You can't make this up. Social justice Spicolis at Brown University are complaining about failing because they don't go to class. They shouldn't be penalized because they care. Read and weep. The Brown Daily Herald reported last week:
Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester.
“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus.
His role as a student activist has taken a toll on his mental, physical and emotional health. “My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. (Counseling and Psychological Services) counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay,” he said.
As students rallied to protest two racist columns published by The Herald and the alleged assault of a Latinx student from Dartmouth by a Department of Public Safety officer, David spent numerous hours organizing demonstrations with fellow activists. Meanwhile, he struggled to balance his classes, job and social life with the activism to which he feels so dedicated. Stressors and triggers flooded his life constantly, he said. (It would be interesting to see the two so-called racist columns.).
David turned to CAPS and reached out to deans for notes that extended his deadlines for assignments. These were helpful, he said, but acted only as “bandages” for the underlying causes of stress.
Justice Gaines ’16, who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr, said student activism efforts on campus are necessary. “I don’t feel okay with seeing students go through hardships without helping and organizing to make things better.”
In the wake of The Herald’s opinion pieces, Gaines felt overwhelmed by emotions flooding across campus. Students were called out of class into organizing meetings, and xe felt pressure to help xyr peers cope with what was going on, xe said. Gaines “had a panic attack and couldn’t go to class for several days.”
Deans’ notes helped Gaines to complete academic work while staying involved in student activism.
In writing such notes, deans acknowledge the difficulties faced by a student on campus and demonstrate their support for the student’s requests, said Ashley Ferranti, assistant dean of student support services.
Though it is ultimately up to a faculty member to accept a dean’s note, Ferranti estimated that notes are accepted over 90 percent of the time. Students who take issue with the rejection of a note can discuss the incident with a dean, Ferranti added.
While notes are helpful, they should be “more accessible” and “more serious, so that professors will be more inclined to follow them,” Gaines said.
Some students very active in organizing and protesting end up in academic trouble, Ferranti said.
When faced with the decision of completing activist work or studying for an exam, students sometimes feel obligated to choose the former, said Liliana Sampedro ’18. This choice, often made by students advocating for increased diversity on campus, “has systemic effects on students of color,” she added. (What a concept: You don't do the work, you fail. The best part is, the student is choosing not to do the work.)
Sampedro worked alongside the group that presented the demands for the diversity and inclusion action plan’s revision. It was a Thursday, she recalled, and she had a research presentation that needed to be completed that week. “I remember emailing the professor and begging her to put things off another week,” she said. The professor denied her request. (What about the other students who chose to complete the work on time?)
“I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t slept. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally,” she said. After hours of work to compile and present the demands, she forced herself to stay up to complete the project anyway.
Other students have also seen their academic work impacted by their efforts to advance social justice causes. This past semester, David spent class time on his activist work in order to address a time-sensitive issue. As a result, one of David’s professors lowered his grade because he was distracted in class, he said.
Sampedro was also on the committee that planned workshops for the Latinx Ivy League Conference, including Paxson’s presentation to students following the assault by a DPS officer on a student earlier that weekend. “I remember seeing all the tears in the room — that was traumatizing — and then not being able to focus on my homework,” she said. “Homework was the least of my worries.” (And why exactly are you in school?)
Despite the hardships that students take on in their activism, the University does not want to discourage them from contributing to change on campus.
This work is an “important part of the academic learning experience,” Ferranti said. She was present at the Brown/RISD Hillel-sponsored lecture that was protested by Students for Justice in Palestine earlier this semester, offering academic and emotional support for the protestors.
The University sends deans to activism events not only to monitor students but also to offer support for those involved. “For example, if a student is at a sexual assault event, and the student is a victim him or herself, that student might talk to me about it,” Ferranti said. (Move over helicopter parents, we now have helicopter deans).
Students “might be impacted, something might be triggered or they might suddenly remember more at that event they were protesting,” she added.
Ferranti said she is “proud to work in a place where students come together over important social issues.” As administrators, “we are not just looking at protocols, we’re also thinking about what this means to the students who are there,” she added. (What will it mean if they have student loan debt and can't get jobs?)
Kingfish note: For some reason, this video came to mind:
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Social justice warriors channel their inner Jeff Spicoli
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15 comments:
Ted Cruz should go and speak to the student body at Brown. It would calm them down for sure.
Just when you think SJWs can't get more ridiculous...
If Brown, an august Ivy League institution, abides this behavior, they become nothing more than a degree mill. If I were a student who attended class and turned in assignments on time, I would bring a lawsuit against the college for this behavior. Call it discriminatory behavior if you REALLY want to get under their skin!
What a bunch of fucking pussies
University person here. My experience has been that heavy involvement in campus social justice warrior-ism is prima facie evidence of preexisting mental illness.
