Letters To America U.
Princeton Students You Are Thinking Too Small
Letters To America U. is a series on higher education in America. I look at the current events on campuses and show that higher education is broken and I propose ways we can fix the system.
Princeton University students have demanded the removal of President Woodrow Wilson’s name from campus for segregating Washington, D.C. and demanded an end to the systems of privilege on campus, but these students are thinking too small, the real problem is elite universities.
Students at American universities are trying their hands at collective action, civil disobedience and are demanding administrators take action on a variety of issues, but the main issue for many is racism. We have seen many campuses light up with active protest, following in the footsteps of the noble activists of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The students have demanded a wide variety of things and different campuses have different issues. The demands have ranged from legitimate issues of racism on campus, protests against the actions of police forces, to perceived slights at Yale and now Princeton students have demanded Woodrow Wilson’s name be expunged from their university.
Students at Yale protested in outrage for the audacity of a professor to opine in an email that students should have the freedom to wear annoying and even offensive Halloween costumes, at Princeton students demand the removal of President Wilson from the college. I have no need to debate the finer points of these student arguments because of its inalienable absurdity. When I watch a youtube video of a Yale student screaming vulgarities at a college professor for an email his wife sent, I let that speak for itself.
At Princeton, the idea that the university is going to remove the name of its former President who saved the school and went on to be the United States President that won WWI is laughable. Perhaps students have made the demand at Princeton as a negotiating tactic, but the blowback from writers that reminded us Wilson appointed the first Jewish member of the Supreme Court may turn out to fracture their coalition.
Students need space to learn and demand things, even ridiculous things and learn from what happens. Students should “take chances and make mistakes” as Mz Frizzle on the Magic School Bus use to say, and we as a society should give them the space to do so.
But that is not the problem I see from all this. My problem is not that my love of terrible costumes is under attack and I have no affection for Woodrow Wilson. My problem is that according to media reports, students at elite universities are protesting not for a better America, not for a freer society, but for their individual rights as students at an elite university to have all the access to the powers of privilege that are used to the disadvantage of the rest of America.
Students in these protests are not demanding an end to the elitism of these schools, they are demanded to be fully included in this elitism. These students signed up to be a part of institutions that inherently creates a system of haves and have nots, of those with access and those locked out. Highly selective universities that serve the rich and a select few additional students, creates the very system that breeds racists, homophobic, sexist and above all classist outcomes. It is the unescapable nature of these institutions.
These elite Ivy League schools function for access to the rich and powerful, and making sure elites interact primarily with other elites during their formative years, continuing the cycle of certain families maintaining their wealth and power. When you choose to attend these schools you are signing up to be part of that system. A system which feeds the class structure we have that keeps a primarily white heterosexual male select few at the top.
Instead of demanding removing Presidents’ names from the halls and what Halloween costumes to wear, I challenge these students to demand changes that would actually end the elite university system they are a part of.
Maybe students could demand the end of their own university. Sell off Princeton’s assets and donate the proceeds along with it’s 20 plus billion dollar endowment to help the homeless. That would be an extreme option, but it would do the trick.
More realistically perhaps students start questioning the admission process and tuition of the university. Maybe students should demand an end to tuition and an end to selective admissions?
I propose ending standard admission processes. Instead Princeton, Yale and other elite schools should create basic requirements for applicants and then select students via random lottery. These colleges could also easily afford to end tuition. Colleges claim to be non-profits, then colleges should become truly open and accessible to all, educating all as a non-profit institution and give people an equal chance of getting in with no worry of being able to afford to go there.
That would change the system, that would end the elitist nature of these schools and wash away much of the privilege of the rich that are there. If students at Yale and Princeton want to put a dent into institutional racism, classism, homophobia and sexism start demanding higher education stop acting like a business and demand these schools at like well schools!
