Has Yale Become a PC Joke?

[Anonymous]

I'm really surprised this happened at Yale - I can understand Brown but Yale? Really?

This would never happen at Princeton or Stanford.

It that Yale fast on its way of becoming Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.westernjournalism.com/canadian-university-professors-make-sure-white-males-last-speak-class/

That's in "Dalhousie University" -- not a top tier school.

What about McGill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It that Yale fast on its way of becoming Brown.

Yes, I agree. It that Yale fast on its way of becoming Brown indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.westernjournalism.com/canadian-university-professors-make-sure-white-males-last-speak-class/

That's in "Dalhousie University" -- not a top tier school.

What about McGill?

Here you go:
http://mcgilltribune.com/opinion/mcgills-pitchfork-brigade/

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/mcgill-university-rescinds-demand-student-apologize-over-obama-192316613.html
The drama that played out on the campus of Montreal's McGill University drew international attention last month when it was reported a vice-president in the students' association had been accused of perpetuating a "microaggression" by distributing an email containing a GIF of Obama kicking down a door following a press conference.

http://www.mtlblog.com/2014/12/montreals-mcgill-university-ranked-3-worst-campus-for-student-freedom/#
Canada’s Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) analyzed the social dynamic of campuses from across the nation in their 2014 Campus Freedom Index. Specifically looking into the ways in which freedom of speech is upheld, 52 universities were given letter grades on “campus freedom,” with McGill University getting a failing “F.”

Two specific instances were mentioned by the JCCF in their report, cited among “the worst cases in 2013-12.” The two events were: when the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) made an exec apologize for emailing a .gif of Obama and when SSMU forced the student group “McGill Friends of Israel” to change the name of their upcoming event from “Israel-a-Party” to “Israel Peace Week.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really surprised this happened at Yale - I can understand Brown but Yale? Really?

This would never happen at Princeton or Stanford.

It that Yale fast on its way of becoming Brown.

Stanford, extremely unlikely indeed. Very different culture there.

Princeton I don't have the pleasure to know directly.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Actually, if this incident leads to any decline in applications, I think it would be a decline in applications from URM students. Yale looks like a less than hospitable environment.

Yawn.

You know for whom Yale is a "less than hospitable place"? Asian kids. They've got quotas against them the same way Jewish students used to have back in the day. The average Asian kid at the Ivies has to be insanely more accomplished than any other group, including white kids, in order to win a place. As an Asian American parent (who is not a tiger mom and doesn't push her kids), I'm already planning on state school for my kid. Both for cost and because unless my kid turns out to be a genius, I know that neither I nor my husband will have the appetite to push them to the crazy lengths that would be needed to get them accepted at an Ivy. If we weren't Asian, then our kid would still have to work hard but not inhumanely hard. So yeah, if the environment at Yale feels so shitty to you, please feel free to leave and make room for others.

+1. I'm Jewish and my father and grandfather went to Yale. The "oppression" these morons claim they face is nothing compared to the overt discrimination and quotas Jews had to deal with in the early-mid 20th century.

As a white man I'm glad I passed on Yale. New England winters and distance from home were big factors, but as another poster said it seemed like a really shitty and morose place to be a straight white male these days. Education and free inquiry shouldn't equate to having to appease students and faculty who will examine every world and deed through the lens of oppression. I used to call myself liberal. These days, not so much.

+100. Some of the most privileged people on earth, sometimes at the cost of excluding more qualified candidates (as the Asian PP explains, and I know many others), choosing to misuse the opportunity they have, and to interfere with others' learning and teaching.

The real problem here is Admissions. Who let the Barbarians in?

PP here. Given the 6.3% admission rate(!!!!!), I'd love to know too. Seriously, admissions rejected 19 out of every 20 applicants last year--and this is the *best* they could do?

+1. The other problem is academics and "student life." If those same students were exposed to a much more challenging, hard-work culture from day 1, chances are they would wise up quickly.

But I guess academic standards at Yale, especially in some departments, have become a joke by now.

Not surprising, then, that students need to find more stimulating things to do.

Read the "Coddling of the American Mind" article and check out the issue they had at Columbia. Kids are enrolling in humanities classes then demanding to opt out of reading Greek poetry because the violence and sexual imagery triggers them. Ivies like Harvard and Yale are notorious for grade inflation and these days the hardest part is getting accepted. After that it's smooth sailing and profs and student life will cater to your every whim if you throw the victim card and scream the loudest.

These two Atlantic articles should be essential reading for any parent with kids in college or headed to college.

Thank you, I will read them.

What's the best university up in Canada

I don't think going to Canada is an option. This kind of PC BS is also running amok in Canadian schools.

