Opinion

The Deans Of Campus Insanity

Scott Greer Contributor
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In the tumultuous 1960s, university administrators were the enemies of student radicals everywhere.

They symbolized the evil, bureaucratic system campus agitators sought to tear down and replace with their New Left ideas.

Today, universities administrators are still the worst examples of bureaucracy in America — but now work to instill New Left ideas among the students they’re supposed to serve.

That explains why the University of Alabama felt the need to apologize Monday for a gloriously epic sorority recruitment video. The video was criticized for being too white and feminine, thus the school had to come out and say it violated some imaginary digital media conduct code. (RELATED: Why Are Feminists Angry At This Alabama Sorority?)

“This video is not reflective of UA’s expectations for student organizations to be responsible digital citizens,” said Alabama spokeswoman Deborah Lane. “It is important for student organizations to remember what is posted on social media makes a difference, today and tomorrow, on how they are viewed and perceived.” (RELATED: Why In The Hell Is Alabama Apologizing For That Hot Sorority Video? [VIDEO])

Nauseating bureaucratism just oozes out of that statement. You can imagine it was reviewed and analyzed by at least a dozen people before they found the sweet spot between finger-wagging and capitulation to the mob.

Unfortunately, this behavior is not limited to condemning sororities for being sororities. Administrators are also responsible for the p.c. insanity of safe spaces and microaggressions. More insidiously, they’re at fault for railroading innocent male students accused of rape.

And it’s all because these officials have zero guts and zero principles.

Take for example the students schools will throw to the lions to get rid of bad press. The University of Virginia suspended all fraternity life last fall on the basis of a Rolling Stone article that was later proven absolutely false. Instead of issuing an apology when the story turned out to be bogus, UVA enacted a draconian code of conduct for all of its fraternities and forced every chapter to agree to the new standards.

This author’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, had a less dramatic, yet similar affair in December. Administrators couldn’t decide whether to expel a collegiate wrestler, Corey Mock, who was accused of rape. His case was a classic he-said, she-said case where the accuser couldn’t remember if she gave consent. When the school learned Vice was investigating the story, they conveniently expelled the young wrestler a few days later.

Last week, a Tennessee court vindicated Mock and ruled his sex with the accuser could not be considered an assault. The judge in the case excoriated the school for its “arbitrary and capricious” decision and its flawed process that “improperly shifted the burden of proof and imposed an untenable standard upon Mr. Mock to disprove the accusation that he forcible assaulted [the accuser].” (RELATED: Another Major College Rape Case Has Collapsed)

While the Vice article of the non-rape is incredibly biased, it did show how wildly incompetent administrators are when they have to deal with anything serious. You wouldn’t want these people to settle a dispute over a rock-paper-scissors game, much less an accusation of sexual assault.

In case you think this could just be a problem with UTC, there are plenty of other examples that show it is a nation-wide catastrophe.

And it’s not just rape hysteria that makes schools bend to the media’s will. In March, the University of Oklahoma expelled two then-Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members who were videotaped leading a racist chant on a party bus. OU’s president David Boren played Mr. Tough Guy in also shutting down the entire fraternity chapter on the grounds his school won’t accept bigots.

The media, which was having a field day with the racist SAE chant, applauded Boren for doing the right thing. Except the “right thing” involved committing a gross violation of the Constitution. As University of California – Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh noted in The Washington Post, the Constitution protects the kind of offensive speech the SAE members engaged in and a school cannot expel them for such an offense.

It’s also interesting to note that while Boren may play the tough guy when the cameras are rolling, he’s a total softie on university football players who physically attack women. Since these athletes make OU millions and the national media wasn’t in a frenzy over their crimes, the school’s president magically found it in his heart to forgive these criminals and allow them to stay at the school. (RELATED: Oklahoma: Tough On Racism, Weak On Assault, Burglary)

Considering how easily deans fold under a little bit of media pressure, it’s no wonder they let resident social justice warriors walk all over them. Left-wing professors and students are able to be as crazy they want to be and restrict campus speech all due to cowardly administrators. These managers have the power to stand up to these radicals, but they prefer to let them rule our universities instead.

The Atlantic published a sobering account in its September issues of how universities have destroyed the First Amendment in the pursuit of eradicating hurt feelings and microaggressions. Not only has this idiotic reasoning severely limited free expression, it is also irreparably harming the mental health of college students.

It’s worth noting that the individuals who are responsible for ruining the lives of innocent men and eliminating free speech now take up an exorbitant part of higher education spending. While not serving any critical functions, these glorified desk occupiers are one of the major factors in the rising cost of tuition.

It bears asking: why do need universities need these people? The simple answer is that they don’t.

We could save tons of money and constitutional rights in the process if state legislatures and university boards cut the administrative bloat.

For it’s not just tax dollars these functionaries are wasting. They’re also wasting the minds of America’s best and brightest.

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