RUTHFULLY YOURS

Dr. Patton is the president of Middlebury College and a scholar of South Asian history, culture and religion.

In my inaugural address as the new president of Middlebury College a year and a half ago, I spoke of my hope to create a robust public square on campus. I said that I wanted Middlebury to be a community whose members engage in reasoned, thoughtful debate openly and without fear, where we are resilient in argument and generous to those we disagree with, and where the conversational circle expands to take in more and more people. I had no illusions about how difficult and messy it might be to achieve these goals, but I also had no doubt that we needed to pursue them.

We experienced a hard test of these aims in early March, when student demonstrators at Middlebury shut down a speaking event featuring the political scientist Charles Murray. A rash of similarly disturbing incidents on other campuses this spring has reminded us of the fragility of the principle of free expression and why all of our institutions, but especially our institutions of higher learning, must be vigilant in safeguarding it.

At Middlebury’s commencement last month, as I shook the hands of 550 graduating seniors, it was difficult to overlook the challenge that lies before them. These young people—our newest alumni—are a remarkable group, full of promise and hope. But the unfortunate reality in America today is that they are embarking on their life’s journey at a moment when our nation is sharply divided—politically, economically, culturally, and in seemingly every other way. As historian Jon Meacham said to our graduates in his commencement address, “A decade and a half into the 21st century, what do we love in common? The painful but unavoidable answer is: not enough.”
It was precisely this dynamic of polarization that played out when Charles Murray came to Middlebury. Students from a conservative campus group, the American Enterprise Institute Club, had invited him to talk about his 2012 book “Coming Apart,” which explores the roots of class division in white America. In publicizing the event, the students had cited the need for vigorous discussion and asked the community to listen to Dr. Murray and challenge his ideas. His 1994 co-authored book, “The Bell Curve,” which linked race with IQ, has long been the focus of controversy and served as the backdrop for how many on campus saw the event.

A number of groups at Middlebury were upset by the prospect of Dr. Murray’s appearance and asked the administration to cancel the event. In the spirit of a robust public square, we thought it was important to allow students and others in the community to engage with Dr. Murray about the issues on their minds.

Students protested when Dr. Murray took the stage. They prevented him from speaking and went on to disrupt attempts to continue the program, including a question-and-answer session moderated by Prof. Allison Stanger, via video feed—a backup plan that we had created to ensure that the talk could continue even if it was disrupted in the hall. Later, when Dr. Murray, Prof. Stanger and a Middlebury administrator left the building, a crowd of about 20 people, most of them outsiders but some students as well, physically confronted them and surrounded their car. Prof. Stanger was injured in the melee.

Like many at Middlebury, I was deeply upset by these events. As a community of learners, we must extend the same privileges and rights of speech to others as we would ask others to extend to us. Given my call for more resilient conversations and debate, the disruption of Dr. Murray’s talk was especially disheartening.

The college immediately asked independent investigators to give us an impartial account of what happened. They reviewed photographic and video evidence, interviewed a number of eyewitnesses and gathered other statements and accounts. Their work provided the basis for disciplinary proceedings under the college’s long-established, community-based judicial procedures. The college charged a number of students with violating policies that prohibit disruptive behavior at community events and that call on students to “respect the dignity, freedom and rights of others” and forbids “violence or the use of physical force.”

The Community Judiciary Board (which is made up of students, faculty and staff members) heard the most serious of these charges, made the final determination of wrongdoing and assigned sanctions. Neither I nor anyone in the senior administration had the authority to impose penalties unilaterally.

A University of Iowa professor argued that the appreciation of beauty inspired by the “white marble” of classical statuary supports white supremacy today.

“The equation of white marble with beauty is not an inherent truth of the universe; it’s a dangerous construct that continues to influence white supremacist ideas today,” Sarah Bond, assistant professor of classics, wrote in an article for the art blogazine Hyperallergic.

Bond noted that “many of the statues, reliefs, and sarcophagi created in the ancient Western world were in fact painted,” so the “white marble” seen in such art today is an accident of history, not the intended look. Marble “was considered a canvas, not the finished product for sculpture.” So it was “carefully selected and then often painted in gold, red, green, black, white, and brown, among other colors.”

