The next issue of Reed should contain a letter that acknowledges the damage RAR did to Reed’s reputation. It would not make anyone feel better at this point, and I know it won’t appear anyway, but it might make reconciliation more likely down the line.
For the present, social media create a militant atmosphere, and one where public action occurs without leaders. We have not been in this kind of situation before.
Reedies Against Racism undertook a mutiny, and succeeded. Consequently, they destroyed in twenty-four months, a set of traditions that developed over more than a century.
Reedies Against Racism undertook a mutiny, and succeeded. Consequently, they destroyed in twenty-four months, a set of traditions that developed over more than a century.
The Charlottesville battle occurred one year ago this weekend. I’m not sure anyone believes that confrontation will be the last one.
They pretend to stand for diversity and what they call marginalized groups, but in fact they stand for no more than what you see in front of you: force. If you do not do as they say, the gangs will destroy you. Gangs at Reed demonstrated they can get their way, and destroy the college, the college’s president, and the college’s ideals in the process.
We have seen a loss of integrity in educational leadership. Leaders and administrators appear to lack energy, vision, commitment, or even the moral wherewithal to stop the bad things we have seen happen on college campuses. A sort of sickness in college culture has taken hold.
Here are a few remarks about campus disciplinary procedures, to follow commentary on events at Reed and Middlebury.
What is the alternative? To go the way of Middlebury College, an institution that used to stand for academic integrity.
A likely result of such an admonishment is that people on campus become ultra-careful about who they invite to speak.
