Those wacky college deans.
First, Dean of Students Debra "Debbie Downer" Wood of Scripps College willfully--or not--misinterpreted a flyer advertising a party at Claremont McKenna College, finding all kinds of racism and sexism therein (here, and here).
Then, in a bit we did not cover, but which was commented on here, Dean of Students Jeanne Noda at Harvey Mudd College got all exercised over a comment written at her college on a white board, to wit, "Hillary is a foxy lesbian".
Now, in a trifecta (but always remembering there are still two more colleges to go), Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum at Pomona College waxes earnest about what she sees as the very possibly incorrect origins of the Pomona College Alma Mater (circa 1910):
The nut graff of her memo, reproduced below, is this:
Learning that the origins of our Alma Mater--a song that many of us cherish, and one we sing at Orientation, Commencement, and numerous other times--is rooted in a minstrel show that was held at the College is very upsetting.Really.
Is there some kind of chromosome for over-reaction that all college deans are required to possess? Or do the deans see their jobs as firewall busybodies protecting ever and ever small groups from ever and ever slighter slights? Don't they have better things to do with their time?
It's a losing battle to take on college students in this way. They are too shrewd in manipulation and we think there is at least a possibility that is going on here.
We remember a challenge taken on by a sociology class of ours in college. See if you can make the professor lecture from the corner of the room with one leg in the wastebasket--that was the idea. We never did get her leg in the wastebasket, but by paying rapt attention whenever she approached the corner and by shuffling papers and losing interest whenever she departed from it, we had her far into that corner most of the time.
Don't these over-educated, over-reactive professionals know when they are being played?
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