Kerby Anderson

More and more social commentators are starting to write and express their deep concern about what has been happening on university campuses. Bernard Goldberg recently wrote about the “Cowards of Academia.” He welcomed the summer so that we don’t have to hear about “those sanctimonious liberal snowflakes” that have taken over college campuses and prove that “the lunatics have taken over the asylum.” One asylum that got his attention was Evergreen State College in Washington State. They have what is called “A Day of Absence” in which minority students leave the campus as a symbolic gesture. This year, they demanded the white students and faculty leave instead. One biology professor who disagreed with the idea had 50 liberal students disrupt his class and was forced to teach his class in a local park. Bernard Goldberg was shocked to hear how the school’s president responded. “Did he suspend or expel members of the mob? Did he at least issue a mealy-mouthed note of disapproval?” No he did not. Other commentators have also expressed their disbelief. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni writes that, “These Campus Inquisitions Must Stop.” He was shocked that the Evergreen president merely said, “It’s just the way discourse goes these days.” Editors at the Seattle Times concluded that at Evergreen State College there was, “No safety, No learning, No future.” Columnist Fareed Zakaria speaking at the graduation ceremonies at Bucknell University lamented the current state of education on many American campuses. “American universities these days seem committed to every kind of diversity excepted intellectual diversity. Conservative voices and views, already a besieged minority, are being silenced entirely.” You know the chaos on campus is reaching new levels when many of these progressive voices are now expressing their concerns about what is happening at many American universities.