{"id":12148,"date":"2012-12-07T00:22:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T05:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=12148"},"modified":"2015-05-25T14:58:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T18:58:08","slug":"outrageously-dumb-campus-moments-of-the-week-special-uc-berkeley-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/outrageously-dumb-campus-moments-of-the-week-special-uc-berkeley-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Outrageously Dumb Campus Moments of the Week (Special UC Berkeley edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The College Fix<\/em> presents a roundup of the top scandals, screw-ups, and stupid decisions involving college campuses this week. Usually this feature includes stories from campuses across the nation, but events recently at and associated with the famed UC Berkeley have been so outlandish as of late that it gets special attention this week.<\/p>\n

3. Ah, Berkeley. The birthplace of the modern college student revolt. In the 1960s, massive protests, sit-ins, alternative publications and other radical efforts captured the nation\u2019s attention and, for better or worse, forever shaped the nature of public discourse at today\u2019s universities.<\/p>\n

But long gone are the days when radical students, fired up for socialist movements, have much room to complain on college campuses, which now completely cater to leftist causes. So a recent sit-in at Berkeley was largely laughable, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Wearing face masks and flying banners calling for \u201cdiversity,\u201d five students chained themselves to the school\u2019s Eshleman Hall on Nov. 27 while more than 100 students stood in solidarity outside, The Daily Californian <\/em>reported.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Their cause? Ready for this? They were upset administrators wanted to consolidate some<\/em><\/strong> Multicultural Student Development offices, according to The Daily Cal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, for the days when there was an actual good reason to chain oneself to a school building.<\/p>\n

And here’s the\u00a0kicker:\u00a0The Daily Cal<\/em> quoted a top administrator as saying the Multicultural Student Development offices\u2019 changes \u201cwere intended to streamline administrative tasks and to allow for more resources<\/em><\/strong> to be used for outreach and the retention of minority students. He said the fact that the changes did not receive any attention until a year after their implementation suggests that students were not negatively affected by the consolidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a scandal! Here\u2019s another one ..<\/p>\n

2. Over the last week or so, Berkeley has made national\u00a0news (internationally, really, if you count the headline<\/a> in the UK\u2019s Daily Mail), not for any esteemed academic accomplishments or similar benchmarks. No, the story coming out of its venerable halls is how easy it is to have sex on campus.<\/p>\n

Enter UC Berkeley\u2019s most recent \u201cSex on Tuesday<\/a>\u201d column in The Daily Californian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes \u2014 having sex on campus is actually very doable, and it\u2019s lots of fun. It\u2019s also surprisingly easy,\u201d the UC Berkeley columnist writes. The down side? \u201cConcerns about not getting to \u2018finish\u2019 when doing it in a public place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m just not ambitious enough to have goal-oriented sex, but sex isn\u2019t always about cumming and having orgasms,\u201d she writes. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s for sh*ts and giggles. Having expectations and goals can ruin the fun of it. Besides, it\u2019s probably not a good idea to ejaculate in public places \u2014 just saying. Keep this in mind should you ever attempt sex on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

This columnist did just that, in fact, then detailed her adventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trick to doing it in Stacks,\u201d she advises, \u201cis to go at a time when there won\u2019t be a lot of people studying at the same time and to pick a section of books that people won\u2019t ever think to look up. \u2026 We decided that, out of the millions of books in the library, the shelves full of books on religion seemed like the best place to f**k.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nice touch. She continues to dole out more advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a place to have loud ass-slapping sex, the classrooms in the dungeons of Moffitt served us well after Main Stacks because the ground floor of Moffitt was completely deserted,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

For a finale, she encouraged others to do the same:<\/p>\n

\u201cLearn to appreciate your sexy side and experience a few frisky things during your time here. Take the Female Sexuality DeCal, have sex in Morrison, do the naked run and talk to people who are willing to share their personal experiences. The wide acceptance and freedom of open sexual expression are among the greatest legacies we have the opportunity to uphold at this university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, that about sums up Berkeley\u2019s greatest legacy. No argument here.<\/p>\n

1. And finally, we focus the spotlight on comments made recently by two Berkeley educators, arguments\u00a0that are as outlandish as they are dead wrong.<\/p>\n

A prominent UC Berkeley diversity scholar accused Republican politicians of \u201cstoking white racial anxiety for political gain\u201d and using \u201ccoded phrases \u2026 to transmit signals to a right-wing, resentful white base.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Powell, executive director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley, is the lead author on the 2,000-plus word piece<\/a>, which states in part:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right wing can talk about Obama as a food stamp president or how he may not really be American. We knew such attacks on the president and the black community often had serious racial overtones. Yet, if this observation was made, not only would they deny these accusations, they would cry foul: that critics were playing ‘the race card.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once again, here comes the claim that conservatives and Republicans who voice concerns over the growing welfare state are just a bunch of ignorant racists. Instead of addressing the merits of the argument against government dependency, leftists continue to rely on insulting ad hominem attacks.<\/p>\n

The second Berkeley educator to catch our eye was a prominent environmentalist professor who linked ignoring global warming with watching people die during a recent guest seminar at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

Citing monsoons and other extreme weather phenomenon on the other side of the globe, Kirk Smith, a global environmental health professor, said climate change is \u201ca moral issue.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith told an anecdote to the audience of a professor who ignores a drowning child on campus as he rushes to teach a class. He then tells his students about ignoring the child, and they are aghast. Later at home, the hypothetical professor opens his mail and throws away a letter from the United Nation\u2019s Children Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one thinks that is immoral, and why not,\u201d Smith said of throwing away the UNICEF letter. \u201cWhat\u2019s the moral distinction? \u2026 Today climate change is a sin of omission.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Smith argued, those who ignore global warming and climate change are not just guilty of a sin of omission, they\u2019re also teetering on the verge of a sin of commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I come back from a site in the Third World, and a $16 pizza would feed a family in Guatemala for an entire month \u2026 we\u2019re not going and shooting kids in the head, but we are moving in the distinction a bit to the commission side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Just remember folks, the next time you throw away\u00a0a soda can in the trash rather than recycling bin, or purchase that SUV – you\u2019re killing a kid in Cambodia – on purpose.<\/p>\n

IMAGE: Dave Cobb\/Flickr<\/p>\n

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