Disorientation at Yale University

At most colleges, the students are expected to attend a day of orientation before classes begin. I recently read a report by a student at Yale University about the freshman orientation to which he was subjected. I found it rather shocking, and I will share it with you.

First, the university president gave a speech in which he stressed our need to interact with other cultures in order to prepare for global citizenship. The Dean then spoke about ways in which students could benefit from diversity. The keynote speaker was law professor Kenji Yoshino. His speech said nothing about education. Instead he discussed his own book about civil rights, which claims that gays and Muslims in America are constantly oppressed and persecuted.

The message of all Yale orientation speakers was to praise diversity, and accusing the students of homophobia and supposed contempt for Islam. Students got the message that Yale is not as interested in intellectual matters and it is in inculcating the current prejudices of leftwing professors for diversity and multiculturalism. More tedious lectures in the evening were straight-out indoctrination. Students were required to attend discussions with their freshman counselor, and Professor Yoshino's speech reiterated the theme that white men are bad, Islam is fabulous, and we need to be vigilant in the face of the male WASP bigots all around us.

This Yale student says that the reigning orthodoxy on college campuses is nihilism; that means there is no truth. The professors teach that all knowledge is political and they devote themselves to reinforcing their own brand of Political Correctness. No wonder the humanities are in disfavor and decline. It is difficult for a university to justify studying the great books of Western civilization, which uphold moral and aesthetic judgment, while still asserting non-judgmentalism as the highest ideal.