<p>Denison in the news: "Denison students take over 'timeout'"</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nearly 1,800 students had gathered in the Mitchell Center for a campuswide "timeout" sponsored by student groups and the faculty to talk about issues spurred by several recent incidents. When Denison President Dale Knobel tried to limit discussion so that classes could resume, the students refused to leave and lined up at the microphone to object...</p>
<p>The forum started at 11:30 a.m. and was scheduled for two hours. It stretched into the evening as more and more students got up to talk about incidents they say have cast the pall of racism and homophobia on the liberal-arts college of about 2,100 students in Licking County, about an hour east of Columbus...</p>
<p>...many students said the university has a role to play, as well. They called for changes in the discipline system that would punish a student as harshly for discrimination as it currently does for plagiarism, and asked that a greater emphasis on diversity be included as part of freshmen orientation.</p>
<p>Collins said the specter of racism and discrimination cannot be eradicated from a college campus, but he said yesterday's forum was the start of an important conversation at Denison.
<p>I actually think it's a plus for admissions (assuming anybody notices a one day event). I think it's great kids are thinking about this stuff and getting active about it. They put forth some very reasonable demands such as diversity training during freshman orientation, and some other things I can't remember right now. Racial tensions, inconsiderate behavior, and forming cliques along ethnic lines is nothing new on college campuses, and certainly not unique to Denison. Kids should be thinking about this stuff and I'm glad they are.</p>
<p>Conversely, I would hope that diversity training would NOT become part of the Denison orientation. Why should 18 and 19 year olds, legal adults be told how to treat one another? This borders on being ridiculous, even if politically correct. </p>
<p>While I don't know what the many comments made at the discussion included, I did find the notion that the reporter found merit it reporting the idea that those deemed guilty of discrimination should be punished as harshly as academic cheators. How's that for putting forward the notion one reporter finds notable in an all-day discussion. </p>
<p>Ah, the media who want to make and shape the news vs. merely report it. Agree they should be thinking about it along with a whole lot of other things, but I'd be very wary that Denison or any other bastion should be entitled to instruct its students about that one. Discuss it for sure.</p>
<p>I can't believe you would think there no value in diversity training for freshman. These legal adults go into a workplace eventually and it is important to know how to treat others..what an uneducated thought.</p>
<p>Thoughtful editorial in The Denisonian examines the questioning campus culture of "Generation Q", the quiet generation:</p>
<p>
[quote]
For those of you students who still think that Denison is bubble - an isolated, rural sanctuary of academia that will protect you from the omnipresent evil in the "real world" - then we feel pity for you. For those of you who think that Denison embraces a "Camp Denidoo" mentality and denies any real-life experience by shoving you into a dorm, making you eat in a dining hall and never having to see a consistent bill, we hope you are reading this: because if there's one thing we can take away from this entire situation, even if you were sitting in your room playing Halo for the past two weeks, it's that Denison is the real world. There's no way around denying that you had any idea of what has been going on for the last two weeks.</p>
<p>There are real, actual tangible human beings that have spoken out against an institutionalized marginalization and now the healing process has begun.</p>
<p>...Activism is a lifetime commitment, not a short-term tactic to get what we want...</p>
<p>That may mean something different for us all. It might mean joining one of the many student activist groups, researching the issues in a scholarly manner or thinking about your privilege and how can you best help other people.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, this is a true Charlie Brown moment where we must sit back and ask ourselves, "what have we really learned?"
<p>When I was talking to my son about this event, we discussed how really college campuses are a microcosm of the "real world." And that world is made up of all kinds of different people - but we all tend to live with and socialize with people similar to ourselves. We self- segregate. However, once that world is shrunk down to 2000 people, the realities becomes magnified and inescapable. People suddenly realize they don't understand each other. They suddenly realize they have carelessly hurt someone's feelings. More importantly, they realize that they have never really had to think about "differences" before and how to relate to, work with, and become friends with (!) a larger variety of people out there.</p>
<p>The same is true for people lucky enough to work in highly diverse work places. Suddenly we all realize that we don't necessarily share a similar outlook or whatever. But that is our strength too; it sheds new light on problems, and it can be fun and funny! :)</p>
<p>I think whenever people have to deal with "difference" it's a great thing. It might be a rough road, but one that is always worth it in the end. To have traveled in someone else's shoes and all that.</p>
<p>Diversity training is a drop in the bucket towards preventing recurrences of the behaviors demonstrated on the Denison campus in recent months. Those responsible need to be identified and prosecuted. Additionally, admissions should be challenged to attract a more culturally and socially aware student body. The recent events on that campus shoud be an embarrassment to current students and alumni.</p>
<p>I'm just wondering which event(s), that you find unique to Denison, you're talking about. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, those few college students at Denison do not have a corner on ignorance, as many, if not most, colleges are grappling with depictions of nooses, swastikas, and Halloween costumes, as well as other poor choices this year. </p>
<p>Fortunately, those idiots represent an extreme minority on all campuses, and the Denison students are intent on confronting those kids. I think it's good that the students are mad and outspoken about it, but I also think if that causes the college to unfairly singled out, well that stinks. I think the colleges that are still hushing it up are the ones that should be ashamed (no names mentioned, ahem).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, swastikas are making something of a come back on campuses. Among many other campuses, near-by Kenyon in particular had a terrible time with them this semester. But the really important thing is that schools - and the students who attend them - stand up against it and work on ways to improve their social and academic connectedness.</p>
<p>I'm sure we can all agree on that!</p>
<p>I think the best thing to come out of this might not just be the administration and faculty efforts (they have several action points going forward) but the student initiatives:</p>
[quote]
GRANVILLE -- Denison University students have created a new organization to keep alive the dialogue started last week in reaction to recent acts of intolerance on campus.</p>
<p>The group, Community Unity Peace Alliance, was formed earlier this week after two weeks of discussions and protests on campus triggered by student acts that caused pain for minority students and others.
