Universities' Intolerance About Language

American universities pride themselves on being areas of free speech, where anyone can say anything he wants, no matter how ridiculous or even un-American. Universities defend all the leftwing and radical professors who sound off with socialist and communist notions. But funny thing, a lot of universities simply will not tolerate language and words that are not, in their view, politically correct. The commentator George Will just wrote an interesting column called "Closing the American Mind." His article is about how college administrators make students conform to politically correct language, or be disciplined. George Will gives many examples of this campus intolerance, and I'm going to try to tell you about some of the examples without laughing.

The University of Oklahoma declared that no university resources, including email, may be used for "the forwarding of political humor/commentary." The College at Brockport in New York banned using the internet to "annoy or otherwise inconvenience" any one. Texas Southern University has a comprehensive list of banned language that includes "verbal harm" from damaging "assumptions" or "implications. Texas A&M promises "freedom from indignity of any type." Davidson banned "patronizing remarks." Drexel University forbade "inappropriately directed laughter." Rhode Island College prohibited certain "attitudes." Western Michigan University banned "sexism" including "the perception of a person "not as an individual, but as a member of a category based on sex."

In many colleges, leftwing activists have seen to it that students entering universities receive lists of forbidden words, such as the use of "man" in references to human beings. An example would be using the word "congressman" for any member of Congress; that is claimed to be an affront to feminists. George Will ends his column with the exclamation ,"Good grief!"

Listen to the radio commentary here: