<p>Did any one elses child get turned off when asked by the dean ""to leave now if they were a homophobe?" What does this mean? My child is totaly confused. Thinking of calling Ursinus for an explanation. What do you all think ?</p>
<p>What's confusing?</p>
<p>Colleges are supposedly places that nourish 'free thought' - although with the media lynch mob that crucified Harvard President Summers over his remarks about women's performance on standardized math exams, we see that it is anything but. Both liberal and conservative viewpoints should be fair game on campus - you can't please everybody, like everybody, tolerate everybody, etc... and I think that universities are wrong to try and force people to do so. They have the responsibility to try and teach students such values, but not force it upon them. </p>
<p>However, back to the topic at hand. I considered Ursinus for a while, and supposedly I never sent my application out so I never received a response from them (although I am 99% certain I did mail it), but I did find that it is a very liberal college - and that it also had a rather strong gay/lesbian/transgender/blah blah group of students. Still, I don't think that this justifies the statement of the dean. </p>
<p>Personally, I do not like gays one bit. I find their lifestyle abhorrent and grotesque. HOWEVER - so long as they keep their affairs private (as all people should, in regards to their private doings), and don't flaunt them around (e.g. gay pride parades, coming to class in drag, etc), I have absolutely no problem associating or being friends with them. On the other hand, if I were in a bad mood, I guess I might have just gotten up and left, as the dean said, simply to make a statement. I doubt their waiting list is long enough that they could fill a few spots of students who refused to attend, following those comments. Maybe once they see that their radical leftist policies won't always fly; of course, higher education is inherently liberal (89% of professors identify themselves as liberals, I believe the statistic is).</p>
<p>Hope this overly-long response gives you some insight into the matter</p>
<p>Anarchy24,Got your point.In my younger years I probably would have stood up and left but my child is commited to this school and this statement was not the kind of thing you'd expect to hear at your usual orientation. I still do not have an understanding of the meaning of this statement .Is this a college witha large gay population? Or are they simply very tolerant?</p>
<p>A student I know that goes there read this and said "Yes, they're very intolerant of intolerance." Personally, I think the statement was taken too seriously, as it was probably just not phrased in the best possible way. The message I got from it was more along the lines of what my friend said--intolerance will not be tolerated. But then, I was unable to attend orientation so I didn't hear it for myself, so I may have no idea what I'm talking about.</p>