Protest Problems: Colleges struggle with backlash from parents, donors over left-wing demonstrations
Published September 01, 2017
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/01...ee-speech.html
Both the University of Missouri and Evergreen State College have been rocked by left-wing demonstrations, some of which administrators in both schools allowed.
Now both have had to deal with falling enrollment and a decline in funds - and there are fears the situation could spread to other schools....
...Now Evergreen State has experienced a
decline in enrollment that has resulted in
a $2.1 million budget shortfall, forcing the liberal arts school to announce
layoffs. The blow to the school's
enrollment and finances is seen as stemming, at least in part, from the showdown.
In 2015, the University of Missouri's main campus, which is in Columbia, experienced escalating tensions over allegations of racism at the school – and protests became violent. Several administrators acceded to demonstrators' demands that they resign.
School officials were widely criticized for not gaining control over the protests, which grew in size and tension, even resulting in some demonstrators lashing out at reporters who were trying to cover their message.
Since then, freshman enrollment has plunged by 35 percent, and
donations to the athletic department have
dropped 72 percent over the year before, according to published reports....
...If left-wing groups continue making demands and administrators
acquiesce to them, other schools may
suffer the same fate as Missouri and Evergreen, according to one expert.
"I don't think we have seen the full extent of the fallout at the University of Missouri," Sterling Beard, editor of The Leadership Institute's Campus Reform, told Fox News.
"Violence is coming from Antifa groups on campus. Now they control administrators and shut out competing ideas they disagree with or don't like."...
....One school that has resisted the kinds of demands Missouri and Evergreen gave in to is the University of Chicago.
In the summer of 2016 incoming freshmen at the University of Chicago received a welcome letter that made the institution's commitment to the free and open expression of ideas clear:
"Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings,' we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own."