COLUMN: Raising Its Ugly Head?

From Mike Nadel's "Give 'em Hell," Fall '95 From Mike Nadel's "Give 'em Hell," Fall '95Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the dying shark of political correctness is making a final lunge towards the beaches. The shark had been presumed dead –– drowned by the embarrassment of Water Buffalo, harpooned by the fall of the speech code. Like hungry minnows waiting to lay siege to the moribund carcass, seekers of justice and color-blindness were on the verge of ending race-based quotas and set asides. But not so fast. Political correctness is back, at the University and elsewhere. In recent years, speech codes have been on the way out. Colleges across the country had been acknowledging that the idea of punishing beliefs, however repugnant, is antithetical to the idea of a university. Some schools, like the University, had to be shamed into dropping their speech codes by the media. Others just recognized what was the only right thing to do. But one by one, the codes began to drop like flies. Now the University of Massachusetts at Amherst may reverse that trend. The UMass administration has proposed a new code of "behavior" which would once again bring the iron curtain down on free expression. Under the code, speech that may offend a member of the community, including "epithets, slurs, and negative stereotyping," constitutes "harassment." Stereotyping, something that most of us have been guilty of in one way or another during our college years, would be a disciplinary offense. Speech that "offends" on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, marital status, veteran status, or disability" would be banned at UMass. The graduate students' union, which worked with administrators on developing the code, wants to add to that list. They would also sanction statements which may cause discomfort on the basis of "citizenship, culture, H.I.V. status, language, parental status, political affiliation or belief, and pregnancy status." Consider, then, the statements and phrases that can get you into trouble up in Amherst. "Republicans are destroying the country." This is sure to offend some Republicans. "Illegitimate child." Someone born out of wedlock might want to file charges. "It is sad to see someone unmarried and pregnant while she is still in school." An unmarried, pregnant classmate might be unhappy that you are passing judgment on her lifestyle choice. You're on your way to a judicial hearing. "Isn't 72 a little old to be in college?" You shouldn't have let your elderly classmate hear your witty whisper. Pack your bags. To file charges under the UMass code, you don't have to be directly involved in any incident. You only have to hear something that offends you, and you can empower the University to wreck a student's future. At UMass, they haven't got the message that the balkanizing insanity of the past decade is over. Or perhaps it isn't over. It's trying to bounce back here at Penn. On Wednesday, The United Minorities Council once again demanded that a seat on University Council be set aside for them. Though some students may not know much about University Council, it is a terribly important entity. Council is a deliberative body composed of elected undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members, and administrators. Its purpose is to advise the president and the provost on issues of concern to the University community. The recommendations that Council makes are not binding. However, ignoring the recommendations amounts to a slap in the University's face. Administrators who do such things don't last very long, so Council has tremendous influence over the shape of policy. It was at Council that the speech code died. It is at Council that it may live again. Fifteen undergraduates sit on Council. Each of them had to run in an election to win their positions. But UMC Chairperson Onyx Finney demanded that her group be awarded one of these seats automatically. Student government, she said, does not represent her "constituency." Let's consider this point. Five branches of student government are now headed by members of the ethnic groups the UMC claims to represent. Two of the four class presidents are members of such ethnic groups. The chairman and the vice chairman of the Undergraduate Assembly, who each sit on Council, are "minorities" under the UMC banner. And this year is not an exception. Last year and the year before, "minority" representation was even greater. For the last two years, the UMC made this argument to Council. They needed a set-aside, they said. They shouldn't have to run for office like everyone else. Each time, Council said no, but the more Council reconsiders it, the more they increase the chance that Council will bow to Balkanization UMass-style. Finney was asked to explain why Council should give a seat to the UMC but not to the InterFraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, or the Performing Arts Council –– three groups less proportionately represented on Council than the UMC. Finney said, she could only speak for her own group; the others would have to come and ask for seats on their own. Which, of course, is exactly what would happen. We would be on the path to running our University by interest group rather than by democracy. And we would begin by providing an automatic seat at the table to just one group –– the group whose leaders fought so hard to protect the speech code that the rest of us knew had to go. So from Amherst to West Philadelphia, the battle is not over. We may be winning, but we haven't won yet. Vigilance is the key. We must not turn our backs to the shark. When it rears its ugly head as it is doing now, we must be prepared. We must fight back until the morning its dead body washes up onto the beach. Take heart. It won't be long now.

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