Or, as I like to call it, progress. The fact that it's not isolated to one school should give you a clue into the seriousness of these issues experienced throughout N. America.
The two Atlantic articles ooze bias. Plenty of reputable sources that cover these issues, but you chose to go to the most biased ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, if this incident leads to any decline in applications, I think it would be a decline in applications from URM students. Yale looks like a less than hospitable environment.

Yawn.

You know for whom Yale is a "less than hospitable place"? Asian kids. They've got quotas against them the same way Jewish students used to have back in the day. The average Asian kid at the Ivies has to be insanely more accomplished than any other group, including white kids, in order to win a place. As an Asian American parent (who is not a tiger mom and doesn't push her kids), I'm already planning on state school for my kid. Both for cost and because unless my kid turns out to be a genius, I know that neither I nor my husband will have the appetite to push them to the crazy lengths that would be needed to get them accepted at an Ivy. If we weren't Asian, then our kid would still have to work hard but not inhumanely hard. So yeah, if the environment at Yale feels so shitty to you, please feel free to leave and make room for others.

+1. I'm Jewish and my father and grandfather went to Yale. The "oppression" these morons claim they face is nothing compared to the overt discrimination and quotas Jews had to deal with in the early-mid 20th century.

As a white man I'm glad I passed on Yale. New England winters and distance from home were big factors, but as another poster said it seemed like a really shitty and morose place to be a straight white male these days. Education and free inquiry shouldn't equate to having to appease students and faculty who will examine every world and deed through the lens of oppression. I used to call myself liberal. These days, not so much.

+100. Some of the most privileged people on earth, sometimes at the cost of excluding more qualified candidates (as the Asian PP explains, and I know many others), choosing to misuse the opportunity they have, and to interfere with others' learning and teaching.

The real problem here is Admissions. Who let the Barbarians in?

PP here. Given the 6.3% admission rate(!!!!!), I'd love to know too. Seriously, admissions rejected 19 out of every 20 applicants last year--and this is the *best* they could do?

+1. The other problem is academics and "student life." If those same students were exposed to a much more challenging, hard-work culture from day 1, chances are they would wise up quickly.

But I guess academic standards at Yale, especially in some departments, have become a joke by now.

Not surprising, then, that students need to find more stimulating things to do.

Read the "Coddling of the American Mind" article and check out the issue they had at Columbia. Kids are enrolling in humanities classes then demanding to opt out of reading Greek poetry because the violence and sexual imagery triggers them. Ivies like Harvard and Yale are notorious for grade inflation and these days the hardest part is getting accepted. After that it's smooth sailing and profs and student life will cater to your every whim if you throw the victim card and scream the loudest.

These two Atlantic articles should be essential reading for any parent with kids in college or headed to college.

Thank you, I will read them.

What's the best university up in Canada

I don't think going to Canada is an option. This kind of PC BS is also running amok in Canadian schools.

Or, as I like to call it, progress. The fact that it's not isolated to one school should give you a clue into the seriousness of these issues experienced throughout N. America.
The two Atlantic articles ooze bias. Plenty of reputable sources that cover these issues, but you chose to go to the most biased ones.

Well, that's your own bias. If there's a clear trend common to many states and schools that " should give you a clue into the seriousness of these issues experienced throughout N. America," it's that people are getting tired of the BS. Witness all the state referendums against race-obsessed affirmative action, last year's Supreme Court decision, and the lawsuits by Asian Americans against Harvard and others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a commentator on gawker who claimed to be a female minority student at Yale, who said the costume thing was the tipping point on top of a huge pile of other injustices and ineffective responses from yale's administration. She made it sound like there's a lot of frat boy culture there... Which should come as a shock to no one who has ever been inside of an investment bank.

While I sympathize with her grievances, my own attempts to discuss this with people from her generation have all been met with them calling me a racist white person. Who watches fox. All of this because I said the letter about owning responsibility for a Halloween costume was not a bad thing.

It is very, very hard to argue with hysterics on any side of an argument... But my takeaway here is complete disgust with the state of academia. It's not just Yale... My alma mater is full of hysteria about Halloween costumes and racial stereotypes right now too. And since they only have about a 7 per cent minority population... It's mostly a bunch of white rich kids falling all over themselves to apologize for being oppressors.

Oh, the injustice of having to endure four years of higher education at one of the most selective (and the best, or at least I used to think) universities in the country! Oh, the humanity! I wonder if she's getting pretty much a free ride, to boot.

I wonder whether you would've wondered that, had she been white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a commentator on gawker who claimed to be a female minority student at Yale, who said the costume thing was the tipping point on top of a huge pile of other injustices and ineffective responses from yale's administration. She made it sound like there's a lot of frat boy culture there... Which should come as a shock to no one who has ever been inside of an investment bank.

