At the University of Iowa, a dental student used the school’s listserv — intended for professional announcements only — to disseminate his political views.
Like other students who had violated the school’s listserv policy, he was summoned for a “professional misconduct review hearing.” He “was in trouble,” Vanity Fair magazine says, “Not for voicing his opinion, but for using the college listserv to do so.” As the VF article says,
“The college’s goal is to train dentists, which includes keeping their digital communications professional. Students I spoke to recalled classmates using the College of Dentistry listserv to sell things—and once to send a rude email to a professor—and being punished for doing so. At least two people familiar with the College of Dentistry confirmed that more than one student had been admonished for improper email use.”
But this student decided to make himself an exception. “He wrote in a Facebook post on November 9 that he was being threatened with expulsion for being a conservative,” which wasn’t true. He “reached out to lawmakers” — who, in Iowa, are conservatives — who ultimately convened legislative hearings, and threatened professors with loss of tenure and he college with loss of funding. While never giving them a chance to clear the record or explain what really happened.
There are, of course, some Democrats in the Iowa legislature. They’re not in the majority, that’s all (as of 2021, the Iowa state house is split 59 (R) to 41 (D), and the state senate is split 32 (R) to 19 (D). One of them told VF,
“House Republicans have turned Government Oversight into a grievance committee. They latch on to the perceived injustices felt by people who share their political views and use the committee as an appeals court where the majority party serves as prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and executioner, limiting who can testify. In the meantime, the sentences were determined in advance of the trial, such as abolishing tenure at the public universities or forbidding the discussion of ‘divisive issues.’”
On the Seattle liberal blog HorsesAss.org, many liberal posters have observed that conservatives practice “grievance politics.” Even when they’re in the majority and are governing, they cast themselves as victims. Liberals frequently comment on conservative “victimology,” the hidden implication being they’re not victims at all, and actually are the aggressors. Broadly speaking, this takes the form of “culture wars;” and the newest battlefront is so-called “cancel culture,” which specifically refers to complaints by conservatives that they’re being silenced. (You’d never know it, from the amount of noise they make.)
In fact, the Vanity Fair article is titled, “How a University of Iowa Reply-All Email Became Ground Zero For the Cancel Culture Wars.”
Another implication of “victimology” is they’re lying. The student wasn’t being disciplined for his political views, or expressing them; he was going to be admonished for violating the dental school’s email policy and misusing its listserve (essentially, by sending unsolicited and unwanted emails to all the faculty and students; as the VF article points out, one adjunct professor, in response to the student’s emails and the responses they provoked, asked the IT department to remove him from the listserve). And he wasn’t going to be expelled; like other students who had violated the policy, he was going to be “admonished” not to do it again.
Ever misuse a company email, or know anyone who did, and get called in by a supervisor for a talking-to? That’s what happens in most workplaces. And shouldn’t colleges prepare their students for the world of work? Isn’t that part of their job?
There are always people who think the rules don’t apply to them.
(It shouldn’t be necessary, but I probably should, remind readers at this point that proprietary email systems belong to proprietors — employers, colleges, government agencies, etc. — and the owners of those email systems have the right to decide who can use them, for what purposes, and to make rules for their use. In addition, courts have ruled that proprietors own the content, and users have no expectation of, or right to, privacy when they use proprietary email systems.)
The subject of the unauthorized email debate on the dental school’s listserv system was diversity and inclusion — a hot-button topic not only among conservatives, but also among the school’s minority students. The school, it seems, has a diversity problem. Like the adjunct faculty member who asked a brown student if she was from Afghanistan. She said she wasn’t.
“’Where are you from then?’ he wanted to know.
“’Iowa,’ she replied, and left the room.”
The “victimized” conservative student won. The disciplinary action was dropped. He’ll graduate without having learned that dentists, too, have to follow rules; and there are consequences for breaking them. He may learn that lesson some day in front of a professional licensing board.
As for the minority students, the VF writer says, “The students of color I spoke with, meanwhile, seem exhausted. One student said she serves on a diversity committee and has just ‘checked out.’ Only one of the students I spoke to wants to stay in the state; everyone else wants to leave. Several told me they’ve stopped participating in admissions events. ‘I can’t tell Black people to come to this school,’ [that student] said. One of the dental school’s professors says, “This has damaged our reputation as a school. People aren’t going to want to come here anymore.”
Can’t say I blame them.
As for me, I’ve stopped listening to these people, because they have nothing to say. There’s no debate going on about what we should be doing, or the best way to do it. They’re a bunch of little kids whining about not getting their way — even when they get their way. But it doesn’t stop there. On their worst days, they attack decent people who are simply trying to do the right thing — for not going along with their indecencies (e.g., racism, gender discrimination, etc.).
That, you see, is their real grievance.
Read the article here.