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Higher Education Used to Love Controversy. As the Amy Wax affair shows, colleges have grown to love conformity more.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | September 28, 2022 | Richard K. Vedder

Posted on 09/28/2022 12:05:46 PM PDT by karpov

It is interesting but depressing to me that the more eminent a college or university is perceived to be, the more outrageous are efforts by administrators to stifle individual expression and enforce a numbing conformity of ideas reminiscent of universities in the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

The most prestigious group of schools in America is no doubt the Ivy League, eight elitist and highly selective institutions in seven Northeastern states. In the last decade, Yale attacked and hounded from campus two scholars who dared to defend the right of students to wear Halloween costumes similar to what grade-schoolers don to Trick or Treat. Princeton revived ancient (and already adjudicated) charges of inappropriate sexual conduct against distinguished classicist Joshua Katz in order to punish him for more recent anti-woke criticisms of campus happenings.

Not to be outdone in its efforts to ban impermissible and thereby impure thoughts, the University of Pennsylvania is going after Amy Wax, the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law in Penn’s law school.

Full disclosure: I consider Amy a friend. We serve together on the National Association of Scholars board. It is indisputable that she is an extraordinary scholar, with degrees from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Oxford. In addition to her law degree, she possesses an M.D. and is a neurologist.

Amy has won the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, as well as multiple teaching awards from Penn. She has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court. For years, Professor Wax was a mainstay in teaching civil procedure to first-year Penn Law students.

Yet the Dean of Penn Law, Ted Ruger, is practically begging Penn’s faculty senate to impose “severe sanctions” (translation: dismissal) on her. To quote the dean, Wax is guilty of “intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic actions and statements.”

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


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: amywax; lawschool; upenn

1 posted on 09/28/2022 12:05:46 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Their “commitment to diversity” is a total sham and a cover-up for a zealous hatred of anything that challenges their fantasy Disney “wish upon a star” world-view.


2 posted on 09/28/2022 12:20:06 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: karpov

The libs in academia loved protest and dissent when they weren’t (yet) in control of the colleges and universities. Now that they are in control, they despise dissent and are only interested in conformity. Makes perfect sense, in an evil totalitarian way.


3 posted on 09/28/2022 12:20:34 PM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: noiseman

These are the same authoritarians who 40 years ago were law students and poli sci majors who drove battered rusted out Volvos and VW Beetles held together with QUESTION AUTHORITY bumper stickers. They were full of 💩 then and they’re full of 💩 now.


4 posted on 09/28/2022 12:45:08 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (If a liar's pants really did catch on fire CBC, ABC, CNN and MSNBC would be more fun to watch)
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To: karpov

5 posted on 09/28/2022 2:31:54 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Impala64ssa
By any chance have you read Professor Allan Bloom's 1986 The Closing of the American Mind?
6 posted on 09/28/2022 3:48:41 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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