Who Needs a Safe Space on Campus?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


This article first appeared in Eagle Rising.


From coast to coast, there are new buzz words on our college campuses; triggering, micro-aggression, macro-aggression, and safe spaces to name a few. Led by the University of Missouri, campuses all over the nation are in turmoil due to perceived slights, real or imagined. University administrators are resigning or walking around in sack cloth and ashes apologizing to their student body for failing to take "sufficient action". In short, the inmates are now running the institutions.

So now certain groups are demanding more of their own in the study body as well as faculty. They want millions of dollars to be spent on academic centers to study and glorify their own groups.

And they want "safe spaces", places where only they can gather  and feel safe from the hostility and storm clouds that hover over their campus. As yet, they have not demanded moats and guard towers around these safe spaces, but that will come in due time.

Our universities have returned to a level of insanity not seen since the 1960s. Perhaps, I shouldn't even include the 1960s because that was my generation, and it could be claimed that student unrest existed over serious issues like the Civil Rights Movement, more rights for women, and of course. the Vietnam war.

And what are the issues today on campus? For one, there is the Israel-Palestinian conflict, an issue that hardly affects students' lives. Another is sexual assault, which would have more legitimacy if universities would address the problem of binge drinking, which is the biggest causative factor. That seems to be taboo, however.

At this point, I must state in the interest of full disclosure that there is one group of students that I view as being at risk on campus; that would be the Jewish students. Yet, while many have spoken out about anti-Semitism on campus, I don't hear them asking for a "safe space", however. They are asking that their respective universities address the problem. Swastikas appearing on campus is clearly unacceptable.

However, creating a safe space for Jewish students is not a solution. Like every other student, one cannot remain in one spot on campus all day, every day. That is why the idea of safe spaces is silly on its face.

The University of Missouri case is the one drawing the most national attention. As best I can figure out, a white man came onto campus after having a few too many drinks, wandered onto some protest event, and was heard throwing out the n-word as he was led away. Nobody is defending that. I also understand some students at Mizzou have displayed the Confederate flag out of their dorm windows. I understand why black students are uncomfortable with that. What I don't get is why the entire school has to be turned upside down. I am not convinced that Mizzou is a racist institution.

If I knew that black students on campuses were being insulted, harassed, or assaulted as they walked around campus, I would be totally sympathetic. I don't see that, however. A few isolated incidents does not mean a university is racist or hostile to minority students. Instead, universities are having to deal with "micro-aggressions" and "macro-aggressions".

Gay students often complain of harassment. If true, it must be condemned. Call me naive, but campuses, with all their faults, are hardly intolerant toward racial minorities and gays. On the contrary, they bend over backwards to try and make them feel welcome.

Are we really doing students-especially minority students- any favors by coddling them this way? I say no. We owe them equal treatment. Anything less is insulting and fails to prepare them for the real world, where there are no safe spaces and aggressions happen all the time, both micro and macro. (Please don't ask me to define them.)

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that the group most demonized on campus is-you guessed- white folks. They are "privileged" and must be made to confront that privilege, admit it, and accept whatever is said by the benighted "students of color".  And don't think that it is just minorities that spout that nonsense. There are plenty of white students and leftie professors who say it all the time. (No, they have yet to ask for  a safe space although I just read of some sort of White Students Association being established at the University of Illinois.)

Of course, one cannot point the finger at spoiled students without including the role of their faculty enablers. From the time they set foot into a humanities classroom, they are told by their professors that they are victims who cannot get a break in racist, imperialistic America. Never has the level and quality of professors in America sunk so low.

And here is what is really depressing. Every future president, senator or congressman/woman will or is walking through the halls of  these universities.

A Moment of Silence for Paris Attack Victims?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



Hat tip Jihad Watch


Not if you are in a Turkish soccer stadium.

Nor for Muslim pupils in an Italian school near Milan. Six Muslim girls walked out when asked to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the Paris attacks.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/11/italy-muslim-pupils-refuse-to-observe-minute-of-silence-for-paris-victims

Ditto in the Netherlands, where Muslim students shouted, Allahu Akhbar or talked during a moment of silence.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/24765445/__Minuut_stilte_verstoord__.html

"UTRECHT - 

Op meerdere scholen in Nederland hebben leerlingen maandag de minuut stilte verstoord voor de slachtoffers van de aanslagen in Parijs. Ze riepen bijvoorbeeld 'Allahu akbar' (Allah is groot) of ze praatten door de herdenking heen. De Stichting School en Veiligheid, een organisatie die scholen kan adviseren, zegt dat donderdag na een bericht van het Reformatorisch Dagblad. Het is niet bekend of de verstoorders de aanslagen steunden of alleen baldadig waren."

At several schools in the Netherlands, pupils on Monday disturbed a minute of silence for the victims of the attacks in Paris. They shouted, "Allahu Akhbar"  (God is great) or talked during the commemoration.  The School Safety Institute, which advises schools,  reported that Thursday in a report from the Reformist Daily. It is not known if the disruptors supported the attacks or were just being mischievous.

UC Irvine Stands in Solidarity With Whatever

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

I had hoped that UC Irvine, where I teach part-time, would be spared the silliness and boorishness that hit so many other campuses this week. After all, UCI has a small humanities and social sciences presence as compared to places like UCLA and UC Berkeley. The overwhelming majority of students are studying hard sciences and overall, the campus is pretty quiet (except when anti-Israel week comes around every May). In addition, we have a smaller number of radical, loopy professors on our campus.

At any rate, there was a noon gathering at the flagpoles dedicated to the proposition that a college education should be free. In addition, certain parts of the campus were adorned with messages written in chalk on the sidewalks "in solidarity with the University of Missouri" madness.

And, of course, there were the demands of the Black Student Union. Aside from hiring and centers, there is also a demand for a separate black dorm.

(I am not making this up.)

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/students-691896-uci-black.html

"Saying there’s “a climate of anti-blackness at UCI,” the students’ demands include the creation and funding of a student resource, outreach and retention center, similar to those on other UC campuses, with the hiring of two black program coordinators from the previous graduating class, as well as black psychologists, peer counselors and academic counselors. They also want administrators to promote UCI’s African American Studies program to full departmental status and create a zero-tolerance policy for racism.

In response, Chancellor Howard Gillman assembled a task force. So far, Lawhon said, administrators have agreed to at least three of the group’s demands: the creation of a permanent task force for outreach efforts, restoring a resident adviser to the Ele Si Rosa Parks Theme House, (a residence house for students interested in African American studies,) and creating a Black Scholars Excellence Hall, where dorms will be set aside for black students in the Mesa Court residence hall expansion."

What's next- separate drinking fountains for black students?

I would ask why if there is a climate of anti-blackness at UCI, would any black student choose to study there? How could it be that until recently, the chancellor at UCI was Michael Drake, himself African-American? The vice chancellor for student affairs is also African-American.

But cheer up: There is good news. All this campus craziness is alerting the American public up to a fact the rest of us have known for years-decades, no less.  American academia is in the hands of radicals who wish to tear down our institutions. This is what tax-payers are dishing their hard earned dollars for. That we would actually go back to segregated dorms.

Is Hillary One Step Closer to Indictment?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


"I have been advised that any breach of this Agreement may result in my termination of my access to SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) and removal from a position of special confidence,"


It is now revealed that Hillary Clinton did, in fact, sign a non disclosure (of sensitive material) agreement when she took over as secretary of state in 2009. The State Department had long claimed it could not find such an agreement (although it would have been one of the first documents filed in her personnel folder). Now it has surfaced as part of a FOIA request.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/07/hillary-clinton-signed-non-disclosure-agreement-to-protect-classified-info/?intcmp=hplnws\

"The NDAs played a significant role in the prosecution of former CIA Director David Petraeus for wrongly providing highly classified information to his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.  Petraeus, like Clinton, signed NDAs and a statement of fact filed in his case with the federal court stated that his "criminal conduct" was based on violations of the NDAs signed with the Defense Department and CIA."

As for that report by Politico, I would treat that with a grain of salt. Remember just thus week Politico ran with a story that charged that Ben Carson fabricated his claim of being offered admittance into West Point. Their headline read that the Carson campaign "admitted" that Carson had "fabricated" the claim. In fact, Carson and his campaign have admitted no such thing and Politico prudently changed the headline. So much for Politico's credibility.

We will soon see whether Hillary Clinton will be held to the same standard of justice as General Petraeus-or any other American.

Obama Tours Drug Rehab Center and Touts Prisoner Release

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


This week, President Obama toured a drug rehab center in Newark and at the same time promoted his release of 6,000 drug dealers from federal prisons.

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/11/02/in-newark-obama-to-call-for-breaking-cycle-of-incarceration

Amazing. It is precisely because of the drug dealers that we have drug treatment centers. Yet this president talks as if he is releasing 6,000 drug users from those federal prisons.

As  retired DEA agent, I can assure you that nobody is sitting in federal prison for using drugs. There may be some who pled down to a possession charge when they were originally charged with dealing, or some may have violated parole by using drugs, but to claim that these people's only offense was using drugs is a lie. DEA does not now nor has it ever enforced simple possession laws.

Obama is releasing 6,000 drug traffickers and dealers. He is sending the wrong message to these people who work in -or are patients- in these rehab centers.

And if he thinks drug trafficking is a non-violent offense, he is smoking his socks.