Nanny State Sex, Race Wars and Gender Madness: The school year that was 2015-16

As we say goodbye to another school year and greet summer, The College Fix would like to reflect on what we’ve learned from campus progressives who have made 2015-16 another prime example of higher education madness.

Using some of our most popular stories from the last nine months, we’ve identified several themes that sum up much of the illiberal logic that has taken over academia: nanny state sex, race wars and gender madness.

Nanny State Sex

Certainly one of the most popular topics that has swept the headlines is administrators’ desire — and feminists’ willingness — to regulate and have regulated every square inch of physical intimacy on campus, from flirting to fellatio.

University could punish neck rubs as sexual battery under new policy – January 2016

Yes, East Carolina University students who are good at neck rubs could find themselves hauled before a sexual misconduct board under recently approved rules.

No touch left behind — all will be regulated under the watchful and careful eye of those who know best. At USC earlier this year, students were even given a how-to manual on how to kiss without accidentally raping someone.

Students given five-step checklist on how to kiss without committing sexual assault — January 2016

For inquiring minds, here’s the process:

Affirmative: We’re really excited to share this kiss with you and we’re letting you know!
Coherent: We’re present and able to recognize exactly what’s happening …
Willing: We made the decision to give you this kiss ourselves, without pressure or manipulation …
Ongoing: Should you come back for another kiss, check in to see if we’d still like to give you one.
Mutual: Sure, we offered you a kiss, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it. …

It’s gotten so bad that even off-campus shenanigans are now under the purview of Title IX totalitarians.

UT-Austin seeks to expel male student for alleged off-campus sex assault with non-UT student — March 2016

Read that headline again. Talk about a lack of jurisdiction. By the way, no criminal charges were ever filed against the male student over the alleged assault, and the alleged victim herself never filed an official complaint with campus or city police.

But it’s just another reminder of how far things have gone when it comes to campus sexual assault adjudication. Consider this:

Female student straddles guy without his consent, he gets suspended for rape — May 2016

Talk about a hook-up gone bad. This is a powerful reminder that just because a gal is sitting on your crotch and fondling you — that doesn’t make it affirmative consent, pal.

Onward and “forward.” Forward — wasn’t that President Obama’s theme for his 2012 re-election campaign? Boy he missed the mark. It should have been “backward,” because our commander in chief, who could have led this country toward a post-racial society, instead took it in the opposite direction.

Race Wars

Every professor who teaches a class from an identity politics lens is ultimately interested in one thing: Convincing students America is evil and unjust and their campuses are hotbeds of institutionalized racism. With that, nearly 100 colleges hosted race-related protests over the last school year, and demands for various reparations were thrust upon largely spineless administrators.

Student protests against ‘systemic racism’ hit 72 colleges and counting — December 2015

The demands included calls for more black professors, more “counselors of color,” and more top administrators charged with increasing diversity. Additional demands include more money for cultural centers or the construction of new ones, mandatory diversity courses, cultural sensitivity trainings for students and employees, financial aid and other support for students in the country illegally, a say in who the universities hire, and a free education for black and indigenous students.

That’s not all. Black college students across the country have demanded that they be segregated from white peers, calling for “safe spaces” on campuses meant only for so-called students of color — something of a turn-around from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Meanwhile, Oregon State spent $11,500 on three racially segregated social justice retreats for students that examined topics such as white privilege, racism and oppression. One of the retreats, “Examining White Identity in a Multicultural World,” gave white students a chance to examine their “white identity” and “white privilege,” as well as to discuss “strategies to dismantle oppressive systems.” Not to be outdone, there’s this:

White college students are undergoing a weekly “deconstructing whiteness” program at Northwestern University — February 2016

Some answered all this by using satire when more than 30 “White Student Union” pages sprung up on Facebook in the wake of race protests. But in the end, humor diffused the situation best.

UCSB’s ‘White Student Union’ releases hilarious ‘list of demands’ — December 2015

WE DEMAND the designation of four white-student only rooms at UCSB in the Anacapa Dorms that will be used by Cultural Affinity groups to provide a safe space for those who wish to learn about and celebrate Europe@n heritages and traditions … WE DEMAND the creation of an White Student Development Resource Center, to be named the Napoleon Bonaparte Resource Center, with a designated office space as well as safe space for hosting events… WE DEMAND the hiring of two permanent full-time admissions staff members of non self-hating Europe@n descent and a series of enhanced recruitment strategies, with a budget of $300,371, to recruit students of Europe@n descent to UCSB. …

Gender Madness

Finally, is it possible to look back on the 2015-16 school year without remembering it was the year when men with penises could simply say they were women and enter any bathroom they damn well choose, and those who disagreed were labeled scum of the Earth? Plenty of colleges got in on the act.

It was a year when a campus talk critical of transgenders prompted the need for a safe place. A professor at Vassar College came under attack for not using transgender students’ preferred pronouns. The University of Connecticut offered classes to help transgender individuals alter their vocalization. The University of California system began offering six choices for students when checking off their “gender identity.” And believing in two genders is a “hate crime” under police investigation at a Catholic college.

This sums it up:

Universities teach gender fluidity as fact to college students — September 2015

Students warned: Bulging biceps, big guns advance unhealthy masculinity — October 2015