"The Savages Are at the Gates."

They have long since breached the gates....they are the gatekeepers themselves.

1. The radicals of the sixties control the universities…They realized that the apocalypse never materialized. “…they were dropping off into environmentalism and consumerism and fatalism…I watched many of my old comrades apply to graduate school in universities they had failed to burn down, so they could get advanced degrees and spread the ideas that had been discredited in the streets under an academic cover.”
Collier and Horowitz, “Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About The Sixties,” p. 294-295.




The following can not be called a cautionary tale...it is far too late for caution. Instead, it is a view of the apocalypse. It was written by a junior at Swathmore....

2. "... a case study in the illiberalism that has taken over liberal arts colleges... has centered on the school's radical environmentalist club, Mountain Justice, which has led a multiyear campaign calling on the college to divest its $1.5 billion endowment—one of the highest endowments-per-student in the nation—of fossil-fuel companies.
Numerous professors and the entire history department have endorsed the effort, and administrators and board members have met with Mountain Justice members 25 times over the past two years.

3. On May 4, the school scheduled an open board meeting on the divestment initiative so that the opinions of board members, faculty, administrators and students would receive a fair hearing.... The board had invited two representatives from Mountain Justice to sit on a panel with them for the first half of the meeting.

a. What the board didn't realize was that those same students were positioning themselves to grab the microphone and disrupt the proceedings.




4. The chairman of the Board Investment Committee, ... was in the middle of delivering the opening PowerPoint presentation...when more than 100 student protesters burst into the room, waving signs and shouting.

a. One of the student panelists grabbed the microphone out of turn and handed it to a line of protestors who delivered speeches that condemned the "liberal script" in the name of "radical, emancipatory change" and "institutional transformation." ... classmates defended their behavior because they were smashing "hegemonic power structures" and "flipping the power dynamic."





5. I stood up and reminded the protesters that other members of the college were there to hear various perspectives. But rather than listen to what I had to say, the students began to shout and clap in unison, drowning out what I was saying. Professors sat silent in the audience.


a.... the college president, Rebecca Chopp... conceded that what was unfolding was "outrageous" but said there was nothing she could do.




6. I'm an English major who wants Swarthmore to be a place where ideas are freely exchanged. To me, overthrowing a meeting of board members, who are all alumni, is wrong and juvenile.

Apparently the college doesn't see things that way. The day after disrupting the open board meeting, the protesters insisted on mandatory campus "teach-ins" for all students. Though it was the day before exams at a school that prides itself on its academic rigor, the administration acquiesced and endorsed the teach-ins to heal our "fractured community."

7. ... student "demands," which included making courses in ethnic studies and gender and sexuality required for graduation. The activists also demanded that Swarthmore revise its judicial process so that "sexual assault cases are no longer confidential."





8. No administrator has condemned the takeover of the board meeting. If that tantrum doesn't qualify as disorderly conduct and outright intimidation, what does? If moderate or conservative students—no doubt also a "marginalized" group on campus—behaved similarly, would they be held accountable?"


This is the reality of 'University education.'

What is produced is cookie-cutter fascists for whom silencing opposition voices is all that matters.


How many times have we seen the same from posters who's message is 'shut up,' or 'go away.'