Remember that old adage, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” Your mother likely said that to you when you came home upset by something mean said in a schoolyard. It was great “mom” advice. Unfortunately, it is no longer true on college campuses across the country. At schools, the saying could be changed to “Sticks & Stones may break my bones because my words will make you hurt me.”
If you thought that campus was the safest place for free speech and freedom of conscience, you would be wrong. Since the summer of 2020, there has been a surge in college administrators bowing to the mob. Students and faculty have been subject to expensive and reputation-damaging investigations. Universities have morphed from idea incubators to the thought police.
The offense can be a social media or classroom comment that differs from the thinking of the day. The investigations begin when someone who disagrees with the comment tags the school in a vicious social media post that goes viral.
It gets worse. In a recent poll, 21% of Ivy League students voiced approval of violence to shut down certain speech. For perspective, the University of Pennsylvania’s undergraduate enrollment is 10,019. That would mean that 2,104 Penn students find some degree of violence acceptable to shut down a speaker or event. Sticks and Stones indeed.
Colleges will never say that they condone violence. Yet they are swayed by the shouts and demands of those who do. We represent faculty, and students across the country under investigation for expressing opinions. In the ivory towers of America, opposing opinions are dangerous. Disagreeing with the woke society may get you investigated, suspended, expelled, or fired. Campus has become the mothership of cancel culture. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email, we are happy to speak to you.
