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Institutional Capture: It Can Happen Here - My former employer has gone the way of all leftist-led colleges.
The American Spectator ^ | 7 Jan, 2023 | BRADLEY C. S. WATSON

Posted on 01/09/2023 4:50:52 AM PST by MtnClimber

My name has now been added to the long and depressing list of high-profile academic “cancellations.” I recently resigned my tenured position at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, due to an episode — sadly typical of American higher education — that has been widely documented in national media. Like so many recent academic debacles, the actions of the administrators who precipitated the affair were ridiculous and wholly unnecessary. But my ouster was perhaps unique in the speed with which it unfolded and the degree to which it perfectly tells the tale of why so many of our institutions are in free fall. It illustrates what we must confront — whether we find ourselves among the small number of countercultural voices in academia or the much larger number of citizens who seek to preserve an educational system, and a culture, whose directions are not dictated by fanaticism.

The problem colleges face is institutional capture. This capture is of course ideological, but it’s broader than that. It also has important moral dimensions — it is not only, or mainly, an intellectual phenomenon. It usually happens relatively quickly, but early warning signs are easy to spot. It must be nipped in the bud if there’s to be any hope of saving the vital remnants of intellectual seriousness that can still be found on many American campuses. But it can only be stopped if faculty members and administrators, with the support of an awakened public, exercise the moral virtue of courage — the critical virtue without which the other virtues are impossible. As I have written in these pages, it’s a virtue that is in catastrophically short supply where it’s most needed.

The proximate cause of my resignation was the cowardly administrative takeover and humiliation of the college’s Center for Political and Economic

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: communism

1 posted on 01/09/2023 4:50:52 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

It is our own Chinese Cultural Revolution.


2 posted on 01/09/2023 4:51:08 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
The Left infects every institution until they take it over.

Universities, Boy Scouts, and the Catholic Church, are but a few.

3 posted on 01/09/2023 5:02:22 AM PST by HandBasketHell
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To: MtnClimber

I work in a large university / med-center.

they have a couple of million for the diversity department but no money for new boilers....


4 posted on 01/09/2023 5:10:24 AM PST by wny
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To: MtnClimber

Yep. Mao unleashed Red Guard mobs to purge traditionalist enemies of communism. The author complains about a lack of courage to stand up to the mob. Not surprising. Academia is a pretty cushy job. Go along, get along with the powers that be is a lot easier. Why risk getting run off campus like this guy. On the bright side, college enrollments are dropping. The commies may be putting themselves out of business.


5 posted on 01/09/2023 5:31:32 AM PST by DeplorablePaul
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To: MtnClimber

soon to be teaching in florida, at the newly revised schools there.


6 posted on 01/09/2023 5:47:15 AM PST by kvanbrunt2
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To: MtnClimber

At Saint Vincent College, motivated students achieve professional success and purposeful, meaningful lives. Our graduates become top scientists, teachers, health professionals, corporate executives, engineers, lawyers, doctors, and other leaders who engage with the local and global community to make the world a better place.

Never heard of the place.


7 posted on 01/09/2023 6:18:37 AM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

Saint Vincent College’s ranking in the 2022-2023 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, #120. Its tuition and fees are $40,336. …


8 posted on 01/09/2023 6:20:47 AM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

From the college: “make the world a better place”

These days that means work on the “final solution” for white people.


9 posted on 01/09/2023 6:20:52 AM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: kvanbrunt2
BRADLEY C. S. WATSON is actually teaching at Hilldale College now. When we moved to Westmoreland County in 2002, St. Vincent College in Latrobe actually respected academic freedom and traditional values like the current Pope at the time.

The main instigator of his sacking at St. Vincent was a trustee named Bibiana Boerio, who managed to get 42% of the vote in a congressional race in 2018 to replace Nancy Pelosi's little Lamb named Conor. Lamb had moved to a neighboring district which was more Democrat friendly. Boerio was thought to have the local connections necessary to run a competitive race, but the RAT party has effectively given up on our district since.

10 posted on 01/09/2023 6:21:43 AM PST by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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