<p>I did visit Denison several times in the last several years though I should also admit that I do not have many friends there, so my direct impressions are more limited. I do remember that unlike other Ohio LACs, it did make all kinds of lists (near the top) for not being a friendly college for gay or alternative lifestyle students several times in previous years :</p>
<p>[People[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Denison appears to have similar events from earlier this year:</p>
<p>Peter: What's funny about that is that Denison has offered a "Queer Studies" concentration for years, and as far as I know the only Ohio LAC to do so.</p>
<p>(Not that I am suggesting there are a lot of private LACs out there that are havens for LGBT students. I suspect it's, unfortunately, quite the contrary at most.)</p>
<p>I just know that if you go digging through these schools you find an awful lot of hate stuff going on. Some incidents get more press than others, and some schools allow it to get more press. </p>
<p>Every incident is shameful and kids need to stand up and take a stance against all hate. Last year the FBI reports hate crimes are up 8% - and 12.2% with those occurring on college or school campuses.</p>
<p>I would be more than inclined to trust student opinions (actually their behavior more than their opinions) rather than the course/program offerings (unless you can show that such program is immensely popular among students) of a school. </p>
<p>From what I recall, and I will find the reference link later, the Princeton Review's methodology that covers attitudes towards gays is based on student surveys. So, presumably their ranking will reflect students' opinion rather than what events get more publicity than others. Also, Denison was consistently (over the course of several years) on the Princeton Review's list for schools that are not gay-friendly. I don't know...perhaps the Princeton Review's survey is flawed in major ways. This is completely possible. I am just stating what I know. Don't kill the messenger here.</p>
<p>Oh sorry Peter, I didn't mean to be killing the messenger! LOL</p>
<p>I just don't think it is fair to single out Denison as having intolerance issues. I think they didn't hide them, the kids stood up, and now they "suffer" the press. I just hope people understand this stuff is not uncommon on almost all college campuses, and I hope they accept and understand the efforts that are made to counteract it.</p>
<p>Right. And the point of the post where I discuss that Denison has been near the top on recent years' Princeton Review lists for schools that are not friendly to the gay community (based on student opinions) has been to illustrate almost the opposite of what you are saying: that Denison is among the few schools singled out by Princeton Review, prior to their problems this years, in being consistently showing up on those lists. </p>
<p>Like I said Denison has been appearing on these lists for years and that it is based on student opinions. My hunch is that it is related to the type of students that that the school either seeks out (sports recruiting) or it attracts (its historical reputation of a party school that's now dying out). It will take some time to change that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My hunch is that it is related to the type of students that that the school either seeks out (sports recruiting) or it attracts (its historical reputation of a party school that's now dying out).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, you've been beaten up enough on other posts for, shall we say, methodology issues, so you're not going to drag me into that conversation -- but I have to totally disagree with your above theory. I find that just a baseless accusation. </p>
<p>I think Denison is doing a decent job at recruiting as diverse a population as their going to get at a small expensive, private, Midwestern college. I particularly laud them for their participation in the Posse Foundation, which I am very familiar with. It's an outstanding program and shows some real promise for not only admitting URMs, but graduating them as well. (A figure that is better hidden by colleges.)</p>
<p>"you've been beaten up enough on other posts for, shall we say, methodology issues"? beaten up? by all means, engage me! "beat me up!" as you so eloquently put it. as an aside, the argument on other threads is not a methodological one but is a numbers game where a lot of people don't like what they hear and they argue with it, but that doesn't make my reasoning wrong. On the contrary. To give you an example of the obvious problem with your reasoning: say, you go as an American in Iraq and proclaim that democracy is a good thing for Iraq's long-term development but nobody in Iraq really buys your argument, in fact they hate you for it, does that make you wrong? Or does that make them wrong? Don't confuse methodology arguments with aggregation fallacies (e.g. symmetry/anonymity property in political social choice theory). </p>
<p>if Denison is "so diverse" as you parade it to be, why is it consistently making the Princeton Review lists for lack of diversity? Sure, other schools, particularly in the Midwest, might experience an incident or two, but for some reason The Denisonian (the Denison's newspaper) shows quite a bit of such incidents in recent years. I would like to hear how you put this in comparative perspective?</p>