Posted on 01/04/2005 2:56:38 PM PST by Rastus
In the fall of 2000, I promised my daughter the freshman that I wouldn’t write about Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.) until she graduated. As a result, you readers learned nothing from me about the naked dorm, the transgender dorm, the queer prom, the pornography-for-credit course, the obscene sidewalk chalking, the campus club named crudely for a woman’s private part, or the appearance on campus of a traveling anti-Semitic roadshow, loosely described as a pro-Palestinian conference.
Instead of hot news items like these, you usually just hear that Wesleyan is very “diverse.” Newsweek once hailed the school as the “hottest” diversity campus in America, apparently using the word diversity in its normal campus meaning of “no diversity at all.” A one-liner about the campus is that “Wesleyan is so diverse that you can meet people here from almost every neighborhood in Manhattan.” And the students tend to have opinions from every known corner of MoveOn.org.
After the 2000 election, my daughter told me that 80 percent of the students had voted for Al Gore. “Bush got only 20 percent of the vote?” I asked. “No, Dad,” she explained, “the 20 percent was for Nader.” Visiting speakers who challenge any aspect of campus orthodoxy are as rare as woolly mammoths. However, columnist Nat Hentoff, whose son had gone to Wesleyan, showed up in 2002 and criticized the lack of intellectual diversity and free speech.
At a Manhattan holiday party last week, hosted by a friend with Wesleyan ties, I overheard my daughter explaining that no real debate takes place on campus. This was a major frustration, since she is feisty and brilliant and loves to argue ideas. She is politically liberal but wonders how Democrats of her generation will be able to speak convincingly to the middle of the political spectrum when so many of them shun the complexity of arguments and simply spout the party line.
Two years ago the Argus, the student newspaper, ran a survey and found that 32 percent of the students feel “uncomfortable speaking their opinion.” Orthodoxy plays a role, of course, but so does an exaggerated fear of giving offense. Identity politics is so strong that criticizing other students’ ideas can seem like a faux pas, if not a challenge to their core identity. Better to keep your head down and stick to standard opinions.
The naked dorm and the porn course were both examples of Wesleyan’s determination to accommodate as much sexual confusion as possible. The porn course, which had some students filming S&M scenarios, ended when the teacher died. The popularity of the naked dorm, which featured nude wine and cheese parties, seems to have faded. “I just sometimes feel the need to be nude,” a Wesleyan male told the New York Times in 2000. “If I feel the need to take off my pants, I take my pants off.” The obscene chalkings, which included colorful references to the sexual practices of professors, are now forbidden, possibly because they were upsetting donors and enraging some faculty.
But the Wesleyan campaign to stamp out diversity continues, this time in a move against fraternities. The university is pressuring its frats to accept women as members or pay a stiff financial price. The antifraternity campaign is standard on the politically correct campus these days, usually with an announced aim of reining in a boozy, sexist, right-wing culture. But this is Wesleyan, which has no right-wing culture and no sexist, out-of-control frats. The Argus has quoted gays and women saying mild and kind things about the Wesleyan frats, some of which are receptive to gays and set rooms aside for female residents. Much of the opposition to the frats seems to depend on the gross national image of fraternities, not the essentially harmless frats at Wesleyan. The administration and radical feminists oppose the frats for violating the campus nondiscrimination rule by not allowing women as members. However, they don’t bother to apply the same objection to Womanist House (a residence for females) or Malcolm X House, which caters to blacks.
I should add that I think my daughter got a decent education at Wesleyan. You can do this if you are strong-minded, independent, and willing to pick your courses very carefully. But admission to the university should come with a warning label: If you are fainthearted, go somewhere else.
John Leo writes for U.S. News & World Report.
Didn't this run a couple of days ago?
Maybe. I searched, but didn't find it.
After reading that article, Wesleyan sounds like the kind of higher ed place you'd find in Ithaca NY - The City Of Evil!
ping
The problem is, Front Page or someone else changed the title. The other thread was called Revealing Wesleyan. I searched on Breaking My Silence.
For the sake of Leo's reputation and wallet, I hope it's (c).
It's out of vogue now, but Wesleyan was once the place to get a real education without being immersed in obscenity.
I think Bill Clinton has found a protege.
Incredible that this is done in the Wesley name. John Wesley would turn over in his grave. Wesley was opposed to all manner of debauchery.
I certainly hope this guy didnt pay for her tuition.
And I would refuse to pay tuition for a child of mine to go to a place that is committed to overthrowing the U.S.A. as a constitutional republic!!
I think slightly less of John Leo because he allowed his daughter to go to this extreme left college. If my daughter wanted to go to a liberal college - she would pay all the costs of everything. As is ... she is in the Army Reserve (trained as a Medic) and is working part time and taking nursing courses at the local Jr. College - all while living at home - like a good conservative young lady!
Mike
Thanks for being diligent. Regards.
Even though it's almost 15 years old, this
http://www.leaderu.com/alumni/sowell-choosing/chpter01.html#impt
is still the best first thing to read in your college search for your kids. You can read the whole thing free online. Who is wiser than Sowell?
Then, online or at your library, get the best guide there is
http://www.isi.org/college%5Fguide/choosing_right_college.html
Look for the 2005 edition; it's out.
These resources will help you pick a solid, conservative school for your kid, or find the least offensive among the elite schools if those are a possibility for him or her.
If your kid is a top student (3.5-4.0, 1300-1600) they should be able to get into one of these schools
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/bestvalues/bvnatudoc_brief.php
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/bestvalues/bvlibartco_brief.php
at which all (or most all) of demonstrated financial need will be covered. Our kid got about 39 grand this year, at a school with a good flank of conservative faculty to offset some of the libs...
Guitarist
Well, or Wellesley, Wessley, Wesleyan, all the same lib institutes.
Dante's Inferno seems to have broken out of the underworld.
yitbos
I should add that I think my daughter got a decent education at Wesleyan.
I guess that depends on what a person considers "decent". Certainly doesn't sound like the school was "decent".
Some people consider "decent" to mean that the student had to read some books, write some papers, and memorize some facts. It doesn't seem to matter if the books were all aimed at indoctrination, the papers had to toe the prof's party line to get a good grade, and the facts ignored and omitted any non-politically correct parts of history.
I've heard the same "but you get a good education, going to that school opens doors" line from a lot of people. They don't get it. There are some kids who can go to any school and learn and not become indoctrinated. Most can't.
I sometimes feel the need to break wind in public to such an extent that my immediate vicinity would be declared a Superfund site. However, because I am sensitive to the needs of others, because I want to validate their desires, and because I know that, as a middle class white male, my breaking wind in the presence of the poor, racial minorities, or women could be interpreted as an act of oppression, I forgo the fulfillment of my desire. Apparently, the faculty at Wesleyan has failed to instil a similar sense of self-restraint in their students.
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