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TOM MORGAN'S MONEY TALK
Should colleges and universities get involved in politics? By that I mean should schools underwrite anything beyond academic matters? This was the thought after reading about efforts by some professors to inspire and lead and organize demonstrations against the Iraqi war. In these cases the colleges did not pay for the demonstrations, at least not directly. But they allowed their facilities to be used for demonstrations. The same thought came up when I read about the City University of New York Law School. It helped finance a trip to Washington, D.C. for students to defend affirmative action. Clearly this was not for the students to appear on behalf of affirmative action in the case before the Supreme Court (re the University of Michigan's policies). It was for demonstrations of support in the case. (Interestingly, half the students in the school flunked the bar exam last year. Methinks the students don't do much studying on the bus to demonstrations.) Other colleges have subsidized demonstrations to support one side or the other in environmental issues. Colleges stand by when professors work openly to recruit students to causes. Causes that lead to demonstrations of one sort or another on the campuses, at campus functions, etc. I questions whether this stuff is appropriate for colleges. We have grown accostomed to it, for sure. We recall civil rights demonstrations on campuses, aided and abetted by faculty and administration. We remember the Vietnam demonstrations, sit-ins galore. We are so accustomed to them, we don't question that they belong there, on the campuses. I question whether they do. Do you think we would feel comfortable if the same activities took place at other institutions, like libraries, hospitals, United Way, museums? Would we think it right if our librarians recruited library members to demonstrate in the library for affirmative action and peace in Iraq? I believe most of us would tell the demonstrators to demonstrate down at the public park, or in the parade on Saturday. We would explain to them that there are venues aplenty available for their expressions of free speech. We would remind library and museum and hospital employees that they are payrolls that are often subsidized by taxpayers. And that they are using facilities paid for by taxpayers, directly or indirectly. We would not think it out of line for companies to take this line with their employees. That is, if their management recruited office staff to parade down the company hallways in support of the environment. We would expect companies to tell employees to take their demonstration off company premises. If employees demonstrated during their work hours we would hardly be surprised if the company docked them. What makes universities any different? Taxpayers pay for state schools and subsidize private ones. Without taxpayer dollars profs would starve. Why should taxpayers subsidize such demonstrations? If professors, students, administration feel strongly about an issue, let them organize and demonstrate off campus. On their own time. Why not confine the work of our schools to the transferring of knowledge and understanding from one generation to another? P.S. You might ask, then, why a college should host an ROTC program. Well, you can politicize defense if you wish. But it remains part of public policy to prepare for the defense of the nation. In the same way, the Peace Corps and Americorps programs are elements of government. They find their way to campuses legitimately. They are totally different from the organizing or subsidizing of demonstrations.
From Tom...as in Morgan.
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