Colgate's New Totalitarian Code
Colgate, a private university in upstate New York and once a premier liberal arts college is fast becoming the most restrictive campus in America, already a borderline example of liberal totalitarianism.
Its administration has declared war on the Greek fraternity and sorority system which it intends to crush. It is confiscating their houses under threat that if they don't sell them to the university they will be banned. But once the houses are sold, Greek life will come under the draconian thumb of the Colgate Administration. All students except for a small group of privileged trusties will be forced to live under direct university supervision. If eight students or more decide to live together in non-university supervised housing, they will be subject to suspension or expulsion. Any Colgate student who joins an organization which the university does not explicitly approve will be subject to suspension or expulsion.
Now comes this prohibition from the administration against "mass emails" that would allow students to organize in their interests:
"This email will serve as a reminder to you that it is against Colgate University email policy to send unauthorized mass emailings: Individuals should not attempt to circumvent the approval process by manual manipulation of recipient lists, or by other means of sending email to entire segments of the Colgate community. The entire policy can be viewed at http://computing.colgate.edu/policy/appa.asp. Senders of unauthorized mass emails are subject to sanctions that could include suspension of computing privileges and disciplinary action from the Dean of the College."BTW: The Dean of the College, Adam Weinberg is a George Soros operative who heads a national organization with a perfect Orwellian name: Democracy Matters. Democracy Matters is headquartered at Colgate.
15 Comments:
The mailing list rules seem to be an implied anti-spam effort.
If Horowitz's assessment is correct (and I'm inclined to believe him), Colgate's definition of "spam" may be politically biased.
That is a really damn creepy way for a university to behave.
How are they justifying this?
J
Good Lord, this seems like an ideological Gulag. This can not be correct
Colgate is ordering the fraternities to sell their houses... And they university is the buyer. Well, then, since there is no mention of Colgate having the authority to set the price, I would hope all the fraternities are demanding at least $600 million per frat house.
That way, when Colgate doesn't buy it, the fraternities can sue Colgate for violation of it's own ordinance.
Hmmm.
"It is confiscating their houses under threat that if they don't sell them to the university they will be banned."
That is the very definition of "duress".
I think we should gather Conservatives and have a Toga Party. That was done in Animal House.
Who is the Dean up there Dean Farber or Dean Martin.
Dean Wormer. Here's what he had to say about the Greeks:
"Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode."
This is not surprising, when one realizes that cultural Marxism, and economic Marxism relies heavily on expropriation!
In fact, upon reflection, this economic expropriation is simply another goose-step by a Marxist university's, totalitarian ideology!
It is in perfect harmony with the cultural Marxism of, for example, quotas for admissions that favor less qualified Blacks, and Hispanics over Whites, and Orientals! In essence the more qualified Whites, and Orientals are expropriated from enrollment.
It goes hand-in-hand with rabid, campus Political Correctness!
God help any student, professor or administrator that does not toe- the-line, set by sacrosanct, all-that- matters, Politically Correct champions of the "oppressed," women, homosexuals, and minorities. Expect an expropriation, in one form or another, if you do not conform!-- I DO NOT GIVE A RAT'S PATOOT, HOW STUPID, OR HISTORICALLY UNFOUNDED THEIR LINE IS!
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME! More EXPROPRIATIONS TO FOLLOW!
This is not surprising, when one realizes that cultural Marxism, and economic Marxism relies heavily on expropriation!
In fact, upon reflection, this economic expropriation is simply another goose-step by a Marxist university's, totalitarian ideology!
It is in perfect harmony with the cultural Marxism of, for example, quotas for admissions that favor less qualified Blacks, and Hispanics over Whites, and Orientals! In essence the more qualified Whites, and Orientals are expropriated from enrollment.
It goes hand-in-hand with rabid, campus Political Correctness!
God help any student, professor or administrator that does not toe- the-line, set by sacrosanct, all-that- matters, Politically Correct, champions of the "oppressed," women, homosexuals, and minorities. Expect an expropriation, in one form or another, if you do not conform!-- I DO NOT GIVE A RAT'S PATOOT, HOW STUPID, OR HISTORICALLY UNFOUNDED THEIR LINE IS!
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME!
Soros' involvement with this mess was inevitable. Who else but someone that had lived under both Nazism and Communism could come up with Colgate's student policies?
What comes next at Colgate? Cuban style community snitches that report "un-Colgateish" behavior to the administration?
