OU, UChicago, Missouri, Yale–and now this at our “second flagship.” Surely, surely we can demand better behavior, if not kinder hearts, from our best & brightest.
Not “too much” but “wrong”. What is a “safe space” on college campuses? The school is for college students so there should not be any place where college students are barred. But all students should be acting civilly. So I don’t see any justification for a special space of any sort for high school students on college campuses but there is a need for colleges to consequate those who conduct themselves in an un-civil manner.
Wow. hardly an advertisement for their school. Clearly, A&M has some work to do. It’s just appalling that visiting students would be treated in that manner. I hate to think what daily life is like for the tiny minority of black students there.
“In an interview with KTVT/Channel 11, one of the Uplift Hampton teens said the original “Go back where you came from” comment was a response to one of the Dallas students’ Texas Longhorns logo bag”
From all Dallas media accounts, the University is all over the racist comments. But I am certain this is not representative of the culture at the school. My African Anerican alumni friends are all over Facebnok etc. testifying to that.
I don’t think expecting students not to be racist jerks is demanding a “safe space.” If the reports are true, they sound threatening and there is no place for threatening anyone, let alone a group of minors, in our colleges IMO.
Gee, I’m so glad that our officers understand the first amendment. 8-|
@romanigypsyeyes I agree with you 100%.
Full disclosure: while I am not a person of color, our foster daughter is, and she was part of this tour group in a prior year. So when I learned of this incident (prior to the news reports and with a bit more detail), I was both terribly disheartened and deeply offended.
I also immediately thought about last fall’s safe space conversations. To me, the students who agitated for safe spaces were perhaps naive about first amendment issues and so forth, but I did not think they deserved to be derided as whiny babies who couldn’t tolerate having their feelings hurt.
So in the context of the this A&M incident, I just found myself wondering whether those people who mocked the “safe space-ers” would at least concede that every space on our college campuses should be safe for high school students to tour without being subject to racist bile.
Sadly, the actions of a few students on A&M’s campus have managed to cast the entire university in a bad light. A vast majority of the students on campus were appalled once they heard that this incident occurred, and the Student Body President has been making announcements on ways that they are tackling the problem in order to ensure that things of a similar nature do not happen again.
Safe spaces? Really? What are those, places where uncivilized jerks have to behave for a change? 8-| How about requiring civilized behavior all over the entire campus?
The beautiful thing about manners is that they require self-control on everyone’s part. So if you’re a racist pig, you get to build your character, and others get to walk around in freedom and safety.
Yes, it IS too much to ask for safe spaces on college campuses for visiting high school kids.
Instead, said college campuses should be doing a better job of selecting and educating their students. Protecting select groups from bullying by society at large doesn’t work. Changing society at large does. (But it’s harder, and takes longer.)
Should they only select students that need no education? How else to teach?
And where exactly is the line beyond which exercise of a civil liberty becomes a punishable offense?
No doubt people of all sorts say nasty things that they should not- and I’ve been called a variety of names - some racial - since I was a kid. I get that it’s wrong and tears at civilization. But I worry less about them than about those who would police someone else’s thoughts.
I agree it IS too much to ask for a special safe place for visitors. I think the entire campus should be safe, but it is an adult place in general and some of the activities might not be suitable for high school students. If the taunts were about the Longhorns bag, then that’s the type of language and treatment they might expect when they are students at this (or any other) school. Same if one had on a political candidate’s t-shirt or button. College kids don’t hold back. If it is racial, then it needs to be stopped everywhere on campus, not just in the safe zones.
I didn’t understand the many student protests last year about ‘safe places’ for their interest groups. I don’t think ‘separate but equal’ works very well, so every time you carve out a special place for just Group A, all the other groups are going to feel excluded.
I think that’s what advocates of “safe spaces” exactly mean. Places where people aren’t racist jerks.
Well, they were exercising their first amendment rights. If it costs A&M talented student applicants, well that’s too bad I guess.
I suppose it’s a bit of “truth in advertising.” Now these HS students have an idea of the type of stupid behavior they will have to deal with from some students if the attend A&M.
As someone who attended A&M years ago, I’m saddened but not surprised that things haven’t changed much. I also wasn’t surprised to see a photo of Walton Hall at the top of the article.
Oddly, the campus police didn’t seem interested back then in protecting our First Amendment rights when we scheduled a walk on the Memorial Lawn–they told us that 7 or more people walking on grass constituted “inciting to riot.”
Unfortunately, A&M is supposed to be admitting the top 10% of the class from schools across Texas automatically or top 25% with additional qualifiers. So these are supposed to be smartest already but that does not make them sensible.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted
I am not much for this new PC speak about “safe spaces”. I expect a campus to be nice to visitors, period.
It is pitiful if we can’t expect a modicum of good behavior when seeing visitors on campus, let alone hospitality in terms of showing how friendly they are to visitors and going over and talking to them and telling them great things about A&M.
I would guess the university has a Student Code of Conduct. That code might have been violated by these college students. Anyone know?
http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule24
Seems to be very specific and doesn’t seem to fit this situation.