Here's how it works in practice: For any given cause, you typically have 2-4 truly obsessed people, who were academically marginal to begin with and got in precisely because of their SJW activities. These people have been complaining about PTSD, bipolar disorder, etc. from the day they arrived on campus, triggered regularly by anything from social injustice to daily interpersonal issues. They're often rich, as poor people who act this way tend to end up dead or in jail. Most of them have a standing weekly date with counseling and/or the disability office. These are the ones who go on hunger strikes and do false-flag racist graffiti, etc.
After that, you have maybe 15-20 people who show up for events with the little Che's and Mao's just to have something to do. And then maybe 50 who sympathize but do not actually attend. It's basically about cost-free casual virtue signaling for these other folks. So they tend to be semi-rational, if badly misinformed.
Now I suspect at Brown, your first group would be a lot bigger. You're an Ivy, but you're the bottom-of-the-barrel Ivy. So you're probably taking a lot of privileged, neurotic kids who weren't all that smart and substituted SJW-ism for actual accomplishment on their applications.
They all need, including the nutty professors,to attend Marine Corps basic training for a few weeks.
Bet their attitude changes....or they will be removed from the gene pool.....which they need to be.
8:16 - well said. What would happen if this person ever had to solve a real problem, or for that matter be accountable in a real job. This SJW movement is a pile of shit and thrives on a bill of conjured injuries sold to those who don't know any better, or are deprived of data and facts. I feel most sorry for their parents, who will undoubtedly have to financially support these "warriors."
I'm tired of hearing about microagressions and safe space, the rest of us are just trying to make an honest living; but kudos to those who have created a market, albeit misled, and monetized grievance.
Somewhere in the night a social justice warrior is waiting.
Xe does not care that Xe is tired.
That xyz softened body is sleep deprived.
Xe is unbroken and vigilant in xys task of monitoring thought.
Somewhere this social justice warrior is the final tripwire.
Xe has trained all xyz life in less than brutal conditions day and night.
This barren and desolate world of microaggression is xyz home.
Xe lives and survives by an ancient Creed.*
Somewhere this weapon of justice will not ask nor give quarter except maybe a safe space.
Xe thrives on the mission and avenging xyz ancestors.
That xe allows the taste of fear to motivate xyz actions.
Xe is…the final option.
*The University of New Hampshire (UNH) “Bias-Free Language Guide” The language guide included warnings against various forms of "micro-aggression", such as saying: “’Dogs smell funny’ to a blind person using a guide dog.”
It noted that “problematic terms” such as “older people, rich people, and overweight people” should be changed to “people of advanced age, person of material wealth, and people of size.”
A person should choose a reason for going to college. If it is to learn they should stick to learning. If it is to visit they should not be enrolled in a class.
Decide what is important in your life. Do not expect others to give you something you do not work for.
That is the problem we have in the U.S. Too many people sticking their noses into things they are not equipped to handle.
We can laugh but Mississippi State and Ole Miss have an "Office of Institutional Diversity." Jackson Prep has a Brown University graduate as their newly created Corporate Diversity Officer.
Hang on folks, we aren't far behind.
8:56 is right, Brown is a bottom-feeder Ivy.
There are only three real Ivy universities: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
The others are merely glorified boarding schools.
Duude!
When I wen't to collage I would have been helped a lot if I could have gotten credits for all the social organizing I did. Friday Afternoons club, Two Fer tuesday clubs and the collage held this against me and the prefessers punished my grades and
I know what you mean. When I went to college it was called something different when you spent too much time playing around and didn't go to class. I must have been born before my time. I would do great in college now days.
A friend of mine has three kids. Two kids scored a perfect 36 on the ACT-Harvard. The other, 35-Brown. He's the person of color sheep of the family, I guess.
Check out our Miss. 2104 Rhodes Scholar, Field Brown of Vicksburg: "The United States is Institutionally Racist"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuyClLZpeKk
Check out the older black American man advocating the opposite: He's interrupted by a SJW. Seem familiar?
You ain't see nothing yet.
An entire generation has been trained and encouraged to shout down whites, to snatch their mikes, to dance for social justice at the Super Bowl, cuz Malcolm X was just misunderstood, but oh so wise and benevolent, and Mike Brown was a Gentle Giant. Yep.
10:16 -- I'm gonna need a Klingon translator for your pronouns
10:50: I also saw in the paper where Jackson Prep has been sipping the PC cool-aid with their Corporate Diversity Officer. Our colleges are already brainwashing our kids with White-Guilt and other left wing BS. Now Jackson Prep wants to be a PC Head Start center also?? You people are hopefully raising your kids to be rational & responsible,then you pay big bucks to send them to a school that indoctrinates them with garbage??
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