Women's college caves to CRT demands

[Metaphor]

https://quillette.com/2020/12/27/a-student-mob-took-over-bryn-mawr-the-college-said-thank-you/

Last week marked the end of a chaotic semester at Bryn Mawr College, a small women’s liberal arts college located outside Philadelphia. During the final weeks, Bryn Mawr students, including my own child, scrambled to pick up the pieces following a student “strike” that exacerbated the serious preexisting disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. For a period of three weeks, few regular classes were held, activities were suspended, and student life (such as it was) became marked by the same toxic spirit of racism that the strikers claimed to oppose.

Bryn Mawr is affiliated with nearby Haverford College, whose parallel meltdown in November was documented recently by Quillette. These two selective and well-funded schools are part of a so-called Bi-Co arrangement, which allows students to participate in joint classes and activities. Both share a similarly progressive commitment to such causes as diversity, equity, and inclusion. And students at both schools generally are well-steeped in doctrines of intersectionality, “white fragility,” anti-racism, and all the rest. Yet following the police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia, activists at Haverford and Bryn Mawr embraced the dubious claim that their extremely progressive campuses were actually contaminated by a dangerous climate of racism that (quite literally) threatened the survival of black students. In many cases, the ire was directed not only at administrators and non-ideologically-compliant faculty, but also at any student suspected of not supporting the strikers’ apocalyptic rhetoric, dramatic postures, and inflated demands. Anyone who sought to attend class, go to the dining hall, or even turn in schoolwork was denounced as a “scab,” and often faced acts of bullying.

As the parent of a Bryn Mawr student (and the parent of a Bryn Mawr alumna), I found this profoundly unsettling. I kept expecting that, at some point, the administration would take decisive steps to restore order on campus (where, as at Haverford, in-person learning was supposed to be occurring, under COVID-19 testing and social-distancing protocols). But that never happened. Instead, a small group of largely unidentified students effectively shut down the campus—not because their views attracted majority support (only about a quarter of the student body seemed to really be on board, from what I could tell), but because the administration simply never pushed back.

I am not naïve about the ideological climate on campuses, having read about similar meltdowns at institutions such as Evergreen State College in Washington. But now it was happening at my daughter’s school. And the same electronic videoconferencing tools that allowed remote students to participate in college life gave me a front-row seat on the disintegration of Bryn Mawr’s civil society. I saw strike organizers publicly mocking and berating white students based on their skin color, followed by cringeworthy scenes of university officials desperately seeking to appease those same organizers.
This is a feminist women’s college, where one might think that administrators would be educated about the need to reject coercion, intimidation, and brute force as negotiating tactics. Yet here they were, apologizing to their tormentors. Having been married to an abusive husband, I’m sadly familiar with the temptation to justify one’s own abuse by insisting that the problem “must be me.” I never thought I’d see that same attitude exhibited by the women charged with educating my daughter.

...

Far from facing consequences for ruining the fall, 2020 semester, strikers have been lavishly praised by the school’s president and continually assured that their grades won’t be impacted. Some professors have even agreed to accept what they call “strike work”—conversations with friends and family about racism, diary entries, time spent watching anti-racism documentaries, and so forth—in lieu of actual course work, even in math and science programs. Additionally, the college has instituted a credit/no-credit policy that will allow all students to choose up to four courses this year that won’t factor into their GPA.

As for the majority of students who came to Bryn Mawr to actually receive an education that goes beyond anti-racist bromides, they’re out of luck. The same goes for parents who ante up $54,000 a year for tuition (and another $20,000 for room and board). Kim Cassidy now presides over what is essentially the world’s most expensive anti-racism YouTube training program. Putting aside the disgrace associated with her cowardice, not to mention the outright abdication of her educational mandate, this also happens to be a massive rip-off for families, many of whom are spending their life savings so that a child can attend this once-esteemed institution.

What these students have learned—at a Quaker-founded institution no less—is that might makes right, that discussion and debate are for racists, and that the middle-aged elites who run society’s most prestigious institutions will sell them out for their own public-relations convenience, all the while publicly thanking the social-justice shakedown artists who engineered their own humiliation, thus incentivizing more tantrums in the future.

“We’re all gonna be here for only four, maybe five years, so nobody really gives a damn about Bryn Mawr in the long run,” said one anonymous strike leader at a November 9th sit-in event. It’s an appalling sentiment. But unlike President Kim Cassidy’s groveling communiqués, it at least has the benefit of being honest.

