2008 Woodie Awards
Professors substitute fear for education
Anthony Maalouf
Issue date: 11/2/04 Section: Forum
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By the time this edition is printed, it will be Tuesday and the election will have taken place. It is good to know that the campaign is