Attention Yale Alumni
/If you didn’t go to Yale, you probably don’t pay much attention to how insane that place has become in the past several years. I bring this up today because a guy named Jamie Kirchick is running an insurgent candidacy for Yale Trustee. He needs about 5000 signatures to get on the ballot, and apparently is a few hundred short. And today (at midnight) is the deadline for submitting signatures.
As to the insanity at Yale, here are some reminders if you need them:
There was the Great Halloween Costume Freak-Out of 2015, covered at MC here. Video at the link. (After professor’s wife sends out email suggesting that students should be allowed to wear Halloween costumes of their choice, even if a little offensive, students protest that they feel “unsafe”; one shrieks at the professor: “Be quiet! . . . Then why the f*** did you accept the position? Who the f*** hired you? You should step down! . . . It is not about creating an intellectual space. It is about creating a home here . . . . You are disgusting!”)
Yale President Peter Salovey responded to the GHCF with no suggestion of criticism or discipline of the protesters for their uncivil conduct, but rather by throwing $100 million or so of donor money around to appease them. From the Washington Post, November 1, 2016: “One year after protests about race erupted at Yale University, much has changed: A $50 million initiative to draw and retain diverse faculty has begun, a new academic center for the study of race and ethnicity has opened, and funding for Yale’s four cultural centers — which serve students of African, Asian, Latino, and Native heritage — has doubled.” What makes them think that somehow a $50 million recruiting budget can increase the very small numbers of black or Hispanic physicists or computer engineers out there to be hired? I have no idea. With enough money Yale can hire every one of them! Of course, that will only mean that there will be none left for any other university.
Then in 2017 Yale came out with the big report on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” A “Task Force” of some 45 of the Great and the Good from among Yale alumni (I know some of them!) examined Yale’s efforts over the past about 50 years to increase numbers of minorities among students and faculty, and found Yale coming up short. But they’ve been trying to fix this for 50 years with little to no success! Yes, but there has been “lack of focus.”
And then there is the general descent into political correctness on all fronts. I won’t even attempt to get into the cesspits of race and gender studies, or the total corruption of what used to be the humanities (history, English, foreign languages). But consider environmental studies, where Yale’s program has been totally taken over by climate change campaigners. Their particular niche appears to be the field of “climate communication,” otherwise known as trying to scare the bejeezus out of you because of something that’s supposedly going to happen from your use of fossil fuels. Evidence is not required as part of this exercise. Consider this recent (August 28) piece from Yale Environment 360, titled “In the Melting Arctic, a Harrowing Account from a Stranded Ship.” In multiple references, the article takes the decline of arctic sea ice as a total given (E.g., “The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice is presenting . . .”), without ever citing any data of any kind. Are they even aware of the data that arctic sea ice has shown no trend for the past 12 years? You wouldn’t know it.
I won’t go on. Anyway, again the deadline to sign the petition to support Kirchick’s candidacy is tonight at midnight. Here’s a link to the petition to add your name to support his candidacy. I encourage all readers who are Yale alumni to go to the site and indicate your support. Not that there’s much hope of turning the place around at this point, at least not in our lifetime. But it would be fun at least to cause a little trouble.