The professor pointed to various excellent museum shows like the “Gods in Color” exhibit to emphasize that these statues were originally painted, not marble white.

But Bond went even further, arguing that the misconception of original statues being marble white has supported — and still supports — white supremacy. “The equation of white marble with beauty is not an inherent truth of the universe,” the professor noted. “Where this standard came from and how it continues to influence white supremacist ideas today are often ignored.”

The professor attacked “most museums and art history textbooks” for showing “a predominantly neon white display of skin tone when it comes to classical statues and sarcophagi.” This “neon whiteness” creates “a false idea of homogeneity — everyone was very white! — across the Mediterranean region.”

Bond pointed to the art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who formed the foundation for art history. Winckelmann argued that the Apollo of the Belvedere — a Roman white marble copy of a Hellenistic bronze statue — is “the quintessence of beauty.” The classics professor suggested that Winckelmann’s preference for men over women might reveal a homosexual identity, and that his taste in art bolstered “white male supremacists.”

Bond also referenced the Dutch anatomist Pieter Camper, who measured human facial features to create the racist “cephalic index,” which was used by the Nazis to support notions of Aryan superiority.

Operating off of this history, the classics professor drew some debatable connections to modern white supremacy. She mentioned the group Identity Europa, which uses “classical statuary as a symbol of white male superiority,” which seems plausible.

But then Bond smuggled in an attack on a prominent Republican congressman. White marble statuary “also continues to buttress the false construction of Western civilization as white by politicians like Steve King,” the professor argued.

Here, Bond went too far. King has been attacked for defending Dutch politician Geert Wilders and tweeting, “We can’t restore our civilization with someone else’s babies.” He later explained that his remarks were about culture and not race. Even so, liberals twisted his statements to make them seem racist.

Besides the attack on King, Bond also mentioned one example of racial disparity resulting from the misconception of classical art as idolizing “white marble.” According to the Society for Classical Studies, only 9 percent of all undergraduate classics majors were minorities in 2014, and only 2 percent of classics faculty were not white. CONTINUE AT SITE

Crown Point High School officials refused to allow graduate Jacob Dalton Stanley to wear his Marine dress blues to the Class of 2017’s graduation ceremony Tuesday at the Star Plaza Theatre.

According to the Times of Northwest Indiana:

Stanley, who graduated in December and joined the U.S. Marines, completed boot camp Friday and flew home for his high school graduation. He practiced with his classmates during the day and was reportedly told by high school Principal Chip Pettit that he would not be able to wear his uniform during commencement.

Stanley wore his uniform anyway, and school officials would not allow him to receive his diploma at the ceremony. His name was listed on the graduation program, but officials did not read his name among the graduates.

Stanley’s classmate, graduate Leann Tustison, told the Times the school’s decision to block the newly minted Marine was “absolutely ridiculous.

“He’s in the military putting his life on the line for us,” Tustison said.

“It’s unacceptable that he was not allowed to walk across the stage. If he wants to walk across the stage in his uniform that he worked so hard for and earned, he should have the right to do that. That’s his achievement. They honored other people’s achievements whether they were in triathlon or other activities,” she continued.

“If his achievement is joining the armed forces, he should have been able to do that. The students were outraged. There were some students who were going to walk in solidarity with Jake. It was a disgrace.”

Numerous other students who spoke with the news site agreed with Tustison.

“It was despicable that he wasn’t allowed to wear his uniform. We should be proud of that as Americans. He should have been able to wear his military uniform,” Crown Point graduate Jessica Janda said.

Folks online overwhelmingly sided with Stanley, and lashed out at school officials for the decision.

Stanley declined to comment about the situation, but issued a statement through the 9th Marine Corps District, Naval Station Great Lakes, according to NBC Chicago.

A friend in suburban New Jersey was disappointed after conducting an informal survey of his household this week. It seems that not one of his four children who attend local public schools had heard a single word about D-Day. Tuesday was the 73rd anniversary of the Allied landings at Normandy that began the liberation of Europe. Unfortunately, the experience of his family is hardly unique.

According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a full 30% of recent college graduates don’t know that D-Day occurred during World War II. Looking at U.S. history in general, the most recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2014 found that just 18% of U.S. eighth-graders were graded as “proficient” or above.

