When College Administrators start letting Antifa groups run the show the college should be shut down because this has nothing to do with education.
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University of Missouri |
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Evergreen State College |
Both the University of Missouri and
Evergreen State College have been rocked by left-wing demonstrations,
some of which administrators in both schools allowed. Now both have had
to deal with falling enrollment and a decline in funds - and there are
fears the situation could spread to other schools.
The defining issue is whether
parents and donors see administrators as capable of containing clashes
and responding firmly when protests get out of control, experts say.
Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill of the American Council of
Trustees and Alumni, a nonprofit that advocates for a variety of higher
education issues, told Fox News that how a college handles freedom of
expression matters greatly to prospective students, their parents and
donors.
“When they look to what college to pick, parents and
students are thinking of the largest investment their family is likely
to make beyond the purchase of a home,” Pfeffer Merrill said. “Across
the political spectrum, one of the most essential assets is [the
opportunity] to be exposed to a wide range of views.”
Violence is coming from antifa group on campus. Now
they control administrators and shut out competing ideas they disagree
with or don’t like.
There is increasing concern, she said, “about a lack
of openness to having a full conversation” amid a growing intolerance of
views that are different or considered offensive.
“It’s senior leadership at the colleges that sets the tone,” she said.
At Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., last
year left-wing students called for a day for whites to stay off campus.
But a professor -- well known as a progressive -- publicly criticized
the move. The response was threats and physical intimidation by
students. Administrators decided to suspend classes for several days.
As at Missouri, the school administrators were assailed for allowing a group of overzealous students to call the shots.
Now Evergreen State has experienced a decline in
enrollment that has resulted in a $2.1 million budget shortfall, forcing
the liberal arts school to announce layoffs. The blow to the school’s
enrollment and finances is seen as stemming, at least in part, from the
showdown.
The general consensus was that [the enrollment decline]
was because of the aftermath of what happened in November, 2015. There
were students from both in the state and out of state that just did not
apply, or those who did apply but decided not to attend.
- Mun Choi, new system president, University of Missouri
In 2015, the University of Missouri’s main campus,
which is in Columbia, experienced escalating tensions over allegations
of racism at the school – and protests became violent. Several
administrators acceded to demonstrators’ demands that they resign.
School officials were widely criticized for not
gaining control over the protests, which grew in size and tension, even
resulting in some demonstrators lashing out at reporters who were trying
to cover their message.
Since then, freshman enrollment has plunged by 35
percent, and donations to the athletic department have dropped 72
percent over the year before, according to published reports.
The University of Missouri had to temporarily close
seven dormitories – renting them out for special events, such as
homecoming games – and planned to cut 400 jobs.
“The general consensus was that [declining enrollment] was because of the aftermath of what happened in November 2015,” the New York Times quoted
Mun Choi, the new system president, as saying. “There were students
from both in the state and out of state that just did not apply, or
those who did apply but decided not to attend.”
If left-wing groups continue making demands and
administrators acquiesce to them, other schools may suffer the same fate
as Missouri and Evergreen, according to one expert.
“I don’t think we have seen the full extent of the
fallout at the University of Missouri,” Sterling Beard, editor of The
Leadership Institute's Campus Reform, told Fox News. “Violence is coming
from Antifa groups on campus. Now they control administrators and shut
out competing ideas they disagree with or don’t like.”
Beard said Missouri’s protests spread to other colleges, but they did not spiral out of control.
“The lesson is that administrators have to treat
their students like the adults that they are,” he said. “Nowadays they
treat students with kid gloves.”
When students cross the line from expressing a view
or demonstrating for a cause to disrupting education or making people
feel unsafe on campus, it’s time for administrators to lay down
boundaries, Beard said.
“They must not be afraid to expel students and lay down the law.”
One school that has resisted the kinds of demands Missouri and Evergreen gave in to is the University of Chicago.
In the summer of 2016 incoming freshmen at the University of Chicago received a welcome letter that made the institution’s commitment to the free and open expression of ideas clear:
“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do
not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited
speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not
condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can
retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”