Posted on 01/03/2005 2:21:55 AM PST by Lindykim
Revealing Wesleyan John Leo In the fall of 2000, I promised my daughter the freshman that I wouldn't write about Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.) until she graduated.
As a result, you readers learned nothing from me about the naked dorm, the transgender dorm, the queer prom, the pornography-for-credit course, the obscene sidewalk chalking, the campus club named crudely for a woman's private part, or the appearance on campus of a traveling anti-Semitic roadshow, loosely described as a pro-Palestinian conference.
Instead of hot news items like these, you usually just hear that Wesleyan is very "diverse." Newsweek once hailed the school as the "hottest" diversity campus in America, apparently using the word diversity in its normal campus meaning of "no diversity at all." A one-liner about the campus is that "Wesleyan is so diverse that you can meet people here from almost every neighborhood in Manhattan." And the students tend to have opinions from every known corner of MoveOn.org.
After the 2000 election, my daughter told me that 80 percent of the students had voted for Al Gore. "Bush got only 20 percent of the vote?" I asked. "No, Dad," she explained, "the 20 percent was for Nader." Visiting speakers who challenge any aspect of campus orthodoxy are as rare as woolly mammoths. However, columnist Nat Hentoff, whose son had gone to Wesleyan, showed up in 2002 and criticized the lack of intellectual diversity and free speech.
At a Manhattan holiday party last week, hosted by a friend with Wesleyan ties, I overheard my daughter explaining that no real debate takes place on campus. This was a major frustration, since she is feisty and brilliant and loves to argue ideas. She is politically liberal but wonders how Democrats of her generation will be able to speak convincingly to the middle of the political spectrum when so many of them shun the complexity of arguments and simply spout the party line.
Two years ago the Argus, the student newspaper, ran a survey and found that 32 percent of the students feel "uncomfortable speaking their opinion." Orthodoxy plays a role, of course, but so does an exaggerated fear of giving offense. Identity politics is so strong that criticizing other students' ideas can seem like a faux pas, if not a challenge to their core identity. Better to keep your head down and stick to standard opinions.
The naked dorm and the porn course were both examples of Wesleyan's determination to accommodate as much sexual confusion as possible. The porn course, which had some students filming S&M scenarios, ended when the teacher died. The popularity of the naked dorm, which featured nude wine and cheese parties, seems to have faded. "I just sometimes feel the need to be nude," a Wesleyan male told the New York Times in 2000. "If I feel the need to take off my pants, I take my pants off." The obscene chalkings, which included colorful references to the sexual practices of professors, are now forbidden, possibly because they were upsetting donors and enraging some faculty. But the Wesleyan campaign to stamp out diversity continues, this time in a move against fraternities.
The university is pressuring its frats to accept women as members or pay a stiff financial price. The antifraternity campaign is standard on the politically correct campus these days, usually with an announced aim of reining in a boozy, sexist, right-wing culture. But this is Wesleyan, which has no right-wing culture and no sexist, out-of-control frats. The Argus has quoted gays and women saying mild and kind things about the Wesleyan frats, some of which are receptive to gays and set rooms aside for female residents. Much of the opposition to the frats seems to depend on the gross national image of fraternities, not the essentially harmless frats at Wesleyan. The administration and radical feminists oppose the frats for violating the campus nondiscrimination rule by not allowing women as members. However, they don't bother to apply the same objection to Womanist House (a residence for females) or Malcolm X House, which caters to blacks.
I should add that I think my daughter got a decent education at Wesleyan. You can do this if you are strong-minded, independent, and willing to pick your courses very carefully. But admission to the university should come with a warning label: If you are fainthearted, go somewhere else.
moderator@christian-underground.com http://www.christian-underground.com/archive/read.php?sid=134 Posted to the CU: 2005-01-03 01:55:12 CST ======================================== We will Pray WHEN we want School - WHERE we want Work - The Street - The Mall - Persecute Us At Your Own Peril! The Christian Underground http://www.christian-underground.com
Hitlery's formative years were spent here. Any questions?
ping
Yet another crop of intellectual morons being readied to go out into our institutions and commence destroying them.
The old Methodist ministers in my family tree are rolling in their graves at what has become of Wesleyan.
It just proves the rule, any institution not explicitly conservative will sooner or later become flamingly liberal.
-ccm
Now, I'm not naive, I know what awaits her at any secular-humanist college, but then again, she'd be up to the challege academically, philosophically, spiritually, and politically. Then again, she's only 16, and Yale (her latest choice) is so darn far away (and $160,000 for four years to boot!).
Geez...where are those "Parental Instructions" that came with my baby daughter when she arrived with the stork?! OH...boy.
SFS
The university is pressuring its frats to accept women as members or pay a stiff financial price.
So some butchy feminists want to join a FRAT? Won't the sororities take them in? I wonder if Martha Burke attended this school.
He 'promised' his daughter??????????????
He paid for that type of environment??????????
He was so afraid of the school that he kept quiet while they encouraged anti-semitism program???????????
Just LOL.
The only hope to correct the horrible bias on these campuses is for parents to STOP supporting these propaganda factories with hard-earned money. Write a letter to David Horowitz and ask him if you should send your sixteen-year-old daughter to Yale.
Oh well, when they graduate, they'll be able to get a government job somewhere. Others will be able to go on to graduate school, get PhD's, JD' and get faculty positions , chase ambulances and file seperation cases.
Honest old time Methodists would have burnt these people at the stake.
Regards,
To further clarify, Wellesley was a "womyn's" college, one of the "seven sisters", whereas once upon a time Wesleyan was an all male institution.
My son is 16 and this next term will be his 4th full time term in our local state college.
We had a state college closeby, so it was an easy decision for us (although until he got his driver's license it was a hassle running him back and forth.)
He ran into "liberal propoganda" first term in his Comp I class, not to mention other classes like Ethics, History and Gov't. classes. The good thing about having him home is we would ask him about what he was studying, and were able to refute the liberal garbage. (First assignment in Comp I included Andrew Sullivan's essay, "What is a Homosexual").
Anyhoo, after this term, he'll have his 60 hours of general requirements out of the way, and the next couple of years are technical (math, science, etc.)
His social life doesn't revolve around the college kids, but around his friends at church. Just be warned, I went to a college with a Christian background, and stuff still happens. You might avoid the liberal ideas from the professors, but dorm life can be pretty enlightening. As long as she's prepared for what might be going on, I wasn't, and I was shocked (and that was many moons ago, LOL).
As were many a Kennedys.
Maybe 16 year old girls are more "grounded" than 16 year old boys, but I don't trust my 16 year old to be "on his own" at this point. He needs accountability, guidelines, and boundaries set, that's why going to college while living at home has worked perfectly for us.
This campus is behind the times. Not trendy. It thinks it is.. but obviously it hasn't a clue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.