Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Brain Burning Campus Politically Correct Stories

Again, thanks to Campus Report Online, we are reporting on horrific cases of Political Correctness gone astray. In line of the horrific nature of this particular case we are willing to offer a free coffin to any reader who dies of fright while reading this story. Please apply in person at our offices and we will provide said carpet. And don't try dying of something else; we'll know.

This sordid little story takes us to Bucknell University, where they are debating a revision to their harassment code. Apparently the poor students at Bucknell University are subjected to a code that prevents them from speaking. Said code prevents the students from the following activities.

"ethnic or racial name-calling;

disparaging or condescending remarks about a person's nationality, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation;

verbal abuse, including anti-gay jokes and disparaging remarks about one's race or language;

ethnic insults or threats;

offensive racial graffiti;

bias-related physical aggression or contact of a threatening type, including punches, unnecessary brushes, or bumps;

bias-related theft or property damage.
"

Those poor Bucknell Students; controlled so rigidly.

Anyway the Bucknell University Conservative Club (BUCC) recently held a forum to discuss this code. Among the issues discussed were the following horrific incidents, as reported by Campus Watch Online.

"one recent Bucknell graduate accused the administration of applying a double standard in its enforcement of the rules. He said that when the Bucknell University Conservative Club (BUCC) issued an editorial critical of the school's speech policy, administrators immediately e-mailed the entire campus with a scolding response; but when the words "Die BUCC" were found chalked on a campus sidewalk, the administration was silent.

"Apples and oranges," replied Charles Pollock, Bucknell's vice president for student affairs, saying that the campus-wide e-mail was not punishment but "counterspeech" to the BUCC editorial.
"

One suspects that Mr. Pollock is regretting having used the phrase Apples and Oranges. So those poor Campus Conservatives had to face not only public disagreement with their opinions, they also had to face mean spirited graffiti. But did campus security look into the matter of the chalked horror? I am unsure, but it seems likely.

Mr. Pollock brought out an interesting point during the meeting, according to the campus paper, the Bucknellian, which was that if a student harasses a second student, aren't that second student's rights violated?

What's also interesting is that the campus conservatives don't seem able to trot out a lot of people who have been wrongfully prosecuted by the code. I mean if this code is so terrible and hurts students so much, you'd think they'd be able to bring forward a few victims of the code. Students who were expressing reasonable point of views, but who then were slammed into for being condescending or something, hauled before the campus courts, and then exiled from Bucknell (frankly such a story would really help out this article as well). But It doesn't seem to have been a subject in the meeting. Pity.

Of course the counter argument is that lots of people would like to say condescending things, but are prevented from doing so through fear of the harassment policy.

Should people be allowed to say what ever they want without consequences? As we will see later, when it comes to liberals saying what they want, these paragons of liberty are pretty much silent.

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