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When it came time to make a decision about where to go to college, I gave myself a lot of options including the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of New Hampshire and Texas A&M.
Being a kid from Maine, I naturally also sent out applications to colleges in state, and though I ultimately chose to go to the University of Maine, I also strongly considered the University of Southern Maine.
Today, though, if I had to do it all over again, after watching the shameful and embarrassing circus at USM over the past week, I would not even send in an application. In fact, my oldest child is a sophomore in high school now, and while the decision will ultimately be his, I intend to actively discourage him from even thinking about enrolling there, and I will not contribute anything financially to that school if he goes.
Why? For the uninitiated, in September an education course taught by professor Christy Hammer erupted into controversy when she and one of the students in the class stated that they believed only male and female biological sexes exist.
Outraged, 21 of the 22 students walked out of the class in protest of their professor’s wrongthink, and later demanded that their professor be “replaced” for her apostasy.
The students also demanded a “restorative justice” meeting with the professor. They got their meeting, and along the way managed to force the one student who originally stood up for the professor to backtrack and apologize. To her credit, Hammer refused to genuflect to the torches and pitchforks, maintaining her position despite the threats.
Seething, calls for retribution grew more vitriolic, with one student openly suggesting she should lose her job. “I want her to do some diversity training at least — or just retire,” one student said.
To be clear, it isn’t the opinions of the students that is the problem here. I may not agree with them, but I support their right to come to whatever conclusion they like, and have any reaction they want to. The problem is their insistence on attacking and silencing those who disagree with them, and the school’s unconscionable abandonment of their professor and complicity in this kind of behavior.
It began with interim Provost Adam Tuchinsky. “We are aware of this situation,” he said in a statement, “and are taking steps to provide students with the support needed.”
Supporting the students? What about their professor who was publicly humiliated and attacked for attempting to have a forthright discussion with her students about a controversial subject?
If all that wasn’t bad enough, USM announced on Monday that it would not be removing Hammer from her position, but would create a parallel course, taught by another professor, to provide an “alternative” class where the students wouldn’t have to be subjected to hearing anything they disagreed with.
Undoubtedly, as most of the students who demanded Hammer be removed from her position are likely to switch classes, Hammer’s course is likely done. This appears to be USM’s rather shameful way of appeasing their petulant students and canceling the class without having the courage to actually come out and do so for real.
Coddling this infantile behavior from supposedly adult students and throwing one of the school’s own teachers under the bus is reprehensible.
Sadly, it is all too common these days, exposing one of the most threatening problems afflicting universities. Intellectual freedom, viewpoint diversity and an honest search for truth is being replaced by militant enforcement of ideological unanimity, among students and faculty alike.
The further from the true mission of education that colleges drift, the more people they alienate. It is no coincidence that the University of Maine System, like colleges across America, has been experiencing a troubling, decade-long decline in student enrollment.
It is no longer justifiable for many of us to willingly subject ourselves or our children to this kind of environment. More people are sadly coming to the conclusion that the benefits are less than they used to be, and the costs are higher, and it is no longer “worth it.”
This is a terrifying trend, and a bad one for America. I still believe in college as a force for good in one’s life, and a meaningful contributor to a prosperous life. But after watching this embarrassing display, my priority as a father will be to push my children to get practical degrees at schools that value viewpoint diversity and seek to broaden, rather than narrow, their understanding of the world.
We live in a world of choices, and in such a world schools like USM no longer fulfill their purpose and should be avoided.