While I sympathize with her grievances, my own attempts to discuss this with people from her generation have all been met with them calling me a racist white person. Who watches fox. All of this because I said the letter about owning responsibility for a Halloween costume was not a bad thing.

It is very, very hard to argue with hysterics on any side of an argument... But my takeaway here is complete disgust with the state of academia. It's not just Yale... My alma mater is full of hysteria about Halloween costumes and racial stereotypes right now too. And since they only have about a 7 per cent minority population... It's mostly a bunch of white rich kids falling all over themselves to apologize for being oppressors.

Oh, the injustice of having to endure four years of higher education at one of the most selective (and the best, or at least I used to think) universities in the country! Oh, the humanity! I wonder if she's getting pretty much a free ride, to boot.

I wonder whether you would've wondered that, had she been white.

(Different PP here) I'm guessing probably not, and it makes perfect sense. Why?

Because our crazy affirmative action policies discriminate against even "at-risk" whites (say, born in a trailer to a meth mom) in order to give space to wealthy, entitled blacks (say, son of a millionaire executive).

So, if someone behaves like trash, and is black, chances are a free ride explains it. If someone behaves like trash, and is white, it's due to other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a commentator on gawker who claimed to be a female minority student at Yale, who said the costume thing was the tipping point on top of a huge pile of other injustices and ineffective responses from yale's administration. She made it sound like there's a lot of frat boy culture there... Which should come as a shock to no one who has ever been inside of an investment bank.

While I sympathize with her grievances, my own attempts to discuss this with people from her generation have all been met with them calling me a racist white person. Who watches fox. All of this because I said the letter about owning responsibility for a Halloween costume was not a bad thing.

It is very, very hard to argue with hysterics on any side of an argument... But my takeaway here is complete disgust with the state of academia. It's not just Yale... My alma mater is full of hysteria about Halloween costumes and racial stereotypes right now too. And since they only have about a 7 per cent minority population... It's mostly a bunch of white rich kids falling all over themselves to apologize for being oppressors.

Oh, the injustice of having to endure four years of higher education at one of the most selective (and the best, or at least I used to think) universities in the country! Oh, the humanity! I wonder if she's getting pretty much a free ride, to boot.

I wonder whether you would've wondered that, had she been white.

(Different PP here) I'm guessing probably not, and it makes perfect sense. Why?

Because our crazy affirmative action policies discriminate against even "at-risk" whites (say, born in a trailer to a meth mom) in order to give space to wealthy, entitled blacks (say, son of a millionaire executive).

So, if someone behaves like trash, and is black, chances are a free ride explains it. If someone behaves like trash, and is white, it's due to other reasons.

"So, if someone behaves like trash, and is black, chances are a free ride explains it. If someone behaves like trash, and is white, it's due to other reasons." = white privilege

[Anonymous]

It worries me that the troubles at Yale are now leading to folks on this thread attacking affirmative action, and assuming all the black students at Yale are their because of their URM status and no other skills and abilities. Say what you want about this Yale student, but racism still permeates this board and every aspect of our society. My middle class, well-behaved black son gets pulled over by police to "check" his driver's license and registration, is questioned when coming out of a 7-11 and asked if he is loitering, is asked what his test scores are
and is frequently asked what sport he plays when he says he goes to a Big 3 school. etc. When he rides the metro at night, white people move away from him. We have had to go to battle with the schools to put him the upper level classes where he gets As. I could go on and on. White people who assume if you are not poor you have experienced "equal" treatment if you are black are really misinformed. The only good that comes out of this is that most black kids who are successful are hardened realists, not the kids who complain about pc language, and avoiding "painful" words in law school. They have every right to expect to feel safe and comfortable on college campuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It worries me that the troubles at Yale are now leading to folks on this thread attacking affirmative action, and assuming all the black students at Yale are their because of their URM status and no other skills and abilities. Say what you want about this Yale student, but racism still permeates this board and every aspect of our society. My middle class, well-behaved black son gets pulled over by police to "check" his driver's license and registration, is questioned when coming out of a 7-11 and asked if he is loitering, is asked what his test scores are
and is frequently asked what sport he plays when he says he goes to a Big 3 school. etc. When he rides the metro at night, white people move away from him. We have had to go to battle with the schools to put him the upper level classes where he gets As. I could go on and on. White people who assume if you are not poor you have experienced "equal" treatment if you are black are really misinformed. The only good that comes out of this is that most black kids who are successful are hardened realists, not the kids who complain about pc language, and avoiding "painful" words in law school. They have every right to expect to feel safe and comfortable on college campuses.

Way to avoid the issue. What exactly is it about a professor suggesting that perhaps students need to take responsibility for their own choices, and speak directly to one another when they take offense rather than depend upon administrators to tuck them in at night, that keeps a student from feeling safe on campus and justifies her screaming and cursing at the professor?

