American College Personnel Association (ACPA): How College Administrators are Learning to Brainwash Your Children

University administrators from across the country are associated with, and attend conferences put on by, the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). This vile organization, made up of like-minded individuals who feel they have the right to indoctrinate college students and shape the opinions of young people and public policy, promote conferences such as the Residential Curriculum Institute, which has been tied to the recent University of Delaware dormitory indoctrination controversy. Take a gander at some of the dreadfully Orwellian language used to describe this institute (emphasis mine):

You will have the opportunity to ... practice developing assessable learning outcomes; and examine the impact this shift in thinking and practice has on you, your department, and students. Ultimately, you will learn to uncover the opportunities to deliver educational messages in every student interaction.

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Finally, we will provide you will a number of "take-away" resources to guide you and your department through the uncovering of your "essential education" for students and the process of an inevitable culture shift.

Take a gander at the goals and mission of this organization, and keep in mind that tax-payer funds and student fees are what are providing the membership and attendance fees - and that college administrators are using their positions, often state funded, to promote, endorse and advocate certain leftist positions and policies:

The mission of ACPA is founded upon and implements the following core values:

Core Values:

• Education and development of the total student.
• Diversity, multicultural competence and human dignity.
• Inclusiveness in and access to association-wide involvement and decision-making.
• Free and open exchange of ideas in a context of mutual respect.
• Advancement and dissemination of knowledge relevant to college students and their learning, and to the effectiveness of student affairs professionals and their institutions.
• Continuous professional development and personal growth of student affairs professionals.
• Outreach and advocacy on issues of concern to students, student affairs professionals and the higher education community, including affirmative action and other policy issues.

The liberal bias here is incredible. This corrupt organization also puts on events such as a Conference on Multiracial and Multiple Identities as well as a Tools for Social Justice Conference.

Fear for the minds of our youth. And pay close attention at the subversive manner in which public policy is being shaped, and fairness and open-mindedness are being slowly dismantled by the fascist left.

Scumbag Michael A. Gilbert at the University of Delaware Responds

It did not take long for an idiot at the University of Delaware to respond to the recent controversy regarding the university's attempts to indoctrinate students. Here is an article suggesting that their programs actually ENCOURAGE free speech:

Residence life program encourages free speech

3:27 p.m., Oct. 31, 2007--The University of Delaware residential life educational program has been misrepresented and its goals distorted in a report generated this week by an advocacy group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
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"The central mission of the University, and of the program, is to cultivate both learning and the free exchange of ideas," said Michael A. Gilbert, vice president for student life at the University. "Far from stifling free speech, the residential life educational program seeks to encourage free speech."

Anyone who has even glanced at the "program" can see what an outrageous claim this is. The very documents used are written not to "encourage learning" nor a "free exchange of ideas," but instead encourage reprogramming of thought and a stifling of any sort of unbiased, "free" exchange of ideas. There are specific "ideas" being promoted, and a belittling of contrary, "unacceptable" ideas. This would be fine for an editorial or an essay, but it is hardly the providence of taxpayer funded administrators to endorse or promote specific modes of thought - and to viciously and systematically attack others.

And as was determined, free speech was not encouraged - were the RAs ever given the opportunity to decide upon topics, even? No, they were expected to promote a specific, and idiotic, ideology, and were expected to try to sway students to this particular point of view. There was no opportunity for free debate - students were lectured at by those in positions of power, not even educators, and told what to think.

Students who choose to participate in the residence life educational program are not required to adopt any particular points of view but are presented with a range of ideas to challenge them and stimulate conversation and debate so that students can reflect on various topics, including diversity.

Anyone suggesting that these students were presented with "a range of ideas" is a motherfucking lying sack of shit. They were presented with an extremely biased, radical, narrow set of ideas and questions - just look at the materials and first person student accounts. Was there even the slightest attempt to "challenge" students that didn't already hold the "correct ideas"? No.

"Our goal as educators is to expose students to ideas and to engage them in self-examination of the roles they hope to take in society once they leave our campus," Gilbert said.

Another lie is provided here from a braindead leftist administrator. The goal here was to expose certain students to certain ideas, not all students to different ideas. "Self-examination" was never encouraged for students that already felt the way Gilbert and his social engineering ilk feel. The phrase "they hope" here is laughable. No, it's much more about what Orwellian campus thought police - student individual hopes and conscience never entered into the equation.

Students in residence halls are not forced to participate, and certainly are not forced to agree with any particular point of view. Students are faced with questions, but the answers to these questions are their own. There are no "correct" answers.

Another lie. Students were told that meetings were "mandatory", over and over again, by university figures (the RAs). University officials promoted the program as different from "voluntary" ones. People not providing "'correct' answers" were considered troublemakers. Certain idealogical "outcomes" were expected.

"The notion that students at the University of Delaware can be coerced into any one point of view does a great disservice not only to the institution but also to the student body, which is bright, creative and represents a wide array of thought," Gilbert said.