What bothers me is that any student would be willing to attend such an intellectual gulag. Then again I never understood sado-masochistic "houses of ill-repute" where people pay to be urinated upon either.
The restrictions on mass e-mail could be an anti-spam effort, but there are much less restrictive ways of handling that with campus mail. Which leave two possiblities, they are either stupid or evil. My experience with campus IT makes me believe stupidity the more likely cause.
Check out www.colgate.edu and look for the obvious headline.
From the article:
"The trustees found that fraternities and sororities were an important part of Colgate, providing social options, community service, and opportunities for students to practice self-governance but were far too often places where Colgate policies, state laws, and their own national organization requirements were ignored and/or violated."
"At this point, alumni leaders of every active Greek-letter house, with the exception of DKE, have agreed to sell their houses to Colgate and several have already received the necessary approval from their alumni members. The remaining alumni groups are scheduled to complete their voting this weekend.
Colgate expects to have as many as 10 active fraternities and sororities on campus next year, including three houses for Greek-letter organizations currently without residences."
And, in an open letter from Rebecca S. Chopp to all students:
"This decision is based in the work by a task force of Colgate students, faculty, administrators and trustees that solicited input and ideas from hundreds of students and alumni. The task force heard how the Greek-letter system is important at Colgate, but also realized that fraternities and sororities were far too often places where Colgate policies, state laws, and their own national organization requirements were ignored and/or violated.
Fraternities and sororities have provided social options, community service, and opportunities for students to practice self-governance. However, in recent decades the positive contributions of Greek-letter organizations have been diminished by disciplinary problems and by antagonism between some of the Greek-letter students/alumni and the university.
The history of disciplinary problems showed a pattern of behavior that included repeated alcohol abuse, violent fighting, sexual assault, hazing, and in one tragic case the deaths of four young people and the arrest and incarceration of a fifth."
I encourage all to check out the website and what Colgate is trying to do and then decide if it's totalitarian.
The difference is private vs. public education. Truly private schools should be free to run their affairs in any way they wish, accountable only to the people who pay tuition. But public schools must be fully accountable to the taxpayers for every matter of policy.
Does Colgate receive any taxpayer funding? If not, then as far as I'm concerned the school could ban all fraternities and sororities and order students to wear pink tutus to class. If the tuition-payers disagree, then they need to stop the action, but it's none of my business.
I encourage all to check out the website and what Colgate is trying to do and then decide if it's totalitarian.
"Totalitarian" may be politically incorrect to say.
How about "indiscriminately tyrannical?" Fraternities and sororities that are not and never have been a part of the anonymous "some of the Greek-letter students/alumni" allegedly at the root of the "problem" Colgate is trying to solve are being collectively undermined along with the "bad apples."
Who came up with the Greek organization disciplinary guidelines at Colgate? Kim Jong-il?
Colgate offered the Greeks less than the insurance replacement cost for their individual houses, and they had to accept because otherwise they would die out. The houses are on private property and are privately owned by the school. Those Greeks who are kicked off campus can not set foot on their own property without risking expulsion. Needless to say, if the school doesn't own the houses, they have made it useless for the owners because no Colgate students can live in them.
Colgate justifies this by claiming the existence of a "pattern of problems" with Greeks including sexual assault, violent fighting, and a laundry list of other things. They also claim to want to address problems such as leaks in a timely manner. Colgate is basically saying they want control of the houses to end these problems. What they fail to mention is their own inability to control what property they already have: one of the freshman dorms has not had working bathrooms for a few weeks now, student health services has no ability to even assess or treat victims of sexual misconduct, alcohol is a much bigger problem in the Colgate-owned dorms, and as far as fighting, 8 people were stabbed recently at the Colgate-owned Palace Theater downtown. They fail to mention that, and they fail to mention that there are about 100 times less problems cropping up in the Greek houses.
Furthermore, Colgate claims legitimacy and support for their New Vision for Residential Education by the fact that all these houses have "voluntarily" sold to the school. They use the fact that most of the Greeks sold to imply support. The problem is: the Greeks had no choice.
Greek students from banned organizations are not allowed by Colgate to enlist new members on or off campus. The violation of this policy is grounds for suspension or expulsion from school. Basically, the first amendment right to free association at Colgate extends only so far as it is convenient for the administration.
For more information about Colgate's violations of property- and first amendment rights, visit the Freedom of Association Coalition for Truth (FACT) website.
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