Minorities exclude white people from their activities all the time on college campuses, and it is not merely permitted, but encouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a commentator on gawker who claimed to be a female minority student at Yale, who said the costume thing was the tipping point on top of a huge pile of other injustices and ineffective responses from yale's administration. She made it sound like there's a lot of frat boy culture there... Which should come as a shock to no one who has ever been inside of an investment bank.

While I sympathize with her grievances, my own attempts to discuss this with people from her generation have all been met with them calling me a racist white person. Who watches fox. All of this because I said the letter about owning responsibility for a Halloween costume was not a bad thing.

It is very, very hard to argue with hysterics on any side of an argument... But my takeaway here is complete disgust with the state of academia. It's not just Yale... My alma mater is full of hysteria about Halloween costumes and racial stereotypes right now too. And since they only have about a 7 per cent minority population... It's mostly a bunch of white rich kids falling all over themselves to apologize for being oppressors.

Oh, the injustice of having to endure four years of higher education at one of the most selective (and the best, or at least I used to think) universities in the country! Oh, the humanity! I wonder if she's getting pretty much a free ride, to boot.

I wonder whether you would've wondered that, had she been white.

(Different PP here) I'm guessing probably not, and it makes perfect sense. Why?

Because our crazy affirmative action policies discriminate against even "at-risk" whites (say, born in a trailer to a meth mom) in order to give space to wealthy, entitled blacks (say, son of a millionaire executive).

So, if someone behaves like trash, and is black, chances are a free ride explains it. If someone behaves like trash, and is white, it's due to other reasons.

"So, if someone behaves like trash, and is black, chances are a free ride explains it. If someone behaves like trash, and is white, it's due to other reasons." = white privilege

"Because our crazy affirmative action policies discriminate against even "at-risk" whites (say, born in a trailer to a meth mom)" = some "white privilege" !

So, to paraphrase a PP, are you working on your master's in Applied Grievance Studies at Mizzou or at Yale?

[Anonymous]

New poster. Yes, the obsession with micro-aggressions, identity politics, and trigger warnings has gone too far at Yale and elsewhere. But the events of the past week are a good thing because I believe it has shed light on the problem and the majority of students do not hold these views, and the bad publicity -- especially the viral video -- has given a backbone to other students and administrators who previously were reluctant to challenge the emotional appeals of the left even when they were not substantiated out of fear of being labeled racist. The Yale administration has come down correctly saying that it will listen to concerns of minority students and address that which is legitimate and fixable, but it will not compromise free speech and will not permit intimidation, threats, or shouting down dissenting voices.

Time will tell, but I am hopeful that at Yale the events this semester may in the long run do two important things. First, it may force protesting students to step back and look at themselves, and prioritize their demands. More minority mental health professionals on campus seems like a reasonable expectation; spitting on people who disagree with you, insisting they are racist and dismissing their views as oppressions, feeling entitled to resort to screaming epithets rather than reasoning, is not. Second, students and faculty who disagree with the liberal thought police on campus have got to develop their own backbone. Second, by standing up for free speech dissenting voices -- in this case likely a majority of students who do not hold extremist views -- know that they will not be hung out to dry by the administration. While I think some of the protestors behaviors were inexcusable, they were understandable in one respect; if not one had ever challenged them on their views and said "no, I disagree" even though a protestors feelings were hurt by the time they are seniors in college, no wonder they freaked out when it finally happened. Hopefully, Yale will now be in a better place for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It worries me that the troubles at Yale are now leading to folks on this thread attacking affirmative action, and assuming all the black students at Yale are their because of their URM status and no other skills and abilities. Say what you want about this Yale student, but racism still permeates this board and every aspect of our society. My middle class, well-behaved black son gets pulled over by police to "check" his driver's license and registration, is questioned when coming out of a 7-11 and asked if he is loitering, is asked what his test scores are
and is frequently asked what sport he plays when he says he goes to a Big 3 school. etc. When he rides the metro at night, white people move away from him. We have had to go to battle with the schools to put him the upper level classes where he gets As. I could go on and on. White people who assume if you are not poor you have experienced "equal" treatment if you are black are really misinformed. The only good that comes out of this is that most black kids who are successful are hardened realists, not the kids who complain about pc language, and avoiding "painful" words in law school. They have every right to expect to feel safe and comfortable on college campuses.

Some of this sounds like my experience growing up white in DC with nearly all-black cops during the Barry era.

I certainly hope that your son feels safe and comfortable at college. But that should not extend to censorship of views that he finds uncomfortable or even offensive. Dealing with other views, even if stupid, ill-supported, offensive, etc, is part of the college experience.