If you are attending or have family that does, does this sound like St Olaf to you?
I general i would say that the students that I am aquatinted with are pretty live and let live. This past election cycle was fractious on many campuses and in our society, much more so than previously. “Lock her up, build the wall” vs calling people “deplorable”. Neither party was Minnesota Nice.
I am trying to remember what I heard at the time from an Ole parent I know.
Caucuses - I remember hearing that Rubio and Kasich (spelling?) were more popular than Trump. Bernie Sanders had vocal supporters but I don’t know if numerically they were dominant. There were moderate democrats who didn’t buy into that.
Nationally the election was very divisive. The talking heads on tv were all talking over each other. Families were having difficult conversations. The students didn’t have great role models in how to build bridges to each other.
I feel sadness that students were feeling harassed. That is not right. I would think that most students would not approves of that kind of bullying.
Isn’t it true that in any large gathering there are always one or two loud mouths that make you cringe whether it is a ball game or family reunion? Or a college campus?
Regarding how the voting broke down, I imagine that there were many students who voted for HC as an anti T vote despite being conservative. I would be interested in knowing the breakdown from previous elections.
Still mulling this over.
What % of students voted in town? How many did absentee?
Not enough data
Have a son attending… a few thoughts. Yes, I hear that during the election there were some very heated discussions in some classes, in common areas, etc.
Another take - my son and his roommate are on opposite sides politically, yet my son helped with his conservative roomate’s campaign for a student leadership position. They get along great.
My son says the administration is working on these and other issues (just removed the name of a major donor from a building because that donor was revealed to no longer deserve the recognition. Lots of administrations would never do that…)
I don’t have a way of verifying the statistics in the article, but from what my son has said, they sound generally accurate.
St. Olaf is an amazing college - and in some ways I am glad the student population is becoming more active politically, on both sides of the debate. In the past many would say it was too safe of a campus politically… too homogeneous. That is changing and that is good.
There is a reason the place continually ranks in the top 10 of all undergraduate institutions for teaching… and PhDs as their students move forward… and for students traveling abroad … and for their combined leadership in both music and math/sciences… They will take this on and figure it out. Not going to always be pretty along the way, though.
My Olaf student mentioned that it was rough after the election. There was some (reported by her) mocking by pro-Trump students of the depression and dismay felt by students who were really upset by Trump’s win. That is what my kid at Olaf talked about in terms of arguments that erupted. I’m am not saying that is what the students feeling harassed in the newspaper article did. Also I suspect that the bar for ‘mocking’ was really low after the election. An eyeroll and a mumble about ‘snowflakes and their little candles’ would have set someone off.
Several parents I know had children transfer from Olaf because they hadn’t done their homework. Apparently having “Saint” in the name led them to believe the school was extremely conservative. They truly believed it was a heavily religious school. They didn’t want their children exposed to anything that strayed from their belief system. Several even objected to the school’s desire to become more diverse! It was very weird.
The student newspaper article referenced in the original post says that conservative students were threatened with physical violence and one or more students were so unhappy they left school. If St. Olaf students are so nice, why didn’t they have a rally in support of these conservative students after this newspaper article came out in March?
No person approves of threats of physical violence. That is not right.
There was a lot of discussion about it at the time. However, I do not equate it to the experiences of the minority students on campus.
From the campus newspaper I am left with the this quote from a student:
"…“While many people here will treat you differently if you come out as conservative or libertarian, I really don’t want anyone to get the idea that we’re some oppressed minority group in need of special attention,” Kaiser said. “That would not only be plain incorrect, but also it engages in the same identity politics that already make it so hard to have constructive conversations about challenging issues. The solution shouldn’t be trying to protect conservatives from people and situations that would challenge them. I’d rather the college redirect any efforts that way towards promoting actual debate on issues.”
edited to add the link: http://www.manitoumessenger.com/article/under-the-radar/