Posted many pages back.
Link? (and are you really saying students exerted force? Or are you saying students pressured the administration?)
It wasn’t clear to me. Please clarify.
“We’ve discussed this already–while these invitations are not endorsements, they do have a legitimizing effect. Again, as I mentioned before, I know from experience–I’ve spoken at colleges and promptly added the experience to my cv.”
I can agree that being asked to speak confers legitimacy insofar as you are viewed as a *person / speaker of some repute in X field who has a substantive point of view to offer for others to chew on in a college setting *. (Which gets rid of the stupid “what if they invite in someone who believes that the moon is made of green cheese” strawman.) That feels distinct to me from the assertion that by having you speak, the college implicitly or explicitly endorses the totality of your views.
This is an example of the organization my S was involved with - debates on issues where it was obvious that reasonable people could hold different views on a topic. Sometimes the speakers were internal professors / experts, sometimes outside speakers were brought in. But the point was, it was kind of a big fat “duh” that when two people with differing points of view are debating something, the university is not necessarily agreeing with or endorsing one side.
http://nupoliticalunion.com/past-debates/
Which is why I led with “these invitations are not endorsements.”
I think you should join those who are worried that the Japanese Student Association meeting room is being bulldozed as we speak and that RA’s are issuing marshmallows so that students may make s’mores on the crosses they plan to burn on the lawns in spending a lot of mental energy worrying about these things. Because these are SUCH real possibilities. Again, let’s stick to things that are reasonable and plausible. The idea that U of Chicago is going to bring in someone who says that the moon is made of green cheese is as un-plausible as the idea that they are going to make girls wear dresses to class.
Who are you quoting? (it may be helpful to learn a few quick tags. If you type quote=username inside square brackets “[ ]” then the site will make a quote. After the quote, just type /quote inside square brackets)
I was all ready to sing Kumbaya since you, I, and dstark actually agreed on something. Imagine my disappointment when we start to disagree so soon afterwards. The article you linked to said, in part:
To which I say, what utter tripe! And before someone tells me to “check your privilege”, I have to refuse in advance since I am not white (despite my Calvin image).
I get that I have privilege in certain areas (mostly being white, heterosexual, and upper SES), “mixed” in other areas (being a woman, being Jewish) but being told to “check my privilege” is one of the most annoying phrases ever. It has the opposite of the desired effect. It doesn’t make me think – oh, that’s a good point, you’re right that I need not worry about being pulled over for driving while white, etc. It makes me think – how dare you reduce me just to my particular demographics and judge me on that. You have no idea what I’ve gone through in my life. None.
@al2simon, do you think there are a lot of disinvites across the country? How many a year?
Is this an issue across the country?
Fortunately, @Pizzagirl , nobody in this thread has told anybody else to check their privilege.
Insightful.
Maybe this has been mentioned already, but Dean Ellison appears to be surprised the letter’s getting this much attention. In his telling, the letter was meant as a cover letter for the 97-page book, and not as a self-contained discussion of this issue.
Of course, when you ask yourself whether a reporter on deadline would rather read 97 pages or one, it’s not hard to guess why the focus is on the letter and not the book it introduces.
That’s a surprise. It would appear that Dean Ellison is Not Very Smart 
633 NotVerySmart
If anyone really believes that Dean Ellison is “surprised” at the attention his letter has received, they probably also think that the Kardashians are very private people. That is completely ridiculous.
@collegedad13, re: post #620…uchicago students on the FB “Overheard at UChicago” site have written posts about how those budget cuts have affected their depts and even their classroom experience. And many are ridiculing Zimmer’s letter to the grad students encouraging them not to unionize. I was a unionized PhD student TA at University of Michigan for several years beginning 34 years ago and I never experienced any of the difficulties zimmer discusses in his letter.
"Which is why I led with “these invitations are not endorsements.”
“We’ve discussed this already–while these invitations are not endorsements, they do have a legitimizing effect. Again, as I mentioned before, I know from experience–I’ve spoken at colleges and promptly added the experience to my cv.”
Marvin- you cant have it BOTH ways- saying an invitation to you to speak at a college, which you say “legitimizes” a person and which you QUICKLY mention on your CV, and then say it is NOT and endorsement is talking out of both sides of your mouth at one. IF you did not view the invitation as an endorsement, then why mention it on your CV?
Would you add a "dis- invitation to your CV? I think not.
I thought that was clear, but I’ll try to make myself clearer for you, @menloparkmom :
Engaging a speaker does not mean the college endorses that speaker’s ideas.
–BUT–
Engaging a speaker does indicate that the speaker is a legitimate voice who has things to say that are worth hearing and does allow the speaker to “borrow” some of the college’s prestige and legitimacy.
So when I’ve been invited to give talks at schools, the subject matter of my talks hasn’t been vetted or endorsed, but the fact that it’s a worthy item to put on my cv indicates that it’s a prestigious experience and reflect’s some of that college’s prestige on me, rightly or wrongly. (That said, I’ve owned my own business for 6 years and haven’t had to use my cv for longer than that, so it hasn’t come into play.)
In this case, absolutely. You have been lied to. There is no such thing as #WhitePrivilege.
There are absolutely things such as SES privilege, grew up in a loving two parent family privilege, was taught the value of education privilege, but not #WhitePrivilege.
Well, I’m glad we sorted that out.
I assume that this is sarcasm, but I haven’t had enough caffeine yet this morning to be sure.
In any case, as long as the worst thing that I (a white woman) fear when pulled over by a cop is that I’m going to end up with points on my license, while the worst thing African Americans of similar SES fear is being killed during the traffic stop, I think #WhitePrivilege is unfortunately alive and well in this country.