Toward Colleges That Are More than Indoctrination Hubs
Recent events at Providence College came to mind when I read this paragraph from a Rod Dreher post:
By the way, it’s not simply a matter of ideologically capturing areas of scholarship. The SJWs are now marching through student affairs offices. Patricia Daugherty writes at The Federalist about the annual convention of ACPA, the American College Personnel Association: College Student Educators International. This is the professional organization for campus administrators who oversee student life. She recently retired from a long career in the field, and says she always looked forward to going to this convention. Times. Have. Changed.
During recent controversy at (Roman Catholic) Providence College, involving an RA who came under attack for putting up a bulletin board promoting the Catholic teachings on marriage, hostility to the Church’s teachings found succor with Vice President for Student Affairs Kristine Cyr Goodwin. The student affairs administrator clearly leaned toward the side of criticizing the RA and supporting those who’d reacted aggressively toward him. At an event endorsing alternative lifestyles, she initiated a “we’re queer, we’re here” chant, as audible on a recording reviewed by The Current.
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Thus, the overall impression of the controversy was of some professors and representatives of the Church (including the bishop) taking the RA’s side, administrators taking the other side, and the college president attempting to find the middle ground. Objectively, in this situation, the administrators are radicalizing the school, which most students probably do not attend in order to be radicalized.
As that dynamic becomes increasingly pervasive, it changes the nature of higher education. Colleges should be more than simply white collar trade schools, but they should also be more than hubs for the indoctrination of young adults.