No one claimed the students were not intelligent - enough of them saw right through this pathetic scheme to notify media outlets and FIRE! But they WERE coerced into attending these indoctrination seminars, and their rights were maliciously violated by an aggressive administration that sought to brainwash them. What's pathetic about this Gilbert fuckwit is that his very own policies and programs treat students as anything but "bright" or "creative." They were treated like sheep by a corrupt institution who felt it had the right to attack them FOR representing "a wide array of thought," and viciously attempted to reprogram this thought into a narrow, radical, leftist, homogeneous blob.

The residential life educational program, which has been developed with the express intent of helping students think critically and analytically, has had the input of student leaders, faculty and administrators and is continually assessed through feedback from individuals and through focus groups.

More lies. How are students served by being provided with a very narrow set of engagements with specific expected "outcomes" in opinion? Obviously, the people running this program are themselves INCAPABLE of critical or analytical thought. Here's an idea - leave the "educating" to the educators (faculty), which is biased enough already. Administrators and student leaders should focus on running the university and providing support services - not mind-control.

Michael A. Gilbert is deplorable scum of the worst sort, and all too typical of the mind-set of college administrators nowadays. Free thought is being replaced by "correct thought." Usually it is not so blatant, but this sort of stupidity is occurring across the nation.

Other Examples of the Orwellian Shift in Higher Education

I've been following the excellent work FIRE! has been doing for some time now. Their exceptional campaigns to protect the freedom, liberty and individual rights of students and tax-payers in higher education through increasing public awareness and direct communication with the various fascist left-wing nutwits of academia has been nothing short of impressive and admirable. Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about the chilling reeducation camps that are the dormitories on the poorly run University of Delaware campus, another case of a clear violation of individual rights by unprincipled liberal university administrators brought to national attention via FIRE!

While keeping up-to-date on this latest vileness to be spewed forth from the darkening ivory tower, I ran across another thought-provoking editorial on the FIRE! site. One thing it provides is a disquieting summary of a few of the other horrifying attempts at brainwashing by freedom hating, mind-control freakjobs infecting US university administrations and faculty which FIRE! has come across:

At Michigan State University, for instance, students were subjected to the Student Accountability in Community (SAC) seminar, a pseudo-psychological “early intervention” for students who used “power-and-control tactics,” such as “male/white privilege” and “obfuscation,” which in the eyes of the university constituted “any action of obscuring, concealing, or changing people’s perceptions that result in your advantage and/or another’s disadvantage.” Amazingly, students could be required to attend SAC merely for, among other things, playing a practical joke or engaging in constitutionally protected speech. Not only were students required to participate in SAC sessions, at their own expense, or else risk being unable to register for classes, they also were forced to answer a series of questionnaires to describe how they were taking “full responsibility” for their actions, until they used language the session director deemed acceptable. Under pressure from FIRE, the university finally put an end to its controversial program in May 2007.

In another memorable recent case, FIRE exposed the fact that Columbia University’s Teachers College utilizes an ideological litmus test for its students, requiring them to demonstrate a “commitment to social justice” and to recognize that “social inequalities are often produced and perpetuated through systematic discrimination and justified by societal ideology of merit, social mobility, and individual responsibility.” Teachers College has to this point failed to heed FIRE’s suggestion that those “dispositions” be dropped altogether as a requirement for students. Columbia’s attempt at thought reform has been covered everywhere from The New York Times to, in an article written by Greg Lukianoff, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and its ultimate resolution will certainly be tracked closely by FIRE.

Other cases abound. At Washington State University, a student was threatened with dismissal from the College of Education in 2005 for espousing “incorrect” political beliefs, such as the idea that white privilege and male privilege do not exist. The university, by contrast, required its education students to demonstrate “an understanding of the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation and privilege in American society.” The student was therefore subjected to diversity training and ordered to sign an agreement to follow all program “dispositions” to his professors’ approval. Only when FIRE intervened did this chilling episode of compelled speech reach a satisfactory conclusion, as the university agreed to rescind the contract and subsequently agreed to refrain from forcing students in the future to abide by the same program “dispositions.”

Likewise, in 2005, Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work attempted to force a conservative student to publicly advocate for “progressive” social changes if he wished to continue his pursuit of a master’s degree in social work policy. In response to the student’s inquiry about a possible liberal ideological bias in a particular class, his professor admitted to holding certain biases, suggested that anyone who held views antithetical to his own might not be fit for a career in social work, and even told the student that if he found himself disagreeing with the school’s political philosophy, he should consider leaving or finding another line of work. Not only did the student receive a failing grade for a paper in which he advocated the “wrong” viewpoint, he was told that he could no longer pursue a master’s degree after he chose an internship of his liking rather than one that met the school’s ideal of advancing “progressive” policies. It is almost inconceivable that a school would intrude to such a great extent into one’s personal beliefs and ability to pursue the career of one’s choosing.

Finally, in 2003, a professor at Citrus College in California gave her students an assignment to write letters to President Bush, but only gave credit if they expressed opposition to the war in Iraq (no credit would be given for letters expressing any other views, including support for the war). As if one instance of compelled speech were not enough, the same professor required her students to again write letters with a specific viewpoint, this time to a state senator. To their credit, the college’s administration recognized the problem after being contacted by FIRE, moving quickly to remedy the situation. Specifically, they sanctioned the professor, apologized to the students, assured them that their grades would not be affected by the assignments, and vowed that such a scenario would never arise again on their campus. If only every college administration were that responsive and prudent!

