Dear Wake Forest:
As I set off for Wake Forest, fixing my sights on the beautifully kept greens that surround Wait Chapel, the majestic magnolias that roll across campus, and the beautiful sunshine that smiles on our ‘Mother So Dear’ daily, I half-expected an idyllic college experience in all facets.
A year here at Wake Forest has certainly done away with that illusion.
In my opening article for The Wake Forest Review, ardent in my commitment to free speech and discourse, I charged for political engagement across campus.
I wrote, “this engagement requires that we all hold ourselves to high standards as intellectuals and as people. In the spirit of these standards, I challenge each and every student to have conversations outside of their comfort zone, Professors to promote fair and stimulating spaces of learning that allow all opinions, and the administration to reconsider their current stance on free speech at Wake Forest University.”
Without much doubt, I have been fairly disappointed with the engagement of students and faculty on both sides of the aisle.
Conversations I’ve had outside of my comfort zone nearly exclusively occur in the classroom and under artificial circumstances, like through prodding by Professors. While classrooms “allow all opinions” as I desired, it is clear they do not value them equally.
As a conservative in an era where academia is decidedly left-wing, I expected no different, and welcomed the challenge. Regularly, I invited students I disagreed with in class to further deliberate on ideas and rarely did conversations prove to be anything more than a game of one-upmanship instead of addressing differences and common ground.
When Professors feel it compulsory, even necessary, to make constant side-comments about our current President, who is rarely topical in classes, it is dubious to claim that all ideas are treated equally or fairly. While it is excessive to say that one should feel that their academic or social well-being comes under threat as a result of political affiliation, it does not miss the mark to state that the Wake Forest community does not have a healthy respect for discourse outside of its mere pedagogical value.
I have had multiple professors who are openly liberal whose views I respect, but not a single one who has been open about supporting right-wing politics. Whether this is a function of taking classes in departments and a climate where professors tend to be left-wing, or that professors fear divulging counter-cultural politics would damage their credibility with students, I cannot say.
Regardless, if the purpose of the university experience is to seek truth wherever it may lead and to prepare students for life in the professional and real world, then one would certainly assume that a larger range of ideas would be presented inside departments and classrooms. I should qualify this: my experiences in getting to know most of my professors in my first year have been fantastic. Wake Forest has top-rate professors committed to their students and to learning, notwithstanding any political affiliation.
What troubles me far more than any off-topic and frankly unprofessional faculty side-comment about the President’s alleged incompetency is the attitude of most students towards political engagement. Deep apathy strikes many students outside of the classroom. In the classroom, I have found that students have a blatant disrespect for what our forebears would consider concrete, unalienable and sincere truths. These truths include that the first amendment protects nearly all speech, the world continues to get better, and that America is easily one of, if not the most egalitarian country in world history, despite its flaws.
This problem, however, is hardly surprising and is not exclusive to Wake: a recent Gallup poll found that 53% of college students believe ‘diversity and inclusion’ is more important than a constitutional right to free speech. The system built by our founding fathers, meant to stand the test of time and has stood for over two hundred years, now finds itself under siege from petulant students who concern themselves more with feeling offended than exercising their natural rights as Americans.
The pursuit of truth requires uncomfortable situations. One cannot sidestep around that fact. If the average college student prefers feeling safe to discovering the truth, it is hard to claim that America’s future leaders (and yes, that means current Wake Foresters as well) will be capable or even competent at a basic level in a professional setting.
The plague of Wake Forest-wide incompetence is already showing on a daily basis. The goal of the Wake Forest Review is not to provoke or to incite outrage, but instead, provide opinions and commentary from a perspective that has been relegated to the margins of campus discourse. Wake Forest students do not take the publication seriously, and it is a shame.
They are only ensconcing themselves in a cocoon of ignorance by doing so. As an organization, we are equally institutionally committed to this perspective-sharing and to repairing the lost and trampled-over art of respectful and fair discourse on our campus. It is abundantly self-evident that there is still much work to be done. From fringe groups on campus writing vulgar responses to our work, to faculty deeming us ‘propaganda’, it is clear that discourse is still far away from being had on a regular basis.
The Old Gold and Black has to peddling intellectually lazy, fear-mongering articles about how the Review accepts funding from donors than criticize our work on its merits and shortcomings. Yes, we accept donations, and yes, we have a board of directors. So does the New Yorker. So does the New Republic. Wake Forest itself accepts donations and has a board too, but dare the Old Gold and Black call into question anything that may challenge the political ideology or personal agendas of its writers?
I cannot perfectly defend every article we have ever written, nor do I desire to. Of course, as a free-thinking citizen, I am bound to have plenty of disagreements with other writers. If the writer of the Old Gold and Black article discussing the Wake Forest Review bothered to do the diligence of looking into our opinion section, the writer would quickly find that there are a variety of opinions ranging from unequivocal support to condemnation of our President, big spending to budget cuts.
Our Board of Directors has never influenced a single word of what I have written for the Review, nor has it for any other of our writers. We do not profit from our work. We write for the Wake Forest Review because we believe in it. We believe Wake Forest has taken a turn for worse, and we want to right the ship.
Amongst all of this inane moralism and absurdity, there is a way forward. Simply put, let’s talk to each other. The Wake Forest Review has partnered with PHI to create spaces of engagement and inter-political dialogue outside the classroom. Never have we shied away from a healthy debate, so come find us. If your arguments are more compelling than my own, I will change my mind, and I have no shame in admitting that. Our writers regularly discuss how to improve our craft and better our campus relations with professors. We are doing our part to make this campus more hospitable to free thought, and a genuine university environment focused on the pursuit of knowledge—whether that knowledge is liberal or conservative. Truth is above ideology and is a paramount virtue.
Wake Forest, do your part. Discourse is a two-way street, and you are not living up to your ideals. Give us a chance and you will find that we are trying.
