A few days ago, I had a conversation with a neighbor who revealed to me that, insofar as she would like to exercise her right to bear arms, she doesn\u2019t consider herself especially \u201cliberal.\u201d\u00a0 For this reason, she would eventually like to leave our painfully blue state of New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Yet during the course of our exchange, she also shared that her daughter is away at college. I responded: \u201cI hope that she doesn\u2019t come home hating you.\u201d\u00a0 I was half-joking, of course, but only by half. <\/em>\u00a0It was then that I told her that, being an academic dissident, I make it my mission to inform otherwise uninformed parents of what their children can expect to experience during their time in today\u2019s university.<\/p>\n A glance at a couple of recent events from two schools, one secular, the other Catholic, suffices all too easily to leave an indelible impression of the contemporary academy:<\/p>\n At George Washington University, just days after much of the Christian world celebrated Easter, a training session was held for faculty and students.\u00a0 The purpose of this \u201cdiversity workshop\u201d is to expound upon the thesis that Christians \u201creceive unmerited perks from institutions and systems all across our country.\u201d<\/p>\n The seminar is titled<\/a>: \u201cChristian Privilege: But Our Founding Fathers Were All Christian, Right?!\u201d According to the seminar description, Christians have \u201cbuilt-in advantages\u201d over non-Christians.<\/p>\n Upon their completion of the workshop, participants should be able to \u201cdescribe what is meant by privilege overall and white privilege especially;\u201d \u201cdescribe the role of denial when it comes to white privilege;\u201d \u201cdifferentiate between equality and equity;\u201d \u201clist at least three examples of Christian privilege;\u201d and \u201clist at least three ways to be an ally with a non-Christian person.\u201d<\/p>\n Over at Providence College, a Dominican-founded, Roman Catholic institution, the school has succumbed to what Anthony Esolen, one of its former faculty members, characterizes as the \u201cTotalitarian Diversity Cult.\u201d Esolen is a practicing Catholic, a scholar who famously translated Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy, <\/em>who left Providence<\/a> nearly a year ago because of what he insists is its abandonment of its Catholic Christian mission.<\/p>\n A year later, it no longer seems possible to doubt Esolen\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n Michael Smalanskas is a senior at Providence and a Resident Advisor.\u00a0 He is also a conservative Roman Catholic.\u00a0 Consistent with his job description, Smalanskas, shortly before spring break, placed a flyer on a dormitory bulletin board.\u00a0 It read: \u201cMarriage: The Way God Intended It\u2026One Man, One Woman.\u201d The flyer also included quotations affirming marriage from both Pope Francis and the Gospel of Mark.<\/p>\n Smalanskas informed National Review<\/em><\/a> that his intention in hanging the flyer was \u201cto expose a double standard on campus that certain positions\u2014mainly conservative and Catholic positions\u2014are not welcome here and are treated with hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n Furthermore, conservative and Catholic views \u201care just not protected in the same way\u201d as the beliefs of others.<\/p>\n But within hours, Smalanskas was besieged<\/a> by \u201call sorts of harassing text messages,\u201d and, according to The College Fix<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> even his fellow RAs \u201ckeyed into his building after hours to undo his work as a Providence employee.\u201d<\/p>\n When a mob began forming outside of Smalanskas\u2019 room, campus security insisted upon escorting him to another building as \u201ca precaution.\u201d\u00a0 During his interview with LifeSite News, <\/em>Smalanskas supplied a glaring example of the moral divide separating traditional conservative students from the campus left.\u00a0 \u201cThere had been a pro-lesbian bulletin board up for the entire month of February in one of the female residence halls,\u201d he remarked. \u201cBut nobody was rioting outside of the girl\u2019s door.\u201d<\/p>\n Things got so bad for Smalanskas that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t even go brush my teeth for several nights without facing a mob\u201d in the hallway.<\/p>\n Smalanskas\u2019 fellow RAs and other students are calling for his termination and, eventually, someone posted on the wall of Smalanskas\u2019 dormitory bathroom a drawing of him about to be raped by a man.<\/p>\n Despite all of this, however, Providence College has allegedly done nothing so far to aid Smalanskas except to offer him<\/em> \u201cmental health services.\u201d\u00a0 After he was whisked away in a squad car to an undisclosed location for his own safety from the left-wing mob, Smalanskas called the chaplain\u2019s office for support.\u00a0 Yet the priest \u201cdidn\u2019t even want to come.\u00a0 When he did finally show up,\u201d Smalanskas recalls, \u201che basically begged and pleaded with me to \u2018graduate in peace,\u2019\u201d and \u201ctold me that I was \u2018throwing culture bombs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n To this priest\u2019s credit, though, Smalanskas says that he is now \u201covercompensating\u201d for the manner in which he treated the beleaguered student on the evening that he was targeted.<\/p>\n Not everyone has been willing to repent. In March, Smalanskas and his faculty advisor, James Keating, met with the Vice President of Student Affairs, Kristine Goodwin, the Vice President of Mission and Ministry, Father R. Gabriel Pivarnik, and Providence\u2019s attorney.\u00a0 Smalanskas and Keating asked for the school to publicly condemn the treatment to which Smalanskas had been subjected; publicly reaffirm the Catholic mission of Providence, underscoring that Smalanskas\u2019 exhibit comports with traditional Catholic teaching; and publicly insist that Providence is a safe space for \u201cfree speech.\u201d<\/p>\n School officials refused to take any of these measures.<\/p>\n The Vice President of Student Affairs, Ms. Goodwin, did send out a rather lengthy email to the student body imploring for all of its members to treat one another with respect.\u00a0 She also mentioned that while Smalanskas\u2019 position on marriage was consistent with that of the Church, it is \u201conly a part\u201d of Catholic teaching that, \u201cwhen taken out of context,\u201d \u201ccan have detrimental consequences, especially if it ends up alienating people from the truth that it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodwin then urged students to \u201cwalk in solidarity with SHEPARD\u201d as it holds its demonstration to promote \u201cunity, affirmation, and inclusion even amidst controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n SHEPARD, you see, is the organization that called for the Providence community to \u201cstand in solidarity with the LGBTQ*\u201d in a \u201cmarch against homophobia and transphobia.\u201d<\/p>\n