July 24, 2019

One of my colleagues brags on Facebook that she will not allow debate in her classroom on certain convictions she has related to gender and race. I want to respond “you must resign,” but fear the world would hear my words and not hers. The University no longer presents itself as a forum for Free Speech. We are a tree forsaking its roots. We cannot stand as we were, but become a mouthpiece for various fashionable dogmas. How can I convince my colleagues that one dogma is, in the formal sense, no different from another, and equally in need of debate and scrutiny? That to shut off debate is to admit to not being sure you have the truth. I clearly do not have the power to fight this one, having been bitten in the ass by this very debate. Perhaps I should thank the stars that I will be exiting before it becomes the necessary fight. I want to stand in the Quad crying “Alas!”