Portland U’s “Bias Response Team” Ends Free Speech

By Professor Doom



     I write often of the culture of fear on campus…because I get reminders how that fear only increases:


Making jokes at Portland State gets you reported to its bias response team



    I know, “I was just joking” is the age-old cry of the bully, and I was very much a target of the endless anti-intellectual bullying in our public schools, but this is at a university, what’s going on here is far more sinister than simply trying to protect the weak from bullying.

In one case from last September, a student overheard someone in their classroom making a comment about sometimes feeling like they having schizophrenia.

“She then stated she was not trying to make fun of schizophrenia,” the student reported, “but that sometimes she can be ‘schizophrenic.’ … She stated this in a joking manner and even laughed about it.”

     Does the above sound like bullying? There was nobody being targeted here, and the one making the complaint merely overheard a comment.  A joking, self-deprecating comment. Ok, some snowflake heard something he didn’t like, those folks are easily offended. What of it?


…The student reported the incident to the PSU Bias Review Team, keeping his or her identity a secret. But the person who allegedly made the offending remark, however, was named in the complaint to the administration.




      And *BAM* this “offense” now goes into the poor student now has a mark on her permanent record. You better believe, 30 years from now, if she runs against a certain ideological faction, this will come up again. As an added bonus, the one bearing witness against her gets to remain anonymous…good luck trying to defend against such an accusation.



     Our universities are turning from centers of teaching and research into warehouses of future blackmail information. This is demented. Perhaps this was an isolated, stray piece of data that accidentally got into the files?


In the second instance, last October a student settled into a seat in the front row of a lecture when they heard the instructor telling another student he knew a lot of “insensitive jokes” he couldn’t tell in class.




     Oh, the horror! Simply claiming to know “forbidden things” goes into the permanent record. I know it’s hyperbolic to think someday this teacher might be tortured for such information…but if something this trivial goes into the permanent record, how can we rule out (anonymous) allegations of other information?


      This is such a perversion of what higher education is supposed to be about. 


       So let’s pop over to the actual website for this diversity fiefdom and let’s see if maybe they apologize or clarify why such pathetic complaints go into the permanent record. What does this money-sucking fiefdom do?

The goals of the BRT are:

·        Develop educational and outreach programs from the data collected from bias reports;

·        Increase opportunities for communication and restorative justice for students, staff, and faculty; and

·        Address incidents and trends identified through the reports utilizing resources such as trainings, communications, and other means, that will improve the campus climate.

To report an incident, please complete and submit the Bias Incident Report Form.

     I remind the gentle reader, the entire purpose of a university is education of people, and education of humanity through research. Education and research, no more than that.


      Yes, “educational” is towards the top of the Bias Response Team's (I feel sick just typing that out…our universities should not have such things) purpose, but realistically, they’re collecting data, as they say. This is not education.



      “Increase opportunities for…restorative justice”? I’d be sick reading that if I weren’t already. Is it really hyperbole to suspect they’re collecting data for later “payback”? Again, “restorative justice” is not the purpose of a university.


      At least the line about “improve campus climate” gives me a laugh. I’m sure knowing that if you say something possibly out of line, or claim to know a forbidden topic, goes a long way towards an improved climate, at least if you think silence is an improvement.  Yet again this has nothing to do with education and research.


      I reiterate because if I say it enough times someone in power will hear: the purpose of a university is education and research. If we simply got rid of every fiefdom which does not advance these purposes, we could lower tuition 50% or more.


      I was hoping to look at the people on the Bias Response Team, but despite so many options on their web page, there is no option to review this team. Apparently not only are the accusers anonymous, the judges are as well. They list the titles of people on the BRT, but only one name: Eric Scott, the Coordinator, Equity and Compliance Investigator. I’m a little curious who the Director of the Queer Resource Center is (I’m quite willing to bet that Center does nothing for education and research, however). I remind the gentle reader of another cost-cutting measure for higher ed: eliminate positions where the title is more than twice as long as the holder’s name. To judge by how many of these titles are so long, I suspect we could eliminate the entire "team" this way.


      What a despicable abomination this particular fiefdom is, and considering how many vile fiefdoms our campuses support, to be exceptional in this regard is an achievement. 


       As I wrote before, Christians are goinginto hiding on our campuses, much as conservatives and other “undesirables” have done. In light of the above, are their actions truly unjustified?


      Longtime readers will guess how I’d suggest cutting off the funds for these fiefdoms causing so much harm to humanity, so I’ll spare you my usual epitaph here.

      



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