President Lawrence Resigns

AsleepAtTheWheel
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 06:55:51 +0000

@sjillian15 – Don’t worry, you’ll be fine as long as you parrot all the standard progressive rhetoric. Get out of line, and you’ll be called out for your white privilege. It will be even worse if you’re a guy. Brandeis is all for diversity, as long as it’s not diversity of thought.

As an alumnus I donated to the school for decades. Both my kids as toddlers wore tee shirts that read “Brandeis University, Class of 20??”. My son was admitted last year with a $15K/yr merit scholarship. We were about to re-visit the school in April when the whole dust-up with Ayaan Ali kicked up.

You see, several years before that Brandeis awarded an honorary degree to Tony Kushner. One of Kushner’s choice quotes (among many): “The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community.” Jewish students, faculty, alumni (yours truly included), and donors objected. President Reinharz explained that the University bestows honorary degrees based on accomplishments, and not because of political opinions. Kushner got his honorary degree. Fast forward to last year, when Muslim students and progressive faculty were offended by Brandeis’ offering an honorary degree to Ayaan Ali, a true hero who’s risked her life to bring to light the abuses of women under Islam. President Lawrence went running with his tail tucked between his legs, and withdrew the Ali’s honorary degree. Can’t offend the Muslim students. Jewish students, sure, but not Muslim students.

We informed Brandeis that we’d be cancelling our visit, and that my son didn’t feel that, given his middle-of-the-road politics, he’d be comfortable there. I told the alumni/development people to not bother soliciting me any further. As stated above, the school is a parody of itself.