Connect with Point of View   to get exclusive commentary and updates

Campus Commotions

As the fall semester is beginning to wind down, let’s catalog some of the student demands and the university campus commotions. Leading the list was the University of Missouri.

Racial tensions reached such a peak that University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe abruptly resigned. Apparently he didn’t act swiftly enough about two allegations of racial name-calling (which took place on a campus with over 35,000 students).

Students at Princeton ended their 32-hour sit-in when the president of Princeton University signed an agreement that will probably result in removing the name Woodrow Wilson off of school buildings (because he supported segregation). While we are talking about Ivy League schools, Yale and Princeton students objected to the centuries-long tradition of calling college heads “masters.” Apparently it sounds too much like slavery. Perhaps the next target will be master’s degrees.

A Washington State University professor said she would lower the grade of any student who used the term “illegal immigrants” to refer to any immigrant in this country illegally. The University of California at Irvine student government passed a resolution banning the display of the American flag.

But please don’t say that political correctness has taken over the university campus. The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee has declared the phrase “politically correct” a micro-aggression. Many university professors and students are demanding that gender-specific pronouns (like he or she) be eliminated for new gender-neutral forms. And don’t forget the students at Johns Hopkins University that said that having Chick-fil-A on campus would be a micro-aggression because the company’s CEO believes in traditional marriage.

All of this is a prelude to what may unfold on campus next semester. Unfortunately we will be hearing lots more about micro-aggression and the need for safe spaces on campus.

Viewpoints by Kerby Anderson

Viewpoints sign-up