Good To See There Is Still Someone With A Brain At My Alma Mater

I thought this was pretty clever, and probably took some guts as this person will likely get a lot of criticism on campus.  Princeton student Tal Fortgang writes "38 Ways College Students Enjoy ‘Left-Wing Privilege’ on Campus."  A small taste:

1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my political persuasion most of the time.

2. I can spend my entire college career taking only classes with professors who think exactly as I do.

3. I can take classes and earn degrees in departments that are designed to line up exactly with my worldview.

4. I can be sure that an overwhelming majority of the material I am assigned to read for class will confirm what I already believe.

5. My professors will assume that I already think just like them, and use examples and anecdotes that testify to our philosophical uniformity.

6. I can almost always be sure that my professor will present or corroborate my side of a debate.

7. I will likely never have to make the choice between writing what I believe to be true and writing what I think will get a good grade.

In the same vein:

Higher-Ed-600x418

 

4 Comments

  1. Mole1:

    Is that Einstein in Palmer Hall? If so, hats off to the artist, that is brilliant on many levels. Where did it come from?

  2. irandom419:

    Diversity is only about melanin content.

  3. J_W_W:

    As an Adjuct Professor whose politics don't match the institutions', I really appreciate this piece. Although in Computer Science there isn't much politics, well as long as you ingnore Choamsky's off topic shit. How can someone so smart on lingustics have the political IQ of a toddler?

  4. NL7:

    I think this is overstated in places and probably goes way beyond the point where it could actually convince people who are beneficiaries of being in the ideological majority on campuses.

    Framing college as a place to challenge stereotypes is a decent argument. Calling out the unequal results of administrative bias is more argumentative and requires either anecdotes or empirics, but is also a reasonable argument. The need to fake an ideology to improve grades is worrisome, but may be harder to persuade. Talking about trigger warnings is so polarizing that it's likely to push out any opportunity to persuade. Listing all the ways that progressive students have an easy life is entirely unlikely to persuade, since few students are likely to see their lives that way