Thursday, May 5, 2016

Mizzou Pays the Price for Political Correctness

Last Sunday I posted about Jillian Kay Melchior’s report on the decline and fall of the University of Missouri. While the press is filled with stories of impudent, obstreperous and rebellious college students, Mizzou, as it is affectionately called, has suffered because its craven administrators caved to said student activists.

Melchior summarizes the continuing fallout:

Fresh figures show graduate enrollment down 1,140
Plunge compared to ‘Tulane after Hurricane Katrina’
New data shows that existing students are also bailing 
Budget down $32.5 m
Two residence halls closed, library hours and staff reduced
315 students have no lodging
50 cleaning and maintenance jobs gone
Tenured faculty have to take out own trash; cleaners face unemployment
Some wonder if Mizzou will survive

In more detail, Melchior explains:

The university’s declining enrollment, combined with some added expenses for new diversity initiatives, has left Mizzou with a $32.5 million shortfall, the Columbia Tribune reported recently. Overall, the university is bracing for a 5 percent cut across the budget over the next fiscal year.

Mizzou’s new pinch will literally change the campus’s landscape. In March, the university announced plans to accelerate the scheduled closure of two dorms. A month later, it announced the shuttering of two more residence halls, eliminating lodging for an additional 315 students.

Less than a week later, Mizzou also announced that it will cut at least 50 cleaning and maintenance jobs. The university is also considering the slashing as many as 11 additional such operational jobs over the summer.

Practically, these job cuts mean that faculty must take out their own trash, sidewalks will be trimmed only twice a year, tailgaters’ Saturday litter won’t be picked up until Monday morning, and snow removal will be slower next winter, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

The Operations Division isn’t the only department axing jobs. The university’s library system is also preparing for a $894,000 reduction in funding. Starting next semester, students will no longer enjoy 24-hour access to Ellis Library. Six of the eight library positions vacant at the end of this semester won’t be filled. The library is also considering how many part-time and student positions it will need to cut next year.

Additionally, the University will implement a hiring freeze, as well as a moratorium on raises for many staffers.

No one is crying for Mizzou. We can only wish that other universities will start paying a similar price for caving in to political correctness.


3 comments:

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

No justice, no peace. Or enrollment. Or donations.

Sounds like justice to me.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

One thing worth consideration is this: What is political correctness?

If you look at the word pair itself, it's "political," which is all about power, and "correctness," which is all about being right. Yet the Left tells us that those in power are bad, and that there is no right-wrong... everything is relative. So when the Left wields this kind of authority on college campuses, all I can think of is that those in power believe all this ludicrous mayhem and disruption are right. Because if it were wrong, they would use their power to forbid it. Kind of like when conservative voices are invited to campus and then their invitations are rescinded because conservative people don't think correctly. Ostensibly, this is how PC colleges believe power should be used: to stifle or disrupt topics or conversations that are wrong.

This extends into a lot of other areas of life as well...

I saw a story that California is putting marijuana legalization on the ballot. It's interesting... is smoking pot politically correct? So the powerful say that recreational or medicinal use of marijuana is right? And because they are in power, they get to say what the law is. The law isn't what the law is, it's whatever those in power choose to pursue and prosecute. So the powerful are effectively endorsing the use of marijuana. And federalism doesn't apply here, because federal law is clear that marijuana is an illegal drug. So they say they can defy federal law, and lots of state voters and politicians will agree with them.

How interesting.

So how do you think it would go if gun rights were restricted or curtailed... or even confiscated? What if federal law said you couldn't own a firearm for your own self-defense? And then let's say that Montana had a ballot issue that passed, allowing law-abiding citizens to own and possess a firearm. Does anyone think for a moment the federal authorities would stand by and allow this?

Despite protestations, there is no "open-mindedness" by those on the Left. It's all about power. It isn't about creating a more sensible, just, safe society. It's about whatever they think is right. It's not relative. And it's not noble. They're no different than the rest of us. And it is time we started speaking up and talk back to power about what we think is right.

This comment may strike you as all being a bit simple, but I'm finding simple is powerful. When you ask that people define their terms, you find they've never really thought this stuff through. So I offer it for your consideration...

Sam L. said...

One thing I did not see cut were administrative positions. Most noticeably, the Diversity Chief.