Okay, we are all reading about Virginia Tech… some folks like to rekindle various debates. These issues are distractions from some of the real challenges in colleges today.
The problem is that we have opened our colleges in the name of diversity, and this includes the mentally ill, the criminal and the dangerous.
The violent Virginia Tech student was a wacko ( sorry, am I being ‘judgmental? ). What is worse is that he was a ‘known’ wacko. ….. However, even known wack jobs have rights and thanks to the “ADA“ his right and the rights of other mentally ill folks to go to college has been ensured and protected? You’ll never see a public list of rapists or fellons in your community… yep.. they have ‘rights’… but … I wonder … should they have more rights than your right to be safe or to know?
Here’s the problem facing schools today: colleges are ‘not allowed’ to discriminate against the known wackos who apply. This is no small problem. There is a wonderful story about a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that couldn’t change out of his dorm room even though his roommate became ‘unstable and scary’…. when he forgot to take his ‘meds.’ Don’t complain to the university because they did not want to acknowledge the problem and the student was forced to continue to pay for his dorm room and live with friends off campus. Not a great solution.
Don’t worry, rumors have it that Cal Poly has a ‘plan’ should something like this ever happen there. The police are to immediately surround and protect the administration building. ok, but what about everyone else?
So, let’s say you are a professor at Cal Poly, you will not know if all of the ‘mentally ill’ in your class have taken their ‘meds’ … or if the ‘meds’ are doing the student any good? Could you imagine if a professor opening their class by asking: “do we have any violent offenders in class today?, rapists?, muggers?” Or…”anyone forget taking their meds?” The professor would probably get fired, tenured or not.
Part of the failure of Virginia Tech’s administration was letting this wacko into school and then letting him continue after incidents. Another part of the problem — in my humble opinion — was the campus police ‘cowardice’ in waiting for the swat team… and no small part of the problem is the teaching of our children to be ‘compliant’ and ‘cooperate’ even in the face of true evil. Teaching ‘courage’ now-a-days is a forgotten virtue.
There was one bright spot of honor and courage … the professor who stood up to the intruder by blockading his classroom door in order to give his students a chance to escape … he knew true evil when he saw it… afterall, he was a survivor of the holocaust and he has already seen that face before. He saved a lot of students that day even at the cost of his own life. I can only hope the students he saved can fully appreciated the gift he gave them and the cost he paid.
Courage is not in holding vigils and lighting candles… but in recognizing the ‘wackos’ in our world and taking actions to keep them subdued….. there are many lessons here…
Roger Freberg
Share on Facebook
My daughter competed for the University of Florida earning a Bachelors in Public relations, before (happily for me) she finished her last year of eligibility as a graduate student at the University of Southern California as a Trojan… however, it seems very interesting to me that she is now going to one of Florida’s arch rivals as a doctoral student in Communications. Karen has good memories of Tennessee as this was the place where she won her first SEC Championship.
me… ‘what might seem trite and cliché’ in one industry when applied to another may be considered innovative!’ He was right. So, I can really see the beauty in attending a variety of universities and communities, learning from each and building a wealth of positive experience.