{"id":6458,"date":"2016-05-05T13:17:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T13:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/05\/an-exception-to-the-rule-that-university-admins-are-cowards\/"},"modified":"2016-05-05T13:17:51","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T13:17:51","slug":"an-exception-to-the-rule-that-university-admins-are-cowards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/05\/an-exception-to-the-rule-that-university-admins-are-cowards\/","title":{"rendered":"An Exception to the Rule that University Admins are Cowards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Kimball, Safe from "Safe Spaces"<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This is where things got interesting, and President Michael Drake came into his own. He sent osu<\/span> Senior Vice President Jay Kasey as his ambassador to the protestors. Speaking in calm, measured tones (the video clip<\/a> is widely available on the internet), Kasey explained that he was not there to negotiate. \u201cDr. Drake will never receive a list of demands and he will not negotiate with you.\u201d Er, what? Yes, they heard right. They were in violation of the Student Code of Conduct, Kasey informed them, and if they did not vacate the building by a certain time, police officers would be called to clear the room. The administration was pleased, he added, to \u201cgive you the opportunity to go to jail for your beliefs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t part of the script the students had signed on for. \u201cWhat do you mean by \u2018clear the room?\u2019 \u201d one student asked. \u201cOur police officers will physically pick you up,\u201d Kasey patiently explained, \u201cand take you to a paddy wagon and take you to be arrested. You will be discharged from school also.\u201d Hmm. What do you mean \u201cdischarged?\u201d someone asked. Probably, Kasey clarified, you will be expelled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gratifying as that exhibition of vertebracular stiffness was, what was most instructive was the rationale Kasey enunciated for insisting on the students\u2019 removal: they were violating a \u201csafe space.\u201d The people who worked in the building, he explained, felt intimated by their presence. But how are we intimidating? whined one student, possibly one who had on another occasion claimed that reading Huckleberry Finn <\/em>or dressing as an American Indian on Halloween constituted a micro-aggression that violated his safe space. It was a brilliant move and, judging from the response of the osu<\/span> Police, was a coordinated effort. One Tweet from the university police advised the world that \u201cOhio State respects everyone\u2019s 1st Amendment rights. @osupolice<\/span> on hand to enhance safety and allow #Reclaimosu<\/span> to voice peaceful concerns.\u201d Who could be against \u201cenhancing safety\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

In a single stroke, the osu<\/span> administration, led by Michael Drake, had turned the table on the college crybullies who have been weaponizing their resentment and putative status as victims to wallow in an infantilizing bath of moralizing intolerance. We commend osu<\/span> not only for its bracing exhibition of principle but also for its canny strategic gambit: seizing on the students\u2019 own rhetoric to justify its disciplinary action, the university not only forestalled any effective response, it also . . . we were going to say, it also made the students look like fools, but no, the students accomplished that all on their own.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Roger Kimball, Safe from "Safe Spaces": This is where things got interesting, and President Michael Drake came into his own. He sent osu Senior Vice President Jay Kasey as his ambassador to the protestors. Speaking in calm, measured tones (the video clip is widely available on the internet), Kasey explained that he was not there … Continue reading “An Exception to the Rule that University Admins are Cowards”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}