I am glad you said that and not me!
“Amherst was probably a bad example. I hadn’t known about their invited speakers series; I was basing my comment on last fall’s “Amherst Uprising” and the climate described in the aforementioned book (“Choosing the Right College”).”
Those speakers were not invited by the College. They were invited by the Amherst Young Republicans, a small but active organization that has a open presence on campus and shockingly enough, its members don’t get beaten to death by raving gangs of social justice warriors. The College paid the speaker fees. Moreover, my daughter (who is not particularly political) witnessed last fall’s “Amherst Uprising” and found that it was almost nothing like it was reported in the blogger-driven media.
Simple fact: political correctness is a problem on college campuses, but another problem is conservative media exaggerating the extent of that problem to rile up their readers and fuel their persecution complex. The book “Choosing the Right College” plays into that persecution complex beautifully.
DITTO. Her firsthand reports were of very respectful discussions (she went to Frost during the sit-in regularly, to hear a lot of the speakers, between classes).
It really made me look at the news reports of other colleges’ protests with a skeptical eye.
DITTO WESLEYAN: The facts never quite kept up with the relentless message that the student newspaper was being cut and that a conservative columnist was being banned. Even liberal alumni in the world of journalism hopped on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, people on campus were scratching their heads because the newspaper has never gone out of business and continues publishing to this day. The clear winner was the student reporter whose anti-BLM column sparked the initial firestorm. He appeared on national television, wrote a column for the New York Times and is well on his way to a writing career after he graduates.