 

[Arctish]

Are you going to provide links to fact based accounts of whatever got ^this person's knickers in a twist, or are we expected to buy into whatever s/he's selling, sight unseen?

I did a google search for 'Bryn Mawr College controversy' and the only results I got were a 2014 squabble over the Confederate flag and a 2018 decision to re-name buildings that honor a racist.

 

[Patooka]

Ah, yes. Quillette. The only media outlet that takes Dannielle Pletka seriously. I see a barrel and some scraping.

 

[Metaphor]

Are you going to provide links to fact based accounts of whatever got ^this person's knickers in a twist, or are we expected to buy into whatever s/he's selling, sight unseen?

I did a google search for 'Bryn Mawr College controversy' and the only results I got were a 2014 squabble over the Confederate flag and a 2018 decision to re-name buildings that honor a racist.

It is an account of one person's experience.

 

[Politesse]

The students at Bryn Mawr did go on strike for a week in November, in sympathy and support for a similar strike at Haverford the week before, after its president courted controversy by co-signing a letter with its dean of students condemning student involvement in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Philly following the killing of Walter Wallace in October. The administration both (accidentally) instigated and (intentionally) resolved the conflict, in a relatively brief window of time. I don't see that anyone was really in the wrong here.

 

[Metaphor]

The students at Bryn Mawr did go on strike for a week in November, in sympathy and support for a similar strike at Haverford the week before, after its president courted controversy by co-signing a letter with its dean of students condemning student involvement in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Philly following the killing of Walter Wallace in October. The administration both (accidentally) instigated and (intentionally) resolved the conflict, in a relatively brief window of time. I don't see that anyone was really in the wrong here.

That does not speak to any of the events documented in the article.

 

[Politesse]

The students at Bryn Mawr did go on strike for a week in November, in sympathy and support for a similar strike at Haverford the week before, after its president courted controversy by co-signing a letter with its dean of students condemning student involvement in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Philly following the killing of Walter Wallace in October. The administration both (accidentally) instigated and (intentionally) resolved the conflict, in a relatively brief window of time. I don't see that anyone was really in the wrong here.

That does not speak to any of the events documented in the article.

Interesting, that. You'd think such a concerned parent would have looked up what the strike was about and how the administration responded, but some folks just want to shout.

 

[Metaphor]

The students at Bryn Mawr did go on strike for a week in November, in sympathy and support for a similar strike at Haverford the week before, after its president courted controversy by co-signing a letter with its dean of students condemning student involvement in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Philly following the killing of Walter Wallace in October. The administration both (accidentally) instigated and (intentionally) resolved the conflict, in a relatively brief window of time. I don't see that anyone was really in the wrong here.

That does not speak to any of the events documented in the article.

Interesting, that. You'd think such a concerned parent would have looked up what the strike was about and how the administration responded, but some folks just want to shout.

Evidently you did not read the linked article.

Please stop responding to my posts when you can't be bothered to do the bare minimum.

 

[Politesse]

Please stop responding to my posts.

Done.

 

[Elixir]

Please stop responding to my posts.

Done.

B-b-but before you go... I don't read much of meta's garbage, but his thread titles show up even if he's on ignore.
So I find myself wondering about this latest hobby horse he is whipping. "CRT"?
Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Critical Race Theory?

All of the above?
Inquiring minds don't really want to know...
Poor meta.

 

[Toni]

Interesting, that. You'd think such a concerned parent would have looked up what the strike was about and how the administration responded, but some folks just want to shout.

Evidently you did not read the linked article.

Please stop responding to my posts when you can't be bothered to do the bare minimum.

That's pretty easy.

Now: You quit posting inflammatory articles when you cannot be bothered to do the bare minimum.

 

[Toni]

Please stop responding to my posts.

Done.

B-b-but before you go... I don't read much of meta's garbage, but his thread titles show up even if he's on ignore.
So I find myself wondering about this latest hobby horse he is whipping. "CRT"?
Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Critical Race Theory?

All of the above?
Inquiring minds don't really want to know...
Poor meta.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy?

 

[Politesse]

Please stop responding to my posts.

Done.

B-b-but before you go... I don't read much of meta's garbage, but his thread titles show up even if he's on ignore.
So I find myself wondering about this latest hobby horse he is whipping. "CRT"?
Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Critical Race Theory?