While professional educators certainly deserve much of the blame, the journalistic profession could also do better. To its credit, yesterday the Las Vegas Review-Journal published the following letter from reader Donald Anderson:

I am totally dismayed that the Review-Journal failed to mention D-Day in the June 6 edition. If it hadn’t been for the success of the brave forces who stormed the beaches of Normandy on that fateful day in 1944, I’m sure the world situation would be entirely different.

Yes, I saw the eight lines in the Almanac section. Thank you.

Mr. Anderson could just as easily have sent an even stronger complaint to your humble correspondent. Lacking an Almanac section, this column failed entirely to mention the anniversary. Fortunately readers compensated for your correspondent’s oversight by appropriately marking the occasion in the comments section.

As for the news blackout that seems to have occurred in certain schools on Tuesday, the possible silver lining there is that a contemporary progressive educator’s rendering of World War II might leave parents wishing for complete silence on the subject.

In any case, this job seems to have fallen to non-professional educators, and perhaps a good place to start is by encouraging the youngsters in our households to see what they can learn about the two men pictured at the top of this page. They served as combat medics attached to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division during World War II. The group is better known as the ‘Band of Brothers’ of book and television fame.

Speaking of the Army, this week the service tells the story of several D-Day veterans who gathered to share their experiences:

When the ramp to his World War II landing craft slammed down onto Utah Beach, then-Cpl. Herman Zeitchik jumped out and dashed across the sand as deadly rounds were shot out from fortified bunkers.

With the amphibious assault underway in the early morning of June 6, 1944, Zeitchik and other 4th Infantry Division Soldiers — who were part of the first wave of troops to land — desperately tried to find safe passage through the German-occupied beach.

“When the front of these landing crafts went down, we just took off,” said Zeitchik, now 93 years old. “We couldn’t see where to fire. We just had to get off the beach and try to find the rest of the unit.”

Along a 50-mile stretch of coastline in northern France, more than 160,000 Allied troops stormed Utah Beach and four other beaches that day to gain a foothold in continental Europe. By the end of the D-Day invasion, over 9,000 of those Allied troops were either dead or wounded — the majority of them Americans. CONTINUE AT SITE

At least 10 college-bound students found out this week that they won’t be going to Harvard after all. The college rescinded its admissions offers after reviewing explicit and racist messages the students had traded on a private Facebook page.

The school’s student newspaper, the Crimson, obtained screenshots of the chat and reported that it included “memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children.” One message “called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child ‘piñata time.’ ”

It makes you wonder what these kids wrote in their application essays. Harvard’s questions range from explaining “how you hope to use your college education” to saying “what you would want your future college roommate to know about you.” Jokes about the Holocaust or pedophilia probably didn’t spring to mind.

But that’s the farcical application process. Admissions officers, after reading all the 500-word essays, the heartfelt recommendations from teachers, the interviews with loyal alumni, know exactly what students want them to know. SAT scores are more objective, but testing plays a smaller role in admissions than it used to.

In a 2015 Kaplan survey, 40% of admissions officers at top colleges said that they check applicants’ social-media accounts. Let’s stipulate, too, that other elite schools would probably have had the same reaction—rescinding admission—upon discovering a similar Facebook group. CONTINUE AT SITE

Progressives like to paint their ideological opposition as violent, hateful, and all sorts of other unpleasant things, but always held the Left up as the beacon of civility and tolerance.

As we get into the Trump Era, we are seeing their true colors. They’re like the aliens in the ’80s miniseries “V.” The progressives have pulled off their human skin, and what’s beneath is horrifying.

The latest example comes from Emerson College in Boston. As The College Fix reports, students there have been harassed for months for daring to be conservative or libertarian:

The students said they knew when they decided to attend Emerson they were entering a left-leaning campus. After all, the school is located in the heart of one America’s most liberal cities.

Yet, how that progressivism transcends campus is what surprises them. They described a hostile campus where right-of-center opinions are strongly opposed and students who peddle them can be susceptible to name calling and other forms of bullying.

Aside from being called a white supremacist, Kaufman said she’s been called a racist to her face.

