquiry.
Other colleges listed in the Mashek and Haidt article, where students won't have to walk on eggshells include Arizona State University, Claremont McKenna College, Kansas State University, Kenyon College, Linn-Benton Community College, St. John's College, University of Richmond and Purdue University. It's worth noting that Mitch Daniels is president of Purdue University and former two-term governor of the state of Indiana. Daniels and his interim provost Jay Akridge wrote this message to the Purdue community: "At Purdue, we protect and promote the right to free and open inquiry in all matters and guarantee all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn."
In my opinion, it is truly a tragic state of affairs when free speech and free inquiry require protection at most institutions of higher learning. Indeed, it has been freedom in the marketplace of ideas that has made the United States, as well as other western nations, leaders in virtually every area of human endeavor. A monopoly of ideas is just as dangerous as a monopoly in other areas of our lives such as monopoly in political power and the production of goods and services.
At the end of Professors Mashek's and Haidt's article, they come up with a few suggestions for parents. Visit the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education website to find out about a particular college's agenda to suppress free speech. By all means, check out the Heterodox Academy website. Search the college's website for terms such as "open inquiry," "freedom of expression" and "free speech." Examine the college's calendar of events to see whether speakers with diverse opinions are invited. Visit the campus. Talk with actual students about their experiences. In this article, Mashek and Haidt give specific questions to ask. I'd add to their list of things to do on a campus visit: Talk to the local police, bartenders and hospital people about the college. They might give you insights that an admissions officer would choose to keep hidden.
That’s a small list. I am skeptical just how “diverse” these institutions really are. I suspect they are ready to apply the hate speech label to any unpopular opinions.
The whole expensive college speaker thing is a sham.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be funding any of it, but as long as they do there shouldn’t be that kind of waste allowed. Nothing but Ramen noodles and hot dogs (proper Boomer college chow) in the dining halls either!
Interesting post. When I visited colleges with my daughter, I always visited the library and scanned the new additions and talked to the folks on the circulation desk. Twenty years ago, there was little diversity in opinion. I do recall being impressed by Davidson’s honor code as applied to borrowing books from the library. There was no checking out of books, at least back in 1987!!
yeah, from socialism all the way to communism
You have $200,000 in student loan debt.
You have just realized getting that BA degree in 12th Century Gay/Lesbian History of Bolivia might not have been a good career decision.
..............................................."Would You Like a Seat by the Window?".........................................
I suggested that my brilliant (but unfocused, like her daddy) kid go to a trade school for a subject that interested her. She liked the idea, and is going to a two year culinary program at a state trade school. She is going to be living with an aunt and working at the same time- the whole thing should cost less than $20K, and she’ll come out of it with little or no debt and the ability to make a decent living.
Below is a list of NO Federal Funding Colleges and thus minimal Federal control / intervention on these schools. I was looking for cross-inclusions with this post but I would not be surprised if some of these did have implementation of these "Chicago Principles".
Bethlehem College & Seminary (Minnesota)
Boyce College (Kentucky)
Christendom College (Virginia)
Faith Bible College (Maine)
Grace Baptist College (Michigan)
Grove City College (Pennsylvania)
Gutenberg College (Oregon)
Hillsdale College (Michigan)
Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary (Tennessee)
New College Franklin (Tennessee)
New Saint Andrews College (Idaho)
Patrick Henry College (Virginia)
Pensacola Christian College (Florida) Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Texas)
Wyoming Catholic College (Wyoming).
Interesting. Last I was paying attention I thought there were only something like two such schools—likely Hillsdale and Liberty.
‘When you send your youngster off to college...’
Just those words trigger me. First off, if it’s a guy and some chick has an issue with him, all she has to say is ‘boo’ and the kid is EXPELLED, even if he had like 1 month until graduation...he gets to start his entire life over again, with the added requirement of having to explain away those years.
If it’s a guy or a chick, and they don’t play by the PC rules, they likely won’t get expelled, unless do something as hate-filled as wearing a Trump hat or say MAGA in front of a snowflake, but their grades will show it, at least in classes where the grading is subjective, like liberal arts. Even worse, there’s a good chance that your conservative, or at least open-minded, kid will come back as a flaming radical after a short time in that pressure-cooker, as had happened to people here.
Bottom line - WATCH OUT, and it’s probably best to try to find a way to keep the kid at home through his college years [particularly if it is a guy]...do that even if it means avoiding the ‘best schools’, the kid will still come out ahead. If you can’t do that, at least keep the kid home for the first 2 years, such as at a community college. By then the kid can likely live in an apartment, rather than a dorm and avoid most of that horrific environment.
My oldest daughter just graduated PCC and my youngest just did their High School graduation event and will be going next year. The middle daughter is working very hard on her MRS. degree.
Let us not discuss the sons.
OUTSTANDING - I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll wind up running a multibillion dollar operation. Plus, you won’t have to come to blows with her when she comes home and rags on Trump non-stop.
Bill Bennett, who I genuinely like, was bragging on Levin’s show about how his son “survived” Princeton. If somebody like Bennett can still send his kid to that university, it tells me that nothing will ever change on the campuses. Wealthy, connected people go where wealthy people can connect even further. Conservative ideology be damned.
Bennett was a Democrat until 1986
Before that, there actually WERE conservative Dems.
Good posts. I’ve been to Hillsdale. Very impressive. Thanks.
More like, "Would you like fries with that burger?"
yup, socialists are just lazy cowardly communists without guns...
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