It's only been three weeks since the last incident, but this week the dean of the St. Thomas law school declared that a student could not get credit for the school's community service requirement when they were volunteering to help out with STD/STI and cancer screening, because it was at the evil Planned Parenthood.
The service approval process is governed by a student committee that had indeed approved the student's project at Planned Parenthood. Dean Thomas Mengler simply over-rode it. This is another trend at St. Thomas, give students authority to make decisions surrounding their academic experience, but over-rule them whenever they make decisions you don't like. It's very patronizing.
It's like the time when I was eight years old and my mom asked if I wanted to take a bath. I said no. And then she told me that I needed to take a bath anyways. It's just like that.
What's the point of being permissive in the first place if you're just going to butt in at your fancy?
The best part of the Star Tribune article on the matter is the very end:
Mengler, who issued his letter after receiving complaints from faculty, students and alumni, said Thursday he plans to meet with Borton soon, but he's not changing his mind.
"My decision is final," he said
This is great because, first, it implies that he made the initial decision without any dialog with the student (which would be a jerky thing to do); second, he is taking the George W. Bush approach to conflict resolution,* that is: You can feel free to talk to me, but it's not like I'm going to listen or it's going to matter at all.
The article notes this is part of the "latest philosophical wrestling match" on "the school's attempts to balance religious and academic values." (Emphasis mine.) We can't really say that the school is trying to "balance" Catholic values and scholarship. It's pretty clear that the school is an arm of the Catholic moral police first and foremost and not a place that values democracy or freedom of thought or speech.
* The George W. Bush method is a variation of the Dick Cheney method. Cheney, when facing conflict, will simply tell you to "fuck yourself." Bush's method is to tell critics to fuck off, without actually using the words "fuck off."
2 comments:
This kind of behavior never surprises me from any Catholic institution. After 8 years of high school and college, I'm surprised when the moral ugly stick doesn't come crashing down on rational ideas.
I guess I hope for more from the Catholic institutions. Don't you think it has gotten worse over the years? Does it have anything to do with the new pope and more recently appointed bishops?
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