Polly Awards Reveal Higher Learning's Lower Moments
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
April 6, 2004
(AgapePress) - A campus watchdog group has unveiled its annual Campus Outrage Awards for the worst abuses of tax dollars, the egregious instances of political correctness, and the most blatant suppressions of free speech to be found at U.S. educational institutions.
Every year the Collegiate Network compiles a list citing nationwide examples of the politicization and double standards that abound on college campuses. The awards, popularly known as the "Pollys," are given annually for the what the Network deems the year's worst campus outrages.
Awarded to universities, the Pollys remind the public that political correctness, curricular degradation, and violations of free speech and academic freedom remain unfortunate realities in higher education in America. Topping the list this year is Yale University, where a student sponsored "Sex Week at Yale," using university funds and facilities, and enjoying the full support of faculty and administrators.
Sara Longwell, senior program officer for the Collegiate Network, says one of the keynote speakers for "Sex Week" was a porn star from "Wicked Pictures," an adult film company. "They also had several events that featured professors giving lectures on the history of the vibrator, passing out vibrators to people, and talks like 'Sex Toys 101,'" Longwell says, adding, "It was really just a very lewd event with very little academic content whatsoever -- if any."
However, Longwell notes, this year Yale must share the top honors for worst abuse of taxpayer dollars with the University of California - Santa Barbara. A student at the California school received praise from professors and administrators for conducting his Chicano studies thesis on "Gay Men of Color in Porn." The project was presented as part of the UCSB Multicultural Center's "Race Matters Series" in an effort to legitimize pornography as an academic pursuit.
The Collegiate Network spokeswoman is almost incredulous about the student's chosen and faculty-approved topic. "He was being graded on this," she says. "This was his senior presentation. He showed a clip from a pornographic film and then discussed at length how negative representations of gay men of color in pornography adversely affect the gay men of color who watch them."
Longwell says it is important for the public, especially parents, to realize that there is a big difference between the kind of education a university touts in its brochures and the kind of education their children are ultimately receiving.
Other Dubious Honorees
At second place was the University of California - Berkeley, where Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) and Graduate Assembly (GA) illegally spent $31,000 of mandatory student fees on a campus campaign against a racial privacy initiative that would stop the state from collecting race data on school admissions forms.
And coming in third was Northwestern University, where a student falsely claimed he was attacked at knifepoint by thugs who used racial slurs. The student spoke at a campus "Stop the Hate" rally, only later to confess to police that he had fabricated his story and the hate crimes against him were all a hoax.
Also, among the many ironies and double standards that the Polly Awards emphasize was this interesting bit of contrast: While UCSB's porn thesis writer received accolades, a Roman Catholic clergyman who was delivering a commencement address at Georgetown University (5th place) received disapproval and angry criticism from students and faculty at the Catholic university, simply for citing church doctrine on sexual ethics in his speech.
The man of God dared to assert that homosexuality mocks the family, a remark that prompted some students and faculty members to walk out on the cardinal's address. Some time later the Dean of Georgetown college e-mailed a letter of apology to the student body. In it she offered free counseling to anyone who might have been traumatized by the offending speech.