Lest you think these are only a few isolated cases, check out this page, on which is compiled a much longer, more comprehensive list of links to similar cases FIRE! has dealt with. Obviously, these Orwellian policies and programs are a growing concern on our nation's college campuses - and likely in K-12 systems as well. It also makes you wonder, how many other similar attempts, perhaps smaller and more isolated, have not yet come to the attention of nation's public?

The University of Delaware VS. Freedom and Liberty

From FIRE!

For those that doubt that higher education in the United States has been shifting from being left-leaning and liberally biased to full-fledged socialist indoctrination and iniquitous brainwashing, read on:

University of Delaware Requires Students to Undergo Ideological Reeducation

October 30, 2007

FIRE Press Release

NEWARK, Del., October 30, 2007—The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students’ rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech.

Before accusing me or FIRE! of hyperbole, I encourage you to read the entire press release. For example:

Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs). The RAs who facilitate these meetings have received their own intensive training from the university, including a “diversity facilitation training” session at which RAs were taught, among other things, that “[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”

I can only imagine what sort of moronic twat-faced ass-licker came up with this definition of "racist." In fact, I can think of few statements more morally reprehensible and downright bigoted than the suggestion that "the term [racist] applies to all white people." Some of those "other things" RAs were taught:

“REVERSE RACISM: A term created and used by white people to deny their white privilege. Those in denial use the term reverse racism to refer to hostile behavior by people of color toward whites, and to affirmative action policies, which allegedly give 'preferential treatment' to people of color over whites. In the U.S., there is no such thing as 'reverse racism.'"

Amazing. The definition ITSELF is an example of "reverse racism," while at the same time claiming that reverse racism does not exist. It would be genius in its sheer hubris and effectiveness as double-speak, were it not so frightening and malicious.

“A NON-RACIST: A non-term. The term was created by whites to deny responsibility for systemic racism, to maintain an aura of innocence in the face of racial oppression, and to shift responsibility for that oppression from whites to people of color (called "blaming the victim"). Responsibility for perpetuating and legitimizing a racist system rests both on those who actively maintain it, and on those who refuse to challenge it. Silence is consent." - Page 3

Even more stupid than the rest. By claiming that "non-racist" is a "non-term" (and doubleplusungood!) , they're suggesting that non-whites cannot be non-racist either, because non-racism is non-existent. That's a lot of non. Non's not just a retarded Kryptonian bent on world domination.

Since we white people are used to being called "racist" every six minutes by some leftwing fruitcup, many of us are desensitized to such outwardly prejudicial language - and this sort of crap has been promoted for so long, maybe a lot of us just ignore it. But the university's attempts at reprogramming the minds of the young do not stop with their heavy handed "advocacy" of their misguided views on race relations. The University further attacks personal liberty and intrudes upon the rights of students as free-thinking individuals in the following fashion:

The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as “When did you discover your sexual identity?”
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According to the program’s materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain “competencies” that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of “citizenship.” These competencies include: “Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society,” “Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression,” and “Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.”
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At various points in the program, students are also pressured or even required to take actions that outwardly indicate their agreement with the university’s ideology, regardless of their personal beliefs.
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In documents relating to the assessment of student learning, for example, the residence hall lesson plans are referred to as “treatments.”

Terrifying. From this, I can only infer that The University of Delaware is run by insane zombies whose goal it is to turn the brains of their students to complete mush for easier undead digestion.

The University of Delaware is "a state-assisted, privately controlled institution." Oddly, they also claim that "the central mission of the University of Delaware is to cultivate both learning and the free exchange of ideas." Not a single public dollar should be going to this corrupt institution. In fact, maybe its administrators should be convicted of fraud and misuse of public funds. It's fraud to call this "education," and utterly unethical to be using tax-payer funds to enforce racist ideas about whites.

Another interesting assessment can be found here (at FIRE!).

Yet Another Reason to Privatize Education (Birth Control for Babies)

Yesterday, I wrote in a post that "Public education and the arrogance of government-employed officials reached what may be an all time low... I'm utterly surprised every time it sinks lower, but amazingly, our left-wing nanny-overlords, who seem hell-bent on controlling every aspect of our lives while at the same time both destroying liberty and public security, find new ways to climb down to the bottom."

I'm happy to announce that it took less than 24 hours from writing those words for me to realize that public education could toilet-spin EVEN LOWER:

School officials have given the green light to a Portland middle school to offer birth control prescriptions through its student health center.

The plan, offered by city health officials and approved on a 7-2 vote by the Portland School Committee, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8... where most students range in age from 11 to 13.

Wonderful, just wonderful. Up next, nap time will be replaced with orgy hour in kindergarten. Even worse:

Under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive.

Parental responsibility and rights are quickly being removed from the equation, as we see children becoming closer and closer to becoming the "property" of a socialistic state.