http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...as-be-off-the-table-in-campus-debates/489710/
Jeffrey Goldberg: . . One of the things that's a joke about all of the protests about sensitivity––there was a reference to the Halloween costume incident at Yale––was that we axiomatically, by being [at] one of the best colleges in America, are in the top 1 percent of lucky people in the history of the universe. . . .
Michael Middleton: That's been said. By many donors and legislators and parents and other students. But the student response is that I don't hate Mizzou. I'm trying to make Mizzou better. I love Mizzou. But this is how I'm feeling. This is how I'm being treated here. And we can be better. So it's not like love it or leave it, like they used to tell me when I was protesting. It’s I love it and I want it to be better.
There's also the assertion that students are too coddled nowadays, that they need to toughen up. And there's something to that. I grew up in Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s. I developed a pretty thick skin pretty early in life, and the things that these students are experiencing today would roll off my back because I learned that I had to let it roll off my back or I might be hung somewhere. These students haven't had to learn that. They haven't had to have that harsh an upbringing.
And so very simply, they are experiencing what I experienced, what Jonathan Holloway experienced, what every African American, what many Jewish people in recent years, have been experiencing on these campuses. We are experiencing this and it needs to be fixed. And administration needs to pay attention. Because administration has told us that we've created this wonderful family. We had this huge campaign, called One Mizzou, with a song and a video, it was “We Are the World. “The marginalized students laughed at that. They said this is not One Mizzou, and we are here to tell you that it is not, and that it should be. So yes, that position has some validity, but it isn't everything.
And can I say something about the speech issue? I get the sense that we're making light of Halloween costumes and that kind of thing. But what happens, I mean, I have an obligation as a university administrator to protect my students against harassment, a hostile environment. What happens when the Klan wants to march on the quadrangle everyday and shout the n-word at my African American students? Am I infringing on their free speech rights when I try to limit that? They're not actually threatened. It's not a true threat. Do I then have to listen to that?
Jeffrey Goldberg: . . One of the things that's a joke about all of the protests about sensitivity––there was a reference to the Halloween costume incident at Yale––was that we axiomatically, by being [at] one of the best colleges in America, are in the top 1 percent of lucky people in the history of the universe. . . .
Michael Middleton: That's been said. By many donors and legislators and parents and other students. But the student response is that I don't hate Mizzou. I'm trying to make Mizzou better. I love Mizzou. But this is how I'm feeling. This is how I'm being treated here. And we can be better. So it's not like love it or leave it, like they used to tell me when I was protesting. It’s I love it and I want it to be better.
There's also the assertion that students are too coddled nowadays, that they need to toughen up. And there's something to that. I grew up in Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s. I developed a pretty thick skin pretty early in life, and the things that these students are experiencing today would roll off my back because I learned that I had to let it roll off my back or I might be hung somewhere. These students haven't had to learn that. They haven't had to have that harsh an upbringing.
And so very simply, they are experiencing what I experienced, what Jonathan Holloway experienced, what every African American, what many Jewish people in recent years, have been experiencing on these campuses. We are experiencing this and it needs to be fixed. And administration needs to pay attention. Because administration has told us that we've created this wonderful family. We had this huge campaign, called One Mizzou, with a song and a video, it was “We Are the World. “The marginalized students laughed at that. They said this is not One Mizzou, and we are here to tell you that it is not, and that it should be. So yes, that position has some validity, but it isn't everything.
And can I say something about the speech issue? I get the sense that we're making light of Halloween costumes and that kind of thing. But what happens, I mean, I have an obligation as a university administrator to protect my students against harassment, a hostile environment. What happens when the Klan wants to march on the quadrangle everyday and shout the n-word at my African American students? Am I infringing on their free speech rights when I try to limit that? They're not actually threatened. It's not a true threat. Do I then have to listen to that?
