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Beginning
his talk at a recent Mises Circle in Chicago,
Walter Block dismissed (sort of) my description of college as a four to six
year slumber party. Professor Block pointed out that there are plenty
of other things happening on campus, like, multiculturalism and Marxism.
This multiculturalism has lead universities down the path of putting
lawyers in charge, rather than the respective deans, which is the thrust of
William McGurn’s Wall Street Journal opinion piece, ‘Sex
and the College Dean.’
Discipline is now a thing of the past, with ‘awareness’
taking it’s place,
with “constant upgrading of procedures, and the proliferation of
committees—all designed primarily to limit the institution’s
civil liability.”
Instead of the loutish student trudging into the dean’s office
for a tongue lashing, suspensions or being told he or she is expelled, “Now when students go in for meetings, they
have the family attorney in tow.”
McGurn writes,
Let’s stipulate for the record that in places filled with young
people with raging hormones, there will be sexual encounters. Let’s
stipulate too that by their nature most of these encounters will not be
public (leaving aside the University of Southern California student who did
it on a rooftop with a woman in full view of fellow students). Throw in booze,
and it’s not hard to sympathize with university officials stuck sorting
out the he-said-she-saids.
So while the party rages on, fueled by mom and dad’s money and
student loan dollars from Uncle Sam, university lawyers are forming
committees so as to eradicate ‘hostile environments’ and raise
‘awareness.’
“Pity the young men and women who are left to make their way
through this minefield on their own,” McGurn
concludes. Pity those footing the bill.
Doug French
Mises.org
Douglas French is president of
the Mises Institute and author of Early Speculative Bubbles &
Increases in the Money Supply. See his tribute to Murray Rothbard.
Article originally published
on www.Mises.org. By authorization of the
author
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