Campus Corner

Good Morning, Breakfastpoppers. Today is Sunday, August 27, 2017. Our delightful friend, Wasp Tevya, has returned to college to chat it up with the students and professors. He is back now and full of observations and insights about life on campus today. Please join Tevya and me for a delicious meal. Tevya has prepared Baked French Toast Casseroles for all of us. He didn't enjoy the food on campus, and is shocked that the students haven't burned down the cafeteria! We hope to see you soon. I'll be at the door handing out Bloody Mary's. You are going to need them.

Thanks so much for joining POP and me this morning. College is very different these days. When I went I studied, partied and graduated. Now life is much more interesting and varied. In my day, there were protests, but generally they were few and far between. Now protest is an everyday affair. Protesting perceived injustice was always a popular activity, but today because everything is unjust, we have a target rich environment.

BrynMawr College is no longer referring to the proper names of buildings that were named after one of its former presidents because she held racist and anti-Semitic views. The former president was M. Carey Thomas. Thomas did a great deal to promote opportunity for women in higher education. She had two buildings named after her. Now students wanting to go to Thomas Great Hall or the Thomas Library may never find them. Life can be so complicated. Stockton College has removed a bust of, you guessed it, Richard Stockton. Stockton, who was a Revolutionary War patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, also owned slaves. College administrators say they will bring the statue back, but I imagine it won't be easy. If they do there will be vigils, cry-ins, coloring sessions and violence. The new normal is not normal at all.

Here's a fun aspect of college life you might have missed. Students attending an elite and wealthy group of schools in Southern California are unhappy. They say they face racial strife and injustice and they are demanding money for therapy. Right about now, I think I need therapy, but I digress. These students, who are black, believe they have been victimized by white people. They are demanding that student journalists who are conservative in their views be expelled. One of the schools in this group is a women only institution. Students of color have been advised to charge their white peers for "emotional labor" inflicted upon them when they educate or correct a white student. Pardon me, while I take a deep swig of my Bloody Mary. It must be an incredible hardship pulling together the $50,000 a year tuition necessary to attend any one of these schools.

The New School in Manhattan is breaking new ground when it comes to educating incoming students on the proper way to speak and act. Believe it or not the school has come up with a guide to insure that new students don't step on somebody else's toes or feelings. For example, never say that you think all gender bathrooms are stupid. Your opinion my hurt another student's feelings, and we simply can't have that. Students are taught that these small aggressions can hurt more than explicit aggressions like bopping somebody over the head with a two by four.

Life these day, whether on or off campus, is downright dangerous. The landscape is loaded with mines that are built to explode with a look or a gesture. How is it that such sensitive souls are really so insensitive? How is it possible that people who can't seem to find their way out of a paper bag are qualified to attend college? Why is it okay for college students to whine and cry their way through school? Enough is enough! All of this "talk" is pure garbage, and it doesn't deserve our attention. These demands, this new language, this uber- sensitivity to everything, this utter collapse of common sense has got to stop. Love the statues where they are. Stop telling students what to say and how to say it. If I didn't know better, I would swear that these complainers are trying to bring back the days of separate but equal. We have come a long way in this country. There is opportunity for anyone willing to work for it. There is no such thing as a free ride.

Let me quote Don Corleone at the risk of being called sexist, "Act Like A Man."

Tevya's Song

Dear God, you made so many liberals

It's no sin to be a liberal

But it's no great honor either.

"Act like a man."