A university is supposed to be a place where ideas are freely exchanged and where the individual grows both intellectually and morally to become a well-rounded, thoughtful citizen. The idea is for people to come out of there better than what they came in; that is to say, more open-minded, more mature, more empathetic. What we have now though in the major universities of North America is sadly not that. In fact, we have the opposite in many ways.
The ongoing fiasco at Columbia University is a long time coming. It is the latest development in the slow decline of the collective morality of what now passes for our elite universities. Today, elite universities are places where Jewish professors have their campus passes deactivated for calling out the University brass that can't or won't protect its Jewish students from thuggish mobs harassing them en route to class or to study halls. We have the 1930's throwback spectacle of Jewish students being physically blockaded from entering buildings at Yale no less. Presidents have graduated from Yale. Some future leader of the free world could be a student now there. And if that future leader of the free world is cosplaying a brown shirt over there now, God help us. It's no better here in Canada. Concordia and McGill are effectively “no-go” zones now for Jewish students in the hometown of Mordechai Richler and Leonard Cohen. In the three major GTA universities, it's only marginally better.
University administrations have spent years playing the Three Blind Mice rather than denouncing the overt support of terror groups like Hamas which has become commonplace in their schools. Qatari blood money and keeping the radical extremists allowed to teach and study in their schools happy matters more to the admins than creating a safe, orderly learning environment for all. The fact that they have to be hauled in front of Congress to even issue the most tepid of condemnations regarding campus antisemitism says it all.
It is clear that the universities will only act if the bottom line compels them to. Happily, Patriots owner Robert Kraft has pulled his donations to Colombia already. Multiple donors have done likewise to Harvard. The same should happen to these other schools like Yale, McGill, U Of T and Concordia until the upper brass at these schools gets a grip. Here in Canada, the deans, the presidents etc. need to be dragged before parliamentary committees as was done in the U.S. Donors should pull their funding and alumni should shun these schools until fundamental reforms are made to how antisemitic riots on campus are dealt with. Public funding should also be withheld until reforms are made but I don't expect we will see this in Canada.
Personally, I'm debating what to do with my degree (electrical engineering from U of T). It feels even more hollow and devoid of value now. Maybe I should stage a public burning. I don't smoke so it's useless even for that. Or perhaps it's best served as a doormat. I've been loath to buy one. The point is, I don't want to be associated in any way with my alma mater. And if fortune should smile upon me and I should find literary success, I certainly can do without them claiming me as one of their own.
Comments