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Alumni Want More Free Speech and Influence at Davidson College
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 10, 2019 | Jenna A. Robinson

Posted on 06/10/2019 5:42:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Davidson College has an impressive academic reputation. It has a student-faculty ratio of 10:1. Nearly 90 percent of its courses have fewer than 30 students each. Its six-year graduation rate is 91 percent. And it has matriculated 23 Rhodes Scholars.

It also has one of the worst track records for free speech in North Carolina. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has labeled Davidson a “red light” institution for its campus policies that “clearly and substantially restrict” student and faculty speech. That’s despite the school’s assertion that it is a “community founded on trust as articulated by the Honor Code and on free, unfettered inquiry.”

Now, a group of concerned alumni has organized to change the campus culture so that it protects and encourages freedom of conscience and open dialogue. They call themselves Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse and invite other alumni to join them in their mission to “help ensure a learning environment at Davidson College that is ideologically balanced and that promotes a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation.”

Alumni of the University of Texas have also spoken out about illiberalism on campus. Mark Pulliam, a UT alumnus and retired lawyer, started a Facebook group called “Stop the Insanity at UT.” But so far, the Texas group only provides information on campus news to alumni.

The Davidson group has started to take action. Their first major public effort is an online petition asking the trustees of Davidson to adopt the Chicago Principles of Free Expression and to instruct the president and administration of the university to implement policies in keeping with its tenets.

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; davidson; education; freespeech; northcarolina

1 posted on 06/10/2019 5:42:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Exit 30 on I-77. My skin crawls when I drive thru that town....place just feels smarmy. There’s a great little builder supply there that I like to visit...Hoke Lumber. They’re moving soon, so maybe I can bypass Davidson altogether in the future.


2 posted on 06/10/2019 5:59:55 AM PDT by moovova
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To: reaganaut1

Such a shame about Davidon, but it sounds like the alumni are working on a cure.

BTW, Stonewall Jackson married the daughter of the President of Davidson.


3 posted on 06/10/2019 6:11:23 AM PDT by Perseverando (For Progressives, Islamonazis, Statists, Commies & other DemoKKKrats: It's all about PEOPLE CONTROL!)
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To: Perseverando

10:1 ratio good grief no wonder tuition is through the roof. That is intense indoctrination.


4 posted on 06/10/2019 6:23:46 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: Perseverando

10:1 ratio good grief no wonder tuition is through the roof. That is intense indoctrination.


5 posted on 06/10/2019 6:24:15 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: reaganaut1

Wut? I’m a graduate of Davoidson and it was one of the most testosterone-fueled places on the planet for a long time. Are they now putting estrogen in the drinking water?

OK. I know the answer. I was there for an alumni function a while ago and I saw this bumper sticker on a coed’s car:

DON’T LIKE ABORTIONS? DON’T GET ONE.


6 posted on 06/10/2019 7:12:20 AM PDT by JusPasenThru (Progressives need to get over their love affair with abortion.)
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To: JusPasenThru
DON’T LIKE ABORTIONS? DON’T GET ONE ABORTED .
7 posted on 06/10/2019 8:07:06 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (Socialism is cynicism directed towards society and - correspondingly - naivete towards government.)
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