Preface
I honestly had no idea where to start on an assignment like this. I understood the assignment but when searching for an article on a rhetoric journal I was lost. I wanted a piece that I could truly invest in and spend time understanding, as well as honestly enjoy the argument laid out in front of me. With nothing piquing my interest and work giving me too many hours, I have run out of time. I went to The New York Times op-ed page and finally found an interesting article I could actually sink my teeth into.
Article Review
I came from a small community college in Glendora, California to a four-year private university in Orange, California. When I showed up here I was lost, the size of the school wasn’t a problem due to it being rather small in comparison to other colleges, but one thing got me. The political landscape is much more prominent at a university than a community college. Whether it may be that at a junior college you aren’t living on campus and hanging around the school just because or due to the fact that no one cares about each other’s political views in a classroom setting unless it’s political science. Either way, I have been thrown into a new wave of political views in a school setting that I have been used to. Now, do not get me wrong I am not the one arguing if that is a good or a bad thing, just a new thing I was not prepared for when moving into my apartment. (Though I should have I do live in California). I was expecting heavier course loads, constant studying and reading, and that making friends as a Junior transfer would be extremely hard for a person like me. (In fact, I still have only found two friends and I haven’t even worked up the courage to ask if they would hang with me. I am pathetic but that is beside the point). While I knew life on a college campus would involve politics especially given the climate in the U.S. we are living in today; maybe I just didn’t expect this much of it.
While searching for this assignment I came across The New York Times opinion page online, and I saw something I thought I never would have seen on the known left-leaning newspaper’s website. An article titled, “Think Professors Are Liberal? Try School Administrators,” by a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, Samuel J. Abrams. The piece showcases non-curricular activities residence life and the Office of Student Affairs had put on at his school leaning toward “overtly progressive events – programs with names like “Stay Healthy, Stay Woke,” “Microaggressions” and “Understanding White Privilege.” Abrams also addresses the ratio problem of administrators in what he called “‘student facing’… – those whose work concerns the quality and character of a student’s experience on campus” giving an average ratio from his survey of 900 administrators as 12-to-one.
Within the article, Abrams’ viewpoint gives his audience a look at how much the college landscape in the United States is lopsided in political views. Showing the student body with less than a two-to-one ratio of liberals to conservatives being taught by a six-to-one ratio of professors and socialized by an “incredibly liberal group of administrators” with a 12-to-one ratio, as stated before. In a country divided based solely on party lines, this type of divide is extremely damaging for the students attending college now. Seeming as if the only way to get by in college is to either shut up or be liberal, showing that the only events provided by the administration are leaning to one side. It “threatens the free and open exchange of ideas, which is precisely what we need to protect in higher education in these politically polarized times.”
Abrams uses narrative criticism in giving a background of events as well as the email he had received “from a senior staff member in the Office of Diversity and Campus Engagement… soliciting ideas from the Sarah Lawrence community for a conference, open to all of us, titled ‘Our Liberation Summit.'” The story he had set up at the beginning of the article drives his point of view to the astonishing ratio of liberals in the country’s colleges and universities, showing that higher education should be kept as a mutual environment for discussions and debates on issues, rather than one side this and the other that. The use of narrative criticism in this light adds to the severity of the situation due to how a group of people is being silenced or threatened to conform to the administration and the college environment’s viewpoints. With Abrams providing a real instance of administrators holding an event leaning so far to the left, “the conference would touch on such progressive topics as liberation spaces on campus, Black Lives Matter and justice for women as well as for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and allied people,” the reader of the article possesses an understanding of the side of a leaning conservative in a school setting; ultimately driving his point of free exchanging of ideas among students as a clear notion all of America should consider. Thus, the polarized nation could put down their metaphorical pitchforks towards each side to finally grasp the fact that everyone as a human being that is all created equally.
While I enjoy the university I attend now, there are instances in which I feel like an enemy of the state. I am not very political in a sense of keeping up with every story that CNN, Fox News, Washington Post, The New York Times, and even Twitter cover. Due to the fact that I have been under stress ever since I got to this school nine weeks ago, so while the news may interest me on occasion I find myself in the middle of these two sides. I see the views of both parties, I agree with certain ideas on either side like most people in this country. While I am not used to seeing the amount of politics shown on a college campus until I got to Orange, reading this article got me thinking about a setting in which both sides can sit down and have helpful conversations about each other’s respectful views and ideas.
While reading this, I thought of the Brett Kavanagh walkout held on campus about two weeks ago. I loved the students shining a light on a topic many find uncomfortable to even talk about, as well as the event itself simply empowering women to stand and fight against sexual violence and even harassment is amazing to see. Even though I enjoyed the girl to girl, or woman to woman strength being shown, the complete shutdown of the student who had a different point of view on the Brett Kavanaugh situation was a clear example of what Samuel J. Abrams was getting at in this article. Though I am unclear of who orchestrated the event, the walkout was given a microphone for students to be heard while speaking in front of the crowd; most likely provided by administrators and faculty. I would think if the event were opposite they would provide the same for say a celebration of the nomination passing, but from what Abrams has stated and from hearing about the argument that ensued from the walkout because one student thought differently, I am hesitant.
If you get to know me you would learn that I am a part of the LGBT community, I am extremely loyal, I put every single person I care about even in the slightest before myself always (I need to stop doing that, I have been a doormat for many people), and I am very open-minded toward every idea that passes its way to me though if I find it complete crap I leave it in the past. But how Abrams shows his audience, of what I believe to be students in college and parents of those students due to his last sentence, is that we are living in a new time period; one filled with extreme viewpoints and ideas that if you aren’t with me on an issue, you are the enemy. His survey of administrators gave me a new perspective on something I didn’t even know I already knew like I said before I live in California, the bluest state of all the blue states (I mean we have Hollywood). Though to read about it made me kind of sad, I am seen as an enemy because I think that that student at the outwalk should have been able to state his view, I am the enemy because I think that transgender people should be able to have rights, I am the enemy because I think different in one issue than someone else. Now, Abrams has a great solution that I think many should consider, what is there to lose in have a civil conversation or debate on issues that we are faced with in this country or even the world. Maybe that way we could bring people together, understand each other’s own views whether we agree or don’t, respectfully debate and be civil in life. Like I said before, we are all humans, created equally; but we aren’t treating ourselves as equals and I think Abrams has a solid article that showcases how life is at the moment in college and how we can come together and change it. Honestly, I hope his thought comes true.
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