All of the above?
Inquiring minds don't really want to know...
Poor meta.

Credulously Regurgitated Topics?

 

[laughing dog]

The students at Bryn Mawr did go on strike for a week in November, in sympathy and support for a similar strike at Haverford the week before, after its president courted controversy by co-signing a letter with its dean of students condemning student involvement in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Philly following the killing of Walter Wallace in October. The administration both (accidentally) instigated and (intentionally) resolved the conflict, in a relatively brief window of time. I don't see that anyone was really in the wrong here.

You don't live in a reactionary state of fear against anything remotely "woke".

 

[jab]

B-b-but before you go... I don't read much of meta's garbage, but his thread titles show up even if he's on ignore.
So I find myself wondering about this latest hobby horse he is whipping. "CRT"?
Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Critical Race Theory?

All of the above?
Inquiring minds don't really want to know...
Poor meta.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy?

Christian Restorative Therapy

 

[laughing dog]

B-b-but before you go... I don't read much of meta's garbage, but his thread titles show up even if he's on ignore.
So I find myself wondering about this latest hobby horse he is whipping. "CRT"?
Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Critical Race Theory?

All of the above?
Inquiring minds don't really want to know...
Poor meta.

Credulously Regurgitated Topics?

I guess it this dates me, I see CRT as Cathode Ray Tube .

 

[laughing dog]

This report from a more neutral source (https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/11/24/student-strike-bryn-mawr-college-ends)

The strike organizers said in an email that their boycott actions ended Nov. 19 and resulted in several commitments from college administrators to address racism on the Pennsylvania campus and increase diversity. Among other steps, the college's leaders promised to review faculty hiring practices to ensure they meet diversity and inclusion goals and to remove a remaining bust, inscription and portrait on campus dedicated to M. Carey Thomas, the college’s second president, who espoused racist and anti-Semitic views.

. Seems like a pretty tame reaction to me.

According to this report (https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/11/24/student-strike-bryn-mawr-college-ends)

The BSLC listed the following as among their achievements:

An annual funding of $100,000 for the Enid Cook ‘31 Center (ECC) to cover the salary of a full-time director position, the stipend of a paid student coordinator position, and the spending of campus wide events hosted at the ECC.
Annual funding of $90,000 to cover scholarship taxes for international students.
The transformation of the Dean’s Emergency Fund into the Dean’s Student Assistance Fund and a doubling of the budget to $10,000.
The creation of “A Radical Imagination: The Bryn Mawr Strike Collective” fellowship with an initial budget of $10,000.
The creation of a new Student Success position to be hired with a salary of $60,000 to address the needs of DACAmented and Undocumented Students.
The removal of the M. Carey Thomas bust and portrait from Old Library.
A commitment to begin to implement universal design standards in curricular and co-curricular programs in Spring 2021.
A revision to the College’s financial aid policy to ensure that paid fellowships no longer replace grants and compromise financial aid, to be implemented by the 2022–2023 school year.
A commitment to hire transformative justice experts to discuss the College’s relationship with law enforcement.
A review of the College’s endowment to determine investments related to the penal system and defense industry.
The administration of regular campus climate assessments.
An annual open forum on the College’s budget.
An impact survey to assess effectiveness of work being undertaken by the College.
If approved by the curriculum committee, a new distribution requirement focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion education and the impact of systemic hierarchies.
A revamped THRIVE program focusing on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A continuation of successful teach-ins to occur regularly throughout the semester.
A commitment to use a transformative justice framework to change College protocols around mental health crises.
A commitment to hiring external consultants and other positions to support and resource work undergone at the College.
An establishment of budgets for previously instituted policies and action items (such as those about institutional memory).
A commitment to working with students and the Anti-Racism Committee on the implementation of the new work taken on by the College.

None of those listed successes seem outrageous or dangerous or anything to have a conniption over.

 

[ruby sparks]

Apparently it's not just happening in the USA. I believe this poster was very recently put up during a similar protest at a university in Singapore.

 

[Politesse]

View attachment 31007

It's not just in the USA. I believe this poster was put up at a university in Singapore.

Then why is it labeled "Park Science Building, Bryn Mawr College, November 9"?

 

[ruby sparks]

Then why is it labeled "Park Science Building, Bryn Mawr College, November 9"?

I assumed the college in Singapore had the same name.