Posted on 03/30/2019 11:42:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
I have a college speaking tour called “Make Campus Great Again.” Spoiler alert: the way to make campus great again is to reaffirm commitment to free speech, civil discourse, and the encouragement of plural opinions on campus.
Last week, President Trump took a big step towards doing just that when he signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies to withhold federal research funding if academic institutions do not uphold and foster an environment of free inquiry.
But what made me come to the conclusion that free speech in higher education is at a crisis level? How and why is it so bad that campus must be made great once again?
I first realized there might be a problem when I experienced gross viewpoint discrimination during my own time as an undergraduate. Professors mocked me and my student group on Facebook for our conservative, Christian beliefs. We were blocked countless times from bringing right-of-center speakers to campus for academic credit. We were discriminated against when it came to the allotment of student government funding.
I thought surely my experience was an anomaly and most institutions of higher education treated students, and the First Amendment, with more respect. It turns out I was wrong.
Since graduating with my bachelors in 2014, I have spent years documenting the misconduct of biased professors, writing about draconian speech codes at public colleges and universities, and highlighting the degradation of academic exploration and the marketplace of ideas. In fact, it turns out my experience with campus censorship was not unique; rather, it was one of the thousands of examples of our failed American education system.
On Thursday I watched from the front row as President Trump signed an executive order to protect the free speech of Americans on college campuses.
“Under the guise of speech codes, safe spaces, and trigger warnings, these universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity, and shut down the voices of great young Americans like those here today. All of that changes starting right now,” Trump said.
He brought on stage students who have been harassed, bullied, and assaulted on campus by leftists who believe their feelings override the protections of the First Amendment.
Pro-life student Ellen Wittman, of Miami University in Ohio, told her story of how she was required to give campus-wide trigger warnings before erecting a pro-life display on campus.
Polly Olsen, of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, explained how her school would not allow her to hand out Valentine's Day cards with Christian messages on them.
University of Nebraska student Katie Mullen told how she was protested, harassed, and mocked by two college employees when promoting her conservative student organization on campus.
These stories, so similar to my own, highlighted the great need for reform and I’m so thankful that President Trump allowed these students to share their stories with the world.
I was moved by President Trump’s praise for all the work young conservatives have done to highlight this issue and encouraged by his message to stand strong and never quit.
"You refuse to be silenced by powerful institutions and closed-minded critics," the president rightly stated. After all, we are a determined group of free speech warriors!
The White House has made it clear that they stand with campus conservatives and every other young person fighting for freedom in America. I feel like the work we’ve done has truly made a difference and has been instrumental in bringing these issues to the attention of the President. Without continued activism, watchdog reporting, and advocacy, this historic executive order would not have been signed.
This has been the culmination of many years of hard work, and I am so grateful that after many years fighting by ourselves on campus, young conservatives finally have support from the White House; the President has the power to affect real change in ways students are simply unable. I am so humbled and moved by the President’s speech and support that we fought so hard to get.
There is no greater time for this historic action than now, as a new survey found 38 percent of Republican students sometimes feel unsafe on campus because of their political views, while less than half said they feel welcome at their school.
Of course, an order on paper changes nothing, but this mandate gives federal agencies the power to do something -- without waiting for college students to take legal action and sue their school on their own. In short, Trump’s direction gives teeth to the First Amendment and agencies which seek to uphold it.
Freedom of speech is not a left vs. right issue. It’s an American issue. And Trump’s action is a great first step in making campus great again.
I had become a bit resentful that most of the available doctors here are foreigners. On second thought, I began to appreciate them. Our best and brightest are less and less likely to choose medicine as their career because the government rules and the courts have made it less and less profitable a profession. The very best have all retired or gone offshore or restricted their practice to the wealthy and well connected. The foreigners graduate our medical schools and do not have the same expectations of prosperity as Americans did and they are much less uncomfortable with government paper work and being constrained by bureaucracy as that is the way of things in their countries of origin. Without them getting sick would necessarily mean a trip to the waiting room and waiting therein perhaps for days to get treatment.
It’s odd. Many docs are from other countries and docs from this country become ex-pats because they don’t want to deal with government over-site and the paperwork.
Full disclosure - my daughter is going to med school, so I am a bit more informed than most are about the process of getting into the biz. There are MANY Americans who could be doctors and would do fine at it who are not going to med school. I’ve met more than a few of them (my daughters friends who did not get in). The guild that runs the biz restricts supply (that would be the AMA folks), and does so with government blessing. 60% of the people who apply for med school in any given year do not get in. And we’re not talking about slackers here.
Our immigration laws and policies serve only one purpose: to advance the political power of the Democrat Party. Republicans have been too stupid, or too disinterested to recognize the threat and to tell their deep pockets donors that they are going to do what is best for the country, not what is best for Democrats and the Robber Barons.
I know someone who became a pediatrician. Eventually went to their own small practice with a few other doctors. They all bailed and went to work for hospitals. Paperwork, government requirements and insurance companies drove them out of business. Work for a hospital, collect a check, someone else deals with all the admin BS.
Not sure that all the blame can be put on one person or one party as they all get money from the insurance companies and Big Pharma. My mom ran a doctors office for years. She saw it all change with clinton and his HMOs, which led to all sorts of paperwork for the insurance companies. To listen to her, she says that if you just had a major medical/catastrophic care plan and took care of yourself things would be easy. You’d pay when you went to the doctor for a normal visit and all would go smooth. Too many hands in the till and everyone wants to get paid.
The headline and the content are of two different issues and not related.
The title didn’t match up at the link.
I corrected it.
“60% of the people who apply for med school in any given year do not get in. And we’re not talking about slackers here.”
Most medical schools have an overall acceptance rate of <5%, many <2-3%, and only a handful between 5 and 10%. The 40% that you’re referring to is because most applicants apply to 10-15 schools to increase their chances.
In the Vietnamese community here and probably the Viets in other communities used to send their children to med school. All were accepted. As the system became more government ridden and less profitably, those kids are still going to med school but they are diverting to the peripheral professions like Radiology and Therapy, professions thatmake a lot of money and are not so tied up in government rules and reporting and wherein one is not required to dedicate large chunks of one’s income to liability insurance premiums. They are also not subject to periodic government witch hunts against opioids.
We all know and it’s very clear that liberals don’t want any kind of real debate about their kooky ideas
All I ever do with all of the liberal people I meet (in Marin county and they all know that I’m a rock rib conservative)
Injust ask them questions and they have very difficult time even comprehending the depth of the questions never mind answering them
Example. What happens every 110000 years ?
Example. What was the situation in Venezuela in 1994. Before Hugo ?
Example. How big is big enough guvmint ?
Example. Should we have totally open borders ?
Along with pulling federal funding and a higher education committee is formed to check each and every university and the curriculum taught
And your point is? Kids apply to a number of colleges these days, ditto med school. The simple fact is that for every 100 students that apply to medical schools in any year, 40% get in to at least one. Try that for undergraduate admissions and the net acceptance is quite a bit higher. And the kids who apply to med school are typically quite accomplished.
“And your point is?”
My point is that it is still very difficult to get in, so we are probably in agreement. I’m too tired to get into the ‘foreign medical graduate’ discussion right now, but I’ve been a physician and a scientist for many years, and have also spent time in Europe, and the quality of medicine and physicians in the US is the best in the world. That said, there are good and bad physicians in every country, and some of those from other countries are outstanding - though definitely not all.
Whereas only 50% of those who DO manage to graduate with a doctors license come from the lower half of the class!
You’re fool and cannot follow the math. I cannot fix that for you.
I guess that makes you a poor teacher.
Never said I was a teacher. I said I had some facts. You seem incompetent to understand them. Not my problem.
Likewise...
... the OTHER 50% of those who DO manage to graduate with a doctors license come from the UPPER half of the class!
It was supposed to be a joke.
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