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If you don’t think that the war on conservative college students is any worse then it was five, three, or even one year ago, then you are sadly mistaken. Professors at Utah Valley University, for example, have been instructed to report students who they consider to be making the campus “less inclusive,” which is essentially just a roundabout way of censoring viewpoints that do not conform to those of the majority.
Professors were encouraged to report these “troublemakers” to the school’s Behavior Assessment Team, which would then presumably take further action against the student in an attempt to correct his or her “inappropriate behavior.” The College Fix was able to obtain a copy of the guidance letter that was sent to all faculty at Utah Valley University, which gave professors advice on how to deal with the various types of poor behavior that they may witness, including stalking, bullying, and signs that a student may do physical harm to himself or to others.
“I am afraid that this Behavior Assessment Team is a bias response team in disguise,” explained the anonymous professor that provided the letter to The College Fix. “Yes, even in a deep-red state at a university in one of the most conservative counties in America, faculty are afraid to speak their minds publicly if their opinions aren’t 100 percent politically correct.”
“In the past,” the professor continued, “we have always been told that [the Behavioral Assessment Team] was for students who were a threat to physical safety… or for students who are disrupting the learning process. This year is the first time when we have been encouraged to report students for their words that may go against the inclusivity initiative or that may subjectively make someone feel unsafe.”
The question that needs to be asked here is the same question that should be asked of companies like Facebook and Google whenever they launch new initiatives to combat hate speech or fake news: who is in charge of the definitions? If the Behavior Assessment Team at Utah Valley University wants professors to report students who are making the campus “less inclusive,” it only makes sense that we ask who exactly is in charge of setting the standards, as well as how the term “less inclusive” is defined. Does it refer to students who are, for example, openly racist and advocate for segregation on campus? Or does it merely refer to students who vocalize their support of something other than social justice and progressivism? These are types of questions that anyone who cares about liberty and the freedom of speech should be asking.
But it’s not just Utah Valley University that has attempted to silence “non-inclusive” speech. In August of 2015, a professor of cultural studies at Washington State University told students that they would face disciplinary action or even fail the entire class if they used terms like “illegal aliens,” “tranny,” and even the words “male” and “female.” If this isn’t proof that the left’s push for political correctness has gotten completely out of control, then what is?
Beyond the fact that the First Amendment rights of conservative college students are eroding before our very eyes, what is equally as upsetting is that most young progressives completely support it. If its not speech that complies with the principles of social justice and liberalism, then they feel it should be banned from campus altogether. This was seen not long ago at UC Berkeley, when conservative commentator and activist Ann Coulter was denied the right to speak on campus amid fear that liberal students would riot. Similar things have happened to political activists Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos as well.
Perhaps young leftists are the ones who need to be moderated by a Behavior Assessment Team instead of young conservatives. They are the ones that don’t believe in inclusiveness, after all. (Follow more news on this subject at Groupthink.news.)
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