Posted on 04/11/2016 8:34:03 PM PDT by Art in Idaho
An effort by a group of Stanford University students to restore a Western Civilization class requirement has been decisively rejected by the student body, with voting results released Monday showing it mustering less than 15 percent support.
The ballot initiative was promoted by members of the school’s conservative-leaning Stanford Review. If passed, it would have called for Stanford to require that all freshmen complete a two-quarter course covering “the politics, history, philosophy, and culture of the Western world.” Stanford once possessed a similar requirement, but eliminated it after a student campaign in the 1980s that denounced it as fostering racism, sexism, and other perfidious -isms.
Supporters managed to collect 370 signatures on their petition, enough to include it as a ballot measure for Stanford’s spring student government election.
But it turns out Stanford has no enthusiasm for requiring the study of Western civilization. In election results released Monday, the proposal failed by an overwhelming margin, with 342 votes in favor and a whopping 1992 votes against.
In contrast, over 90 percent of students voted in favor of an initiative requiring the school to administer a new campus climate survey designed to find the rate of sexual assault on campus. The school already administered such a survey in 2015, but it outraged activists by finding a sexual assault rate of just 1.9%, which they deemed far too low.
The mere suggestion that Stanford require studying Western civilization had generated immense outrage among certain Stanford communities. A low-income advocacy group at the school suspended a member based on the suspicion that he wrote an anonymous piece supporting the proposal. A hostile column in The Stanford Daily warned that accepting the proposal would mean centering Stanford education on “upholding white supremacy, capitalism and colonialism, and all other oppressive systems that flow from Western civilizations.”
“If they weren’t such gutless worms, they would all reject their admissions to Stanford and go to a Black community college so they can all be down with the struggle.”
LOL!
these fakers go on and on about the “privileged” etc. but they sure are quick to brag “I went to Stanford”.
However, every year the social sciences, arts and humanities at these Ivy League schools deteriorate a little bit more. Eventually, people will figure out that it is a $60K/yr suit of invisible clothes.
Could you be more specific?
They should close the bathrooms and just dig a trench behind the buildings.
All well said. It's a shame the typical college student isn't taking classical Western Civilization 101 and learning the basis of our American History.
BTW, a friend of mine is going to Univ of Idaho and he said the American History textbook is 'A People's History of the United States' by Zinn. Yup, you guessed it, it's very lefty. All the usual American hating memes present.
We have to be more involved in our kids and grandkid's education. I'm trying with my grandson.
Way to Go! Keep up the good work. Oh my, I remember those Latin days, took 4 years. Glad they still offer it!
Your “Western Society” Courses sound very interesting. Should be started in high school.
So right. We keep thinking a tweak here and a tweak there and all will be fine. In reality, tweaking was needed in the mid 60s. We are in some trouble, our kids and grandkids are heading towards hopelessness in this country.
Hopefully, our quagmire made worse by the Obama years, is starting to wake some people up, even the young folks. Word has it that a lot of college students are fed up with all the lefty stuff, the 'white privilege' shtick, the constant racism, AA preferences, etc and they're backing Trump or Cruz. Maybe the pendulum will come back. It will take a generation but I just can't see patriotic Americans giving up. A slog, yes, hopeless, no.
You know, this is a sidebar, but I was thinking that just like Obama has been the world's greatest gun salesman, maybe he was needed to wake the country up and hence, the Trump and Cruz movements. We'll see. .
OMG, it sounds like a re-education camp. Really, it reminded me of a Real re-education camp a Vietnamese friend of mine lived through after the Vietnam War. Horrible stories. .
Bill Ayres, the Dept of Education and that other guy in the neighborhood.
Could there be any better reason to not hire American college grads?
Do they even Teach History anymore, or is it all Basket Weaving and Mud Hut Construction?
They should have started with one quarter, not two. Might have had a better chance of passing.
In hs, my grandson gets a smattering of American History but it's the usual left bias. Not sure if Western Civ or American History is required at most colleges anymore. I know what Stanford said, but I wonder about colleges nationwide. The problem is the professors teaching them and the 'slant' they give. I do feel sorry for our kids, grandkids and generations unborn.
Good point. Redo it, call FOX and Newsmax to cover it and start a real national dialogue.
Stanford is imho a wonderful college in so many ways. But it has its Achilles heels. One is ( or at least was once) a faculty decision to allocate all ( professional school) scholarship funds on racist grounds. Not the “correct” race? No help, you can’t come here. I do not know if that’s still their practice but it was awful then. One funny side of the place was the campus vote when the decision was taken to kill off the brave Indian warrior as the school’s mascot. Not PC. There were four or five replacement mascot choices on the ballot, all considered more PC. Result? A write in won!! The campus voted to be known as “the Stanford Robber-Barons” ( a reference to the founder’s role as president of the central pacific railroad). Of course, the Powers That Were ( administration) excreted a rectilinear building element over that Vox Populai. Patently, democracy had run amok far too far. It fell to vice provost Resenzwig to issue the diktat from the ruling council/ Central Committee/ Guardians of the People’s Revolution/ administration. Robber Barons were declared to be an affront to the sacred memory of the founders ( who, after all, are long dead and buried right there on campus). So today, the college is just known as the “Cardinal” ( not even the little birdie — no — just the commie red color, you know, like at “the Stanford of the east” aka Harvard’s Crimson). Go figure. Colleges can be crazy places. You can still buy Stanford Indian mascot flags In Pali alto,of course, but not on campus unless you buy them from your drug dealer. And as for the Stanford band, they get kicked out of half their venues for insulting their hosts — the kids of privilege simply do not want to wear the mantle of responsibility in their lives ( as the Stanfords had so greatly hoped when they endowed the university). Responsibility goes with western civilization and religious faith-— out the window. Not sure what the schools can do now to restore some sanity — ?
If the Parents don’t know History and don’t insist or Teach it themselves then you are probably right.
Thanks for sharing the story about the 'Robber-Barrons' attempt. Absolutely amazing. PC run amok. One thing I like about Trump, he comes across as totally non-PC.
Also, I wonder if the professional schools still do the AA and other 'preferences'? My son didn't get into a state Law school. . He did go to a private Law school, no problem, but said the state one was very AA, ethnic and other preferences first. Don't know if they're all like that or not these days? That stuff was nonexistent when I went in the late 60's, early 70s. It was the most qualified person, grades, LSAT, MCAT or GRE. Period. As far as I knew.
Apparently, the doctors have allowed the patients to run the asylum.
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