Osler's Razor

It sounds as though it's time for some kind of open, campus-wide discussion to see where these troubling signs are coming from. And yes, I think you're right to insist that an institution that advertises itself as Christian live up to those high standards.
 

It's not Baylor's problem, per se, though I do wish that the University's reaction to and censure of the offending students were stronger, as strong as that reaction and censure is when someone expresses unpopular opinions at Baylor.

Personally, I'd blame these students and their uncritical, ignorant viewpoints.
 

On a more macro level, I wish there was more interaction with the Baylor community and the rest of the Waco community. I think that if the student body were to get out and actually experience Waco outside of the Baylor bubble, it would open their minds to a lot of things many of them have probably never experienced before.
 

I feel ashamed to have a degree from Baylor. Maybe that's too harsh, but contrast that with the fact that I have NEVER been more proud to be an American than on Nov. 4. This occurred on Baylor's campus - therefore, it's Baylor's responsiblity. I hope that the University acts quickly, fully investigates these racist acts and suspends the students involved. That is the only way to cure the ugly, back-ward thinking ways that are being displayed on Baylor's campus. What a disgrace.
 

One of the things that disturbs me is how I heard about the alleged sign-burning event. I heard about it from an email. From the interim president of the university. Then, I found out that there were no signs that were burned. In an email. From the interim president of the university.

Perhaps its just me, but I don't think that the president of a university, interim or otherwise, should be commenting on unsolved matters. Am I the only one that thinks this sort of behavior from an official of the university is grossly irresponsible?
 

I want to preface all of this with the fact that I find the acts reported in the past week to be horrifying, and as someone that loves Baylor very much I am disappointed and saddened by these acts.

However, I want to pose a question. Anon 6:24 proposes that the students be suspended. Lane seems to think some very harsh punishment is necessary.

Assuming they didn't do anything violent, is there anything they did that is illegal? I mean, they're expressing horrible and backwards ideas about race, but those are ideas all the same. Seems to me that if someone comes out on a university campus and wears a shirt expressing solidarity with terrorists (an example of this might be morons that wear shirts emblazoned with the face of the murderous thug Che Guevra) that there might be many students that find such behavior to be very disturbing. But I doubt any of you would argue they should be suspended because they're offending Cuban students whose relatives died or suffered during the revolution.

But, isn't the solution to engage those people and not push them away? Isn't the solution in a place that is meant to foster education and thinking not to push the students away and move them out of the university environment, but instead to hope that their continued exposure to the university environment, to people from different backgrounds (ethnically, racially, economically, etc.) will change those attitudes?

I understand the reactions you are having, but I'm always worried when the solution to somebody's expression of ideas is to eliminate the person instead of trying to show them why the idea they are expressing is wrong.

Just a thought. I know, I know...I'm just jumping up and down saying "you're bad" so feel free to ignore me.
 

I'm not sure if "expulsion" was what I was going for, but think of this, RRL: Baylor revoked the scholarship of a homosexual seminar student a few years back, a sort of de facto expulsion. I'm all for free speech, but Baylor as a private institution uses its private institution status at times to censor that speech. If Baylor, for example, doesn't allow a group of homosexual protestors attempting to change the dialogue within the Christian community about homosexuality on campus and threatens to arrest any student that attends or in any way works with those protestors claims of "free speech" for racists start to sound a little hollow.

I think that education ought to be the first thing done. I recall at UT one of our orientation experiences was to receive a class on the different kinds of people we'd meet jointly sponsored by the LGBT and ethnic students associations'. I thought it was well put together and showed that all kinds of people really have a lot of common ground.

Did that stop groups like the YCT from staging a "Hunt The Illegal Immigrant Day" (complete with white students chasing around other white students in ponchos and sombreros) or a "Straight Pride Day?" No. Would those groups have been served by more education, or would they just have taken a sarcastic view of the process as an attempt to make their "edgy" conservative views into proper PC views?

I think vigorous public dialogue is necessary. I think there needs to be strong and strident condemnation of the offenders (at least one of whom was stupid enough to confess his racist remark on local TV news) from both official and unofficial sources. The government may not be able to censure these idiots for their intolerant views, but good men and women surely can. The marketplace of ideas doesn't mean that one must maintain a respectful silence for bigotry.
 

I think my point on this wasn't that any given punishment was necessary for any specific act-- it was a broader indictment than that. I was saying that there is something wrong with the culture at Baylor that fosters these types of things.

I think RRL has a point-- that speech is worthwhile, and the racist viewpoints are best expressed openly, so they can be rebutted. I'll dig up a link from my own law school experience on that in a minute. However, this stuff is something less than worthwhile speech because it is anonymous-- hanging a noose and running away and hiding isn't exactly a dialogue.

One thing that allows this culture to exist is that we don't talk openly and often about race. That needs to happen.

I'll be doing that on Wednesday, at a panel discussion at 7:30 in Keyser Auditorium. The topic is the upcoming presidency of Barack Obama, and I'm sure some of these issues will come up.
 

Oh how I wish I could just leave work for that. See if you can bully someone into making a transcript. Some studious gunner capable of typing every word.
 

The panel is sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity. Lane, it's at 7:30 at NIGHT. What is the job of yours with the crazy hours? Working at Whataburger? Critiquing PC exercises?
 

I wish. Both of those sound more humane. I do document review for a discovery company. And yes, I will be working till 6:00 on Wednesday, so I don't think I can make it.
 

It may not be the culture at Baylor per se. The UT football team cut a player for putting something derogatory about Obama on his Facebook profile:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27650801/