“It’s hostile and there’s a lot of tension, just sitting in a classroom, you can literally feel these eyes on you and all this hate if they know who you are,” she said.

Meanwhile, Picone said it’s not unusual for him to be called out for his gender and ethnicity.

“Anything I will say will be dismissed because I’m a straight white male. As if that has anything to do with the argument I’m saying,” he said.

Freshman Lexie Kaufman claims the harassment has been so terrible that she is transferring. She’s not the first to feel that was the only option after the tolerant campus Left showed its hypocrisy, and she won’t be the last.

Emerson students may be fortunate, however, as it sounds like the school’s administration is showing more sanity than many across the country. The administration claims to want to restore civility, and is taking steps such as introducing a “conservative thought” class this fall. Students also are trying to bring conservative speakers to the school.

Of course, the underlying issue won’t be fixed so easily.

Deep in their hearts, progressives believe they are following the One True Way — and that everyone who disagrees with them is scum. They excuse all sorts of terrible behavior by arguing that none of it compares to the imagined injustices they blame political opponents for unleashing each and every day.

This is a long-term cultural problem. Emerson’s administration can’t do much about it immediately other than treat all reports of such harassment equally. The targeted students deserve nothing less.

These pages have been reporting on the intellectual decline of American higher education, but maybe all is not lost. One near-miraculous sign of life is the appointment of constitutional law professor John Manning as the next dean of Harvard Law School.

Mr. Manning, who joined the law school faculty in 2004, takes over a post on July 1 that is typically held by a liberal, most notably by current Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. He is a well-known expert on administrative law and statutory interpretation who doesn’t hide his jurisprudential conservatism.

The new dean has served two stints at the Justice Department and clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as the late Judge Robert Bork on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Following that distinguished tutelage, Mr. Manning has become one of the premier textualists in the legal academy, meaning that he emphasizes the importance of lawyers and judges reading and interpreting the plain text of a law.

Mr. Manning has been deputy dean and perhaps his competence in that role made him a natural choice for promotion. But in an academy that usually treats conservatives like the walking dead, credit Harvard for promoting on merit regardless of ideology.

Even though manipulated computer models and predictions of global warming/climate change have been demonstrated to be completely inaccurate, children are taught almost from the womb that the science is settled and anyone who questions the agenda is stupid and shouldn’t be listened to. No wonder they don’t ask any questions.

Kids are also indoctrinated to believe that anyone who wants to require photo IDs to vote is trying to oppress the vote and is a racist. I wonder why the kids won’t question the professor as to why those same people who can’t get photo IDs are required to have them for so many other things by the government.

The kids are taught that sanctuary cities are good and that people who want to enforce the borders are anti-immigrant, racists, xenophobes and want to harm women and children who just want to improve their lives. They should be taught that the U.S is a nation of laws, that politicians should uphold their oath to enforce the laws and that nations are not nations without borders and laws.

Students are repeatedly taught that capitalism and profits are bad, corporations are greedy and the rich don’t pay their fair share. They are taught that government is a benevolent entity that helps the poor. They should be taught that capitalism is what caused the United States to lift people up and that socialism destroys countries and holds people down, such as Venezuela, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.

They are rarely taught that the main reason for terrorism is that they want to destroy our way of life. It is not because of climate change, poverty, or lack of education. The leaders of terrorist organizations are idealists.

Colleges are almost wholly staffed by liberals with a few conservatives sprinkled in. Conservatives have been blocked frequently from speaking on campus. That is intentionally keeping alternative views from the students.

The reason students, Democrats and most reporters don’t seem to have any critical thinking ability is because they have been taught that to get along they must go along.

Editor’s Note: In our May 29 issue, we published a piece by Jay Nordlinger about DECA. The organization held its big international conference in late April. This week, Mr. Nordlinger has expanded his piece in his Impromptus. For Part I, go here. The series concludes today.

As I’ve mentioned, there are 16,000 kids here in Anaheim — 16,000 DECA-ites, doing their thing. And they reflect a great diversity. They come from every corner of America, and in every flavor, pretty much.

I meet Italian-American kids from New Jersey — right out of Central Casting. And Mexican-American kids from Albuquerque. And black kids from the Deep South — and from the Rust Belt cities.

In the DECA throng, there are many, many South Asian kids: the sons and daughters of immigrants from India. No doubt the fathers of a good number of them are motel owners, pharmacists, and engineers. No doubt these kids have been instilled with the values of hard work, entrepreneurship, and upward mobility.

One of the things that students here at the Anaheim conference do is run for office — the various offices of the wide DECA network. On an exhibition floor, there is a booth promoting the candidacy of one Vishwesh Ravva. He lives in Memphis and is running for vice-president of DECA’s southern region. Campaign slogan: “Wish for Vish.”

When I look at these kids in their blue blazers, with the DECA patch; when I see them planning for their future, and thinking about their place in the economy, and dreaming of what they might contribute — I think they are as American as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer ever were.

The 200,000 DECA high-school students across the nation mirror the general high-school population: in the male-female ratio, for instance. But they differ in one respect: They tend to come from poorer families. They may have an unfortunate cycle to break out of. They may be hungry to get ahead and prove themselves.

There is a young woman here who has never been out of her hometown (in Pennsylvania). Neither have members of her family. She is here thanks to a scholarship from AT&T. Her world has been vastly widened.

When competing, DECA students must wear their blue blazers. Why? Well, the blazer looks kind of sharp. But also, it’s an equalizer. Rich kids, poor kids: They all look the same, essentially. No one need worry about the vexing question of dress.

On the exhibition floor, there are many booths, booths galore. Near the front are two branches of the military: the Army and the Navy. The Army features a slogan that goes, “Lead Faster.” I think what that means is: “Assume a leadership position faster in the Army than you would elsewhere.” But I’m not sure.

There are also booths representing business schools and institutes — including a hotel school in Lausanne. That sounds desirable, if you’re inclined toward the hotel business.

And there are all sorts of businesses, with booths. Take Sparkling Ice, a beverage line: “Never Too Busy to Get Fizzy.”

On this exhibition floor, businesspeople meet potential future employees. And students meet potential future employers. It’s win-win, in that capitalist way.

There is a gift shop, selling a variety of “spirit wear.” (In fact, I learn this term.) Many shirts and hoodies and so on have the DECA logo on them. There are also teddy bears, decked out in DECA shirts. I’m told that students and teachers love the “brand”: the DECA brand. There is a DECA culture, a DECA family feeling, and the spirit wear is part of it.

You can also buy flip cards, which are learning aids. Here is one from the “Marketing” pack: “Cost-Plus Pricing.” And on the back: “This type of pricing includes the variable costs associated with goods, as well as a portion of the fixed costs of operating the business.”

Here is one from the pack marked “Business Management + Administration”: “Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).” “A process improvement technique for evaluating how efficiently a company is able to deliver technology products to its customers.”

I got a million of ’em. Or rather, DECA does.

In one patch of the exhibition floor, students are engaged in madly intense video games. Now, what I have called “games” are actually VBCs, or “Virtual Business Challenges.” These challenges are divided into several categories, including restaurants, hotels, retailing, and sports management.

Consider the restaurant challenge: Students have to figure out menu pricing, purchasing, staffing, a dining layout, a kitchen layout, etc. Moreover, they have to do it under the gun — on the clock — competing against others. They are zealously focused.

Later on, thousands of DECA kids will sit in front of hundreds of judges, participating in an array of competitions. There is an introductory level, which involves role-playing: How do you train a new employee? How do you deal with an angry customer? And at the top level, you submit a 30-page business prospectus. These kids like Shark Tank, the TV show? Now they’re really in a shark tank.

Some of the kids have businesses already. Horse-grooming, for example. I hear about a student from last year who started a business online. He sells vintage and limited-edition sneakers. And he has made a lot of money. This is an advance beyond the old lemonade stand (though kids still create and man those).

As for the judges, they come from myriad sectors of the business world. They may be with well-known companies, such as Marriott, Men’s Wearhouse, or Otis Spunkmeyer. They may be dot-com whizzes. Or franchisees. Or bankers. Or even officials of the Small Business Administration. Many are DECA alumni.

That’s the way it goes in DECA: one generation helping another.