Two days ago I blogged about three professors at Washington State University (and who knows how many more), who specifically warned their incoming students that their speech was being censored in the class, and that there would be significant repercussions if they did not buckle under and work within the censorship constraints.
Here, from Peter Hasson\’s article at campusreform.org, which I quoted at that time, are what would be in store for students who decided that such censorship was not acceptable:
Multiple professors at Washington State University have explicitly told students their grades will suffer if they use terms such as “illegal alien,” “male,” and “female,” or if they fail to “defer” to non-white students.
According to the syllabus for Selena Lester Breikss\’ “Women & Popular Culture” class, students risk a failing grade if they use any common descriptors that Breikss considers “oppressive and hateful language.”
The punishment for repeatedly using the banned words, Breikss warns, includes “but [is] not limited to removal from the class without attendance or participation points, failure of the assignment, and – in extreme cases – failure for the semester.”
Much like in Selena Breikss\’s classroom, students taking Professor Rebecca Fowler\’s “Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies” course will see their grades suffer if they use the term “illegal alien” in their assigned writing.
White students in Professor John Streamas\’s “Introduction to Multicultural Literature” class, are expected to “defer” to non-white students, among other community guidelines, if they want “to do well in this class.”
In other words, either limit your speech to what someone else\’s idea of acceptable is, and, in one case, defer to other students based exclusively on race (welcome to the new KKK), or be punished with a lower grade, maybe removal from the class, maybe a failing mark.
Well, praise be! The Washington State University administration has spoken up about this injustice! You can read its entire statement by clicking here. But let me show you the key paragraph, the one that is supposed to re-establish free speech at WSU and put those censorious professors in their place!
Over the weekend, we became aware that some faculty members, in the interest of fostering a constructive climate for discussion, included language in class syllabi that has been interpreted as abridging students\’ free speech rights. We are working with these faculty members to clarify, and in some cases modify, course policies to ensure that students\’ free speech rights are recognized and protected. No student will have points docked merely as a result of using terms that may be deemed offensive to some. Blanket restriction of the use of certain terms is not consistent with the values upon which this university is founded.
Wow! That\’s some put-down!
Telling students in so many words that they will be screwed over if they don\’t do exactly as the professor demands “has been interpreted as abridging students\’ fre speech rights”? Hey hey hey, how could that possibly have been said any more strongly?
And “We are working with these faculty members to clarify, and in some cases midofy, course policies”? Hooboy, I\’ll bet they\’re just shaking in their boots over that.
A question for the Washington State University administration: Why were these professors not told that, based on the severity of their threats, they are on probation and will closely be monitored to insure that students are not punished simply for exercising their right to free speech?
Maybe the administrators would like to tell us how they intend to enforce what they did instead? Suppose students who speak in ways the professors do not tolerate get lower grades, and the professors, whom they have…what was their wording? Oh yeah….worked with to clarify and, in some cases modify, course policies tell them “Well, that\’s how I decided to mark the student. The end” – the equivalent of “take your clarification and modification and stuff it. What will they do about it?
This is a classic case of a university bowing to the academic brownshirts who now infest, even overrun, so many of what used to reasonably be called institutes of higher learning. This is what the tuition goes for at Washington State University (and the others).
Is it money well spent? You tell me.
