NEW: The University System of Georgia has:-Banned DEI statements in hiring and admissions.-Added free expression training to student orientation.-Declared political neutrality.-Required the teaching of the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and more.
Students often oppose free speech for their enemies while relying on it themselves. Georgia has hosted a number of pro-Hamas demonstrations that walk right up to the line of First Amendment protection by asserting support for a State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Often it's those same students who join such protests and yet tend to support speech suppression towards their political opponents. It's not that they don't have principles, it's just that power rather than liberty tends to be behind those principles.
UGA compares well to a lot of academic institutions in that there has remained some room for sanity there. Georgia's Board of Regents are early adopters of this movement to recommit to founding principles.
Meanwhile, most of the college is much more concerned about Georgia's admission to the upcoming College Football championships. This has been the wildest college football year I can remember. Georgia whipped UMass last week by 21 points, but has lost to Alabama and Ole Miss; Alabama lost to Tennessee; Georgia beat Tennessee; Georgia also beat Texas, which it may play again in the championships if Texas beats Texas A&M, who just lost to Auburn, who usually can't beat North Korea. (Georgia beat Auburn by 23 points.) Alabama will also be admitted, in spite of losing to Tennessee, Oklahoma (who also lost to Tennessee, Texas, and Ole Miss but who beat Auburn), and, incredibly, to Vanderbilt.
Sanity, then, prevails in having more interest in the football than the politics; but sanity definitely does not prevail in determining who is going to win the championship games. You'd do as well to flip a quarter as to try to understand the stats.
8 comments:
As someone who disdains college sports, I'm pleased to see Georgia reaffirming support for our nation's constitutional structure, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights, along with the school's taking concrete action in furtherance of that reaffirmation.
Eric Hines
I disdain professional sports; who could possibly care about the mere mercenaries, lacking connection to community or home, traded for dollars by rich corporations? It's only college ball for me: at least they really are playing for something they belong to and have a stake in themselves.
College football in the South is a religion as much as sport. Likewise Texas high school football in towns smaller than, oh, 250,000 people. Passions run high and loyalties run deeper.
And yes, this has been a very odd season.
LittleRed1
Nebraska beat Bama this weekend so they are out of the Natty. They will have to settle for one of the other major bowl games. Thankfully, my local college still has its future in its hands. Beat a pretty good gamecocks team and they most likely get an at large bid.
I was shocked to hear OU beat Alabama. I think we've ended up in an alternate universe.
See? Sanity prevails: people are much more interested in the football than the politics.
Honestly, I think a crazy, tumultuous season is great for College Football the first year they switch to a playoff format. Makes the increase in teams that go to meaningful postseason games make more sense, and makes the playoffs that much more important to determine who really can step up when it's absolutely necessary.
Not to diminish the good news of sanity in the academic world at Georgia.
"See? Sanity prevails: people are much more interested in the football than the politics."
I remember in October of 2016, Mom clipped an editorial cartoon showing activists on opposite sides of the political spectrum setting their differences aside to cheer on the Cubs.
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