Paul Mirengoff writes:
From Nat Hentoff, via the Weekly Standard's scrapbook, comes the latest evidence of the demise of free expression (not to mention sanity) on college campuses:
At Brandeis University. . .professor Donald Hindley, on the faculty for 48 years, teaches a course on Latin American politics. Last fall, he described how Mexican migrants to the United States used to be discriminatorily called "wetbacks." An anonymous student complained to the administration accusing Mr. Hindley of using prejudicial language. It was the first complaint against him in 48 years.
After an investigation, during which Mr. Hindley was not told the nature of the complaint, Brandeis Provost Marty Krauss informed Mr. Hindley that "The University will not tolerate inappropriate, racial and discriminatory conduct by members of its faculty." A corollary accusation was that students suffered "significant emotional trauma" when exposed to such a term. An administration monitor was assigned to his class. Threatened with "termination," Mr. Hindley was ordered to take a sensitivity-training class.
Though named for one of the greatest exponents of free speech ever, it's not surprising to see Brandeis in the vanguard of the assault on campus freedom (when my daughter attended an information at Brandeis, the admission's officer boasted that Angela Davis and Abbie Hoffman are alums). But if I had replaced "Brandeis" in Hentoff's piece with most any well known private college in the U.S., would you have been surprised at the report?
Me: You can't help but be impressed by the courage (cough!) shown by faculty colleagues. Hentoff says, "Individual tenured members of his department, though outraged, would not stand up publicly on his behalf. One of them explained to him, "I'm about to retire." He and others fear retaliation."