The United Campus Workers union has officially chartered a chapter on the campus at Ole Miss.
In a story reported by The Daily Mississippian and covered by Y’all Politics, this will be the local chapter of UCW. UCW is under the larger Communications Workers of American umbrella. UCW claims 1,800 members across 16 campuses in the state of Tennessee, where the union originated. It is also organized in Georgia, and this is its first entrance into Mississippi.
But this isn’t a traditional union in the sense that the union and management negotiate pay, benefits, hours, etc. There wasn’t a majority vote by a specified bargaining unit for this union to represent employees.
In addition to being a right-to-work state, public employees have no collective bargaining rights in the state of Mississippi. State employees are simply free to join voluntary unions and this is similar. UCW appears to be more of an association of like-minded faculty and staff.
In Tennessee, UCW’s work has largely been centered on social and economic justice issues, which includes lobbying the legislature for pay raises or expanded health insurance while fighting privatization of campus services and pension reform. Essentially, it is a left-of-center, grassroots organization.
Finding liberal professors at Ole Miss to join UCW shouldn’t be that difficult.
Two of the early proponents and members of the union are Jessica Wilkerson, assistant professor of Southern Studies and history, and James Thomas, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology.
Wilkerson was recently a guest speaker at a Students Against Social Injustice rally where protestors demanded the university remove the Confederate statue on campus and implement speech codes for students.
Thomas, as many will recall, recently received national attention when he tweeted that protestors should harass Republicans in public, including the time-worn traditions of sticking fingers in salads and redistributing appetizers.
UCW reports it has more than 50 members registered at Ole Miss.
Delta State University no longer has policies in place that stifle campus free speech.
Recently, Mississippi Center for Public Policy, National Review, and College Fix raised questions about DSU’s student regulations that read, “words, behavior, and/or actions which inflict mental or emotional distress on others and/or disrupt the educational environment at Delta State University” could possibly “subject violators to appropriate disciplinary action, including suspension and expulsion.”
As a result of this policy, the university received a speech code rating of red from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
According to Rick Munroe, Vice President for University Advancement and External Relations at DSU, the university rescinded the policy in February 2017. However, the old policy inadvertently remained on the website. But the recent attention prompted the university to update the website with the new policy.
The new policy, which largely follows state and national laws, now lists offenses against persons as, “physical abuse, verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment, sexual contact without permission, coercion and other conduct which threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person.”
Gone is the far more troubling, and open for interpretation, mental or emotional distress language. This could have been interpreted as a violation of a students’ rights to free speech or as a “speech code.”
This is the direction in which all universities should be moving. Free speech and intellectual debate should be encouraged on college campuses. Diverse opinions should not just be tolerated, they should be welcomed and encouraged. Students must have the right to express themselves freely, no matter how popular or unpopular such expressions may be.
Let’s hope other colleges and universities follow Delta State’s lead. And make it explicitly clear that college campuses are the last place on earth that should stifle free speech.
The last time university officials in the Southeastern Conference capitulated to the demands of a student-led mob, things did not work out well for that school. It should serve as a lesson to all.
In Columbia, Missouri, in 2015, students put on the protest of the century – or at least that is how it seemed.
The funny thing about this protest is that it didn’t have any great meaning or purpose. This wasn’t the Vietnam War or ERA. It began with a complaint about cuts to health benefits for graduate-student employees. The student body president at the time, who is black and gay, stated that someone off-campus shouted racial slurs at him. There was a report of another racial slur at an anti-racism rally. And then there was the famous “poop swastika,” where someone supposedly drew a swastika on a bathroom wall in feces.
There was a sit-in, which led to the first round of capitulation. The university agreed to robust diversity training. When that didn’t go far enough, the president of the university system, Tom Wolfe, apologized and health benefits for the graduate student employees were restored. Still not enough to satisfy the hunger of the social justice crowd on campus. Wolfe had to go.
Then there was a hunger strike, led by a student named Jonathan Butler. None of this served to get any real traction or generate national attention. But then the authoritarian mob found a powerful ally: Members of the entire football team announced they were boycotting the next football game if Wolfe didn’t resign.
Under the pressure of national embarrassment and with the leverage of high-profile athletes, Wolfe resigned. Chancellor Bowen Loftin resigned as well. In order to relieve the pressure, the university completely capitulated in a desperate attempt to satiate the demands of the mob. After making the ultimate sacrifice of the system president and its chancellor, everything at Missouri returned to normal, right? Not exactly.
The protesters' tent city remained. And a new era of “wokeness” was ushered in and ESPN became a network for social justice warriors. A professor, Melissa Click, became famous for pushing away journalists trying to cover the story, at one point, yelling, “I’m going to need some muscle in here.”
Columbia, Missouri isn’t exactly Berkeley, Palo Alto, or Madison. After all of the accommodation and sacrificing of public figures to make peace with the social justice mob, a funny thing happened. People began to vote with their feet. Enrollment plummeted. The year the protests began, Missouri had a freshman class of 6,200. The following year, it was down to less than 4,800. And the year after, just 4,100 enrolled in the freshman class. And alumni not only stopped enrolling their children, they also quit giving.
As budgets depleted, more than 400 jobs were cut and several dorms were closed. At one point, dorms were even converted to motel rooms for visitors in town for sporting events.
The protesters may have claimed victory at the University of Missouri, but the school lost. Perhaps this was a warning sign.
It will be interesting to see how universities respond in the future, particularly those in the South. At the University of Mississippi, the largest university in the state where I live and work and my alma mater, protesters known as the Students Against Social Injustice recently staged a protest. They followed the now-common practice of issuing demands of the university.
According to SASI, the university must remove a Confederate statue from campus and speech codes must be implemented to “protect students from the racist violence we experience on campus.” This is similar to what students have been doing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the past year, though to the credit of the protesters at Ole Miss, they didn’t actually attempt to tear down the statue. At least not yet.
The real issue isn’t the protests or the protesters themselves. Actual intellectual debate should be encouraged on college campuses. Diverse opinions should be tolerated, whether those opinions are popular or not. The issue is how university leadership responds. Schools must not be run by authoritarian mobs. If university administrations continue to buckle under the weight of social justice mobs, they may suffer the same consequences as the University of Missouri.
This column appeared in the Washington Examiner on November 5, 2018.
Colleges and universities are supposed to be places where curiosity is developed and intellectual debate in encouraged. But with each passing day, it appears that the debate part of the equation is limited in favor of indoctrination, or at a minimum, silence.
Most people, regardless of their political leanings, understand the ideological beliefs of college professors. One 2016 survey from Econ Journal Watch showed liberal professors outnumber conservatives by a ratio of 12 to 1. Business and economic schools tend to have a narrower margin, though they still lean left, while social sciences and humanities are even more liberal than the median. The same survey showed liberals in history departments outnumber conservatives 34 to 1. None of this is surprising.
The same schools that pride themselves on diversity of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and every other box the Departments of Diversity and Inclusion can check appear to have little interest in diversity of thought. However, the issue isn’t that most professors are liberal; that alone is not the problem. The issue is that everyone must conform to those “preferred” beliefs. Or, at a minimum, pressure is put on students to keep their differing opinions to themselves. At least that is how college students feel.
In a recent survey of full-time undergraduate students by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of Yale’s William F. Buckley, Jr. Program, a majority, 52 percent, said professors often use class time to express their social or political beliefs completely unrelated to the subject of the class. And 53 percent said they often “felt intimidated” in sharing ideas or opinions that were different from their professors.
The problem extends beyond professors. The students who hold those majority views on many campuses often don’t want debate either. Fifty-nine percent of students agreed that a college “should forbid people from speaking on campus who have a history of engaging in hate speech.” I certainly don’t know anyone who condones hate speech, assuming they can define it, but when the subjectivity is left to college administrators, we are often left with anything right-of-center being classified as “hate speech.” A smaller minority, 33 percent of college students, believe that physical violence is justified in preventing speakers who espouse such “minority” views. Even if it is a smaller percentage, 33 percent is still a worrying number.
Simply put, free speech is not winning on college campuses like it should. Also troubling, 38 percent of students favor speech codes, like those at Delta State University in Cleveland, that restrict free speech. According to student regulations, “words, behavior, and/or actions which inflict mental or emotional distress on others and/or disrupt the educational environment at Delta State University” could possibly “subject violators to appropriate disciplinary action, including suspension and expulsion.”
This leads to many other questions. What causes mental and emotional distress among college students? Seeing as how traumatized many students were after the election of Donald Trump in 2016, is it safe to assume that a Trump sign, t-shirt, or a Make America Great Again hat would cause serious distress for a young student who has never had his/her political views questioned? While you and I may find this patently illogical and an illegitimate cause for emotional distress, these are the considerations we face when a school has speech codes. Ironically, at a place where whole departments are created in the name of diversity, a majoritarian mob of professors and students may prevent minority expressions.
Open discussions and free exchange of divergent ideas are becoming rare on college campuses. When there are “open discussions,” it is generally limited to “discussing” why conservatives are wrong, hateful, and bigoted. Such discussions are purposely one way and dialogue is not permitted.
For more than a century, the American university system was considered the best in the world for providing a classical liberal undergraduate education. Students received a well-rounded worldview and were prepared for success in life, regardless of their personal philosophy on civil society and government. For the sake of our future generations, we must reclaim our universities from this liberal high jacking. We must demand that students have the right to express themselves freely, no matter how unpopular such expressions may be.
This column appeared in the Starkville Daily News on November 28, 2018.
For the past several years colleges and universities throughout the country have embarked on a mission to limit free speech, in the name of protecting the feelings of those who might not like to hear what someone else says.
Delta State University is one of those schools, but their speech codes go further than most.
For the most part, Delta State’s student regulations include commonsense rules and procedures for any university, such as a requirement that you pay your bills and punishment for destroying property. And there are some rules that likely aren’t followed (or enforced), such as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages on campus or at university sponsored events.
But far more problematic is policy number 27 which states that “words, behavior, and/or actions which inflict mental or emotional distress on others and/or disrupt the educational environment at Delta State University” could possibly “subject violators to appropriate disciplinary action, including suspension and expulsion.”
Essentially, you could be punished up to expulsion for words that inflict emotional distress on others. What is emotional distress? Obviously, different words could upset different people in different ways.
We saw students nationwide requiring days off and tests postponed after the triggering event of Donald Trump winning the presidency in 2016. So we know there are plenty of items that cause mental and emotional distress among our youth on college campuses. And in many instances, for illegitimate reasons (i.e., being unhappy about an election).
Delta State has long had trouble with free speech. They were one of just two schools in Mississippi to receive a speech code rating of red from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE.
Policy number 27 is likely unconstitutional, but more than that it is scary. Scary that a university would put such a policy in place that violates the free speech rights of one student and threatens to expel that student for doing nothing wrong at all. Just something that may have upset someone.
For more than a century, the American university system was considered the best in the world for providing a classical liberal undergraduate education. And for preparing their students to be successful in life. For the sake of our future generations, we must reclaim our universities from the insanity we see daily.
But for now, if you’re on campus at Delta State, use extreme caution with your words. One man’s free speech might be another man’s emotional trigger and the university wants to be the arbiter.
(While the link to the policies is no longer live, a cached version from November 5 can be found here.)
Jeffrey Vitter, the chancellor at Ole Miss, will resign effective in January.
Vitter has been chancellor since January 2016 and he still has two years remaining on his contract. It is likely that he stays on in some role at the university. But this is the second consecutive chancellor to have an abrupt exit from Oxford. In 2015, the Institutions for Higher Learning, which selects the leaders of the eight public universities in the state, chose not to extend the contract of then-Chancellor Dan Jones.
Jones was at Ole Miss for only four years. Prior to Jones, Robert Khayat served as chancellor for 14 years as the university experienced tremendous growth.
There have been numerous issues at Ole Miss recently ranging from football probation, and the marked decline in attendance and interest among fans and alumni, to declining enrollment to how the Ed Meek controversy, among other controversies, was handled.
IHL will be tasked with selecting the next leader for Ole Miss. All indications are that this will be a relatively long process with multiple factions supporting different people.
Only 29 percent of students who entered a public university in 2009 in Mississippi graduated within four years.
That is according to the most recent data from the Education Achievement Council Report Card, which was recently made available by the Institutes for Higher Learning. The national average, according to the United States Department of Education, is 40 percent for all four-year institutions and 35 percent for public institutions.
Fifty-two percent in Mississippi graduate within six years and 54 percent graduate within eight years. Nationally, 59 percent graduate (including data from both all institutions and public institutions only) within six years.
Ole Miss had the highest four-year graduation rate at 39 percent, though that is still less than two-in-five students. Thirty-one percent graduate within four years at Mississippi State. Mississippi Valley State had the lowest four-year graduation rate at just 10 percent.
Ole Miss (61 percent), Mississippi State (60 percent) and Southern Miss (50 percent) were the only three institutions to have more than half of the freshmen graduate within six years. Mississippi University for Women just missed that cut at 49 percent. Valley, once again, had the lowest six-year graduation rate at just 25 percent.
But Valley also had 47 percent of their new undergraduate students enrolled in one of more intermediate courses, with about a quarter enrolled in both math and reading courses during their first year.
In contrast, just seven percent of new undergraduate students at Mississippi State and eight percent at Ole Miss required such courses. The system average was 16 percent.
Higher education spending accounts for about 13 percent of the state budget. Broken down, the total state expenditure per full-time equivalent student topped $15,000 at half of the universities. The highest was Mississippi State at $15,975 followed by Ole Miss ($15,772), Southern Miss ($15,462), and Valley ($15,124). Delta State had the lowest mark at $12,520.
The report cards for each university can be found here.
Over the past 20 years, the price of a college education has increased nearly 200 percent.
These numbers, adjusted for inflation, trail only the cost of hospital services when it comes to changes in the prices of consumer goods and services. During the same period, inflation stands at 55 percent.
What about other items? The price of housing has increased at about the rate of inflation. But consumer goods such as cars, household furnishings, clothing, cellphone service, software, toys, and TVs are all cheaper today than they were in 1997. In some instances, the prices have decreased significantly.
So why have the prices of some items decreased? And why have some, college education in particular, become more expensive? As with most items that have become more expensive, we can largely thank the government.
It’s the law of unintended consequences that we often see with federal legislation. A prime example is the “Great Society” of the 1960s. As we grew the welfare state as a nation, out-of-wedlock birth rates increased from about 5 percent fifty-years-ago to over 40 percent today. In Mississippi, it’s 53 percent. As a result, we have generations of children who grew up without Dad, leading to numerous negative societal effects.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is another example of unintended consequences. Designed to lower barriers to employment for disabled persons, research shows that the law has actually harmed employment opportunities for those who are disabled. Prior to the law, 60 out of every 100 disabled men were able to find jobs. Thanks to the bad incentives created by the law, the number fell to 50 per 100 disabled men after the ADA went into effect.
In an effort to make college more affordable, government involvement has only made college more expensive. Because of readily available financial aid, there are no market mechanisms to control for costs. While those in the private sector have incentives to constantly innovate and maintain competitive costs, there is no such need in higher education. After all, when tuition goes up at Ole Miss, it also goes up at Mississippi State. The schools see no benefit to lower costs. If a school wants to raise tuition, the money to attend will be there - courtesy of Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately, that money isn’t just going toward educational purposes. The ballooning costs of a four-year education are funding new administrators and non-teaching sprawl on campus. Indeed, universities now employ more administrators than faculty members. And as part of an education arms race on non-education services, we constantly see new and improved cafeterias, student unions, recreation centers, climbing walls, and other things today’s students apparently need in today’s university experience.
As prices climb, students, and their families, don’t really notice it. At least, not at the time. Because most students are just taking out loans and money is going directly from the federal government to the office at a university that handles student account payments, the student never feels the pain of writing a large check.
And as the federal money flowed, we watched a dramatic change. The missions of colleges and universities shifted from teaching and preparing students to use critical thinking and particular skills to start a successful career to preparing students for a future in political correctness, being constantly offended, and progressive indoctrination.
We’ve seen campuses shift from a place where rigorous intellectual debate, along with civility and decorum, is the norm to one in which conservative speakers are routinely shouted down and even shut down, simply because some students don’t like their message or feel offended by speech with which they disagree. Sadly, administrators are often complicit in this censoring, if not supportive of the protesting actions.
Most recently, a sociology professor at Ole Miss, James Thomas, made national news when he encouraged protestors to “put your whole fingers in their salads” and to “bring boxes and take their food home.” Because, as Thomas put it, “They (Republicans) don’t deserve your civility.” This came on the heels of liberal activists confronting and harassing Republican Senators while they were dining out.
If we want to make college affordable and return higher education to the respected and noble status it once held, we must end federal subsidies to colleges and universities. For more than a century, the American university system was considered the best in the world for providing a classical liberal undergraduate education. Our federal government has jeopardized that.
For the sake of our future generations, we’ve got to reclaim our public colleges.
This column appeared in the Madison County Journal on September 25, 2018.
A professor at Ole Miss is encouraging Americans to publicly confront, disrupt, and harass Republicans in public.
James Thomas, an assistant professor of sociology at Ole Miss, tweeted on October 6, “Don't just interrupt a Senator's meal, y'all. Put your whole fingers in their salads. Take their apps and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes and take their food home with you on the way out. They don’t deserve your civility.”
This came after protestors interrupted Sen. Ted Cruz and his family during a meal in Washington, D.C. Such interactions have become all too common with Republican elected officials and liberal protestors.
Most recently, two Republicans in Minnesota were attacked in separate incidents. Minnesota State Rep. Sarah Anderson was punched in the arm by a man while Shane Mekeland, a candidate for the state legislature in Minnesota, suffered a concussion after being attacked in a restaurant.
Ole Miss Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter posted a response on Facebook, saying, “A recent social media post by a UM faculty member did not reflect the values articulated by the university, such as respect for the dignity of each individual and civility and fairness. While I passionately support free speech, I condemn statements that encourage acts of aggression. I urge all members of the Ole Miss community to demonstrate civility and respect for others and to honor the ideal of diversity of thought that is a foundational element of the academy.”
Ironically, for someone who is calling for public harassment of people he disagrees with, Thomas’ tweets are protected and only confirmed followers have access to them. And when Campus Reform attempted to reach out to Thomas, he hung up on them.
If you are wondering what it takes to become a college professor at a major, liberal arts university today, you might enjoy watching this video on the subject:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU7_aDc2JXE[/embedyt]