I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “endgames”. It’s very easy these days to get caught up in the back-and-forth of legislative battles that move the football a yard or two either way, but I’m convinced that most people don’t give much thought to what a touchdown for their party would really mean (sorry for the inartful football analogy. I blame Paul Helmke).

It seems kind of silly to me that we’d invest so much time, energy, and emotion on pieces of legislation that move us one step closer towards an ideal, while ignoring the larger discussion of whether or not these ideals even work. Are free-markets really a good idea? Are the “needs of the community” worth more than the “rights of the individual”? What are the real world implications of a progressive ideal?

There’s one place in this country where the progressive ideal reigns supreme. It’s a college campus. And it scares the hell out of me.

The left has long complained about “free speech zones” set up by the evil Republicans. Too bad the idea came from colleges back in the 1960’s. Today, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the 1st Amendment is threatened at 75% of our nation’s colleges and universities. Even worse, the larger the school, the more likely it is to have speech codes.

How about the 2nd Amendment? Yeah, I know. But not only are legally owned firearms banned on the vast majority of college campuses, you can’t even talk about them. At Tarrant County College in Texas, for instance, students who wanted to protest the ban on legally owned firearms on campus were told they could only wear their empty holsters in the designated “free speech zone” and students were told they could NOT wear their “Students for Concealed Carry on Campus” t-shirts… at all.

So in a progressive world, free speech has its place, as long as it’s pre-approved by the powers that be and regulated to specific locations. The right to keep and bear arms is relegated to the dustbin of history, and don’t even think about protesting the decision made by those in charge.

On college campuses, equality has been replaced with multiculturalism. If you want to see a segregated society, take a look at your local state university. This is nothing new, but the trend is for more seperation, not less. We have seperate graduation ceremonies for people of different skin colors these days, and it’s celebrated, not condemned! Viva la diversity… as long as you keep your diverse self over there.

And what of the actual purpose of higher ed? You know… educating folks? How do the progressives fare? Frankly, it seems not well. Piggybacking on this thought, if progressives aren’t allowed to hurt people’s feelings… how can people be allowed to fail?

The result can be something like this.

Who is to blame when students fail? If many students fail — a majority even — does that demonstrate faculty incompetence, or could it point to a problem with standards?

These are the questions at the center of a dispute that cost Steven D. Aird his job teaching biology at Norfolk State University. Today is his last day of work, but on his way out, he has started to tell his story — one that he suggests points to large educational problems at the university and in society. The university isn’t talking publicly about his case, but because Aird has released numerous documents prepared by the university about his performance — including the key negative tenure decisions by administrators — it is clear that he was denied tenure for one reason: failing too many students. The university documents portray Aird as unwilling to compromise to pass more students.

I’d encourage you to read the whole thing. Norfolk State faculty say that the administration “encourages” professors to pass at least 70% of their students… regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Buck the trend, lose your job.

Needless to say, I’m not an expert on college campuses, and there may be plenty of evidence out there that would prove me wrong. I hope to hear it, because I look at college campuses and see places where progressive politics and policies have been entrenched for decades, places where they are much closer to a “progressive endgame” than society-at-large… and I don’t see much of America anymore.