UChicago, Racist E-mails, and the Life of the Mind
If you don’t go here, you probably have no idea what this post is about. While the issues at stake matter very much to the students here at the University of Chicago, they unfortunately fall into a common pattern of campus racism, xenophobia, and other prejudice, and probably haven’t found their way onto your “trending” bar or Twitter feed. But while the content of this latest episode is not “surprising,” it is still disappointing. Buzzfeed has the specific details for you in this article, “Leaked Racist Emails Reveal ‘Toxic’ Culture At University Of Chicago Fraternity.”
As is usual when racism occurs on college campuses, many people have framed this as an issue of free speech. This is, after all, a university, right? Shouldn’t people be able to speak their mind here, of all places? Aren’t the people making a big deal out of this just being too easily offended?
I always prefer listening to people to making assumptions about what they think or what their situation is. My social network doesn’t overlap very much with the affected parties in this instance, so I went to the Internet. To get a sense of how some of the students here are feeling, here are some posts from the Overheard at UChicago Facebook page, in response to an attempted apology by the AEPi president:
Issues of free speech on campus are usually couched in terms of “offense” — either something is offensive and must be suppressed, or someone is too easily offended and must be placated. The content of these e-mails offends me and most other people on this campus. If that was the only issue, I would be inclined to agree with those who say statements like these should be protected by our commitment to free expression.
But as just a few examples illustrate, “offense” is not the only issue for some of our students. This is also about safety and security. And this is why it’s important to remember what a university is. It’s not just a place for people to study, learn, think, or debate.
“Life of the mind” is a phrase you hear thrown around a lot at UChicago — often with at least a tinge of irony — but it fairly represents the University’s self-conception. UChicago likes to think of itself, both institutionally and among its student body, as a cerebral, scholarly place, the kind of place that doesn’t just put up with the “ivory tower” label but actively embraces it.
We’re all about that life of the mind. There are few other school in the country that can boast such an intense, and arguably unbalanced, dedication to hard work and intellectual endeavor. Our official motto is Crescat scientia, vita exscolatur: “Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.” But around campus you’ll hear people quote others, or see them on t-shirts or coffee mugs: “Where fun comes to die.” “Producing well-read virgins since 1890.” “Where your best just isn’t good enough.” “Eat. Sleep. [Go to the] Reg[enstein library]. Repeat.”
But our single-mindedness regarding academic achievement doesn’t change the fact that UChicago is, in fact, a university, and a university is about more than just the life of the mind. Like most other colleges and universities in this country, we eat within a stone’s throw of the library, sleep just minutes from our lecture halls, and gather in our spare time on the quad or at the student center. Here at UChicago we take salsa lessons or grab a pint in the building between the university chapel and the business school. We meet friends for coffee in the same building as the university bookstore. We go to the gym across from the campus art museum. This campus is where we attend parties, formals, art exhibits, seminars, lectures, student group meetings, stand-up performances, concerts, and film screenings. It’s where we play Humans vs. Zombies in the fall, where we go ice skating in the winter, and where in the spring we host the world’s largest and best scavenger hunt (known simply as “Scav”).
Even at UChicago, where students take nerdiness, virginity, and plain old irrelevance (“I get how it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?”) as a point of pride, the University still exists as a comprehensive community. While it may not qualify for the sociological designation of a “total institution,” the fact is that here, as on campuses nationwide, every aspect of student life is tied to the university. There is no “life of the mind” apart from the lives of the body, soul, and spirit. UChicago is where (to paraphrase one of my primary sources) “we live and move and exist.”
That’s why safety and security matter to our students. Even though we are all committed to the life of the mind, no one can do it all the time. We need to be able to leave the lecture hall or the lab or the seminar room, walk back to our homes, and inhabit a space that is private, nurturing, and yes, safe. For the students of this university, whether they live across the street from the library or within a ten minute walk of campus, what people say on campus matters, because it’s what people are saying where we sleep, eat, work, and play.
Maybe it would be better if none of this were true. Maybe “going off to college” should be less about personal discovery and social blossoming and more about academic or vocational instruction. Maybe it would be better if our universities had a model like they do in the UK, where many students live at home and commute to class, and there aren’t the kind of extensive community resources that there are on residential campuses here. Maybe UChicago should eliminate its residence halls, dining facilities, gyms, theaters, coffee shops, and the Pub, just like it cut out major college football over 70 years ago.
These aren’t uncommon ideas, and I think they have some merit. But we should be making decisions based on the system we have now, not the one we wish we could have. Right now, my fellow students live their lives in and around this university, and they deserve to feel safe here. Any visitor to Hyde Park can witness the University’s fanatical dedication to our physical safety — the UCPD, emergency pylons on every block, and people whose only job is to stand on street corners in big blue jackets from the evening until the early morning. Why, if the university is willing to go overboard to protect our wallets and cell phones, are they so reluctant to protect our minority students from the kind of prejudice, intimidation, and harassment they can encounter just from walking to class or eating a meal?
The University is taking (yet another) official survey and hosting numerous forums for students to speak out, which may or may not be the minimum they feel necessary. Should the people responsible, if identified, be punished? They have certainly contributed to “ an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or educational environment” (Section III of the Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct), while the section on “Civil Behavior in a University Setting” certainly seems to apply to their conduct towards the Muslim member of Student Government whom they slurred. It remains to be seen whether any action will be taken, or if the University’s own policies on these issues will even allow action to be taken.
For my part, I’ll say this. I am grateful for the Muslims, people of color, and Palestinians on this campus. To be completely honest, I don’t know that many of them. But they have as much a right to be here as I do, a right to feel safe and secure while eating, sleeping, “Reg”-ing, or whatever else they do on this campus. They enrich this community with their heritages, perspectives, and cultures. If someone loves the life of the mind enough to endure snowpocalypses, back-breaking course loads, zero nightlife, and a tiny dating pool, they need to be here, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability status. I want them here, and I know that my experience here at UChicago has been attenuated by our overwhelming dominance of majority culture students.
The life of the mind means being stretched, challenged, and confronted. If students of color, religious minorities, and others feel like UChicago is not a place where they can live safely and happily while they pursue their studies, they won’t be here to stretch and challenge and confront me and the other majority culture students on campus. We will miss out on the perspectives of their identity groups and their own individual ideas and contributions and personalities, and they will miss out on the debilitating, exhilarating, one-of-a-kind experience that is the University of Chicago. We all have a good idea of what a flourishing university community looks like in theory. Now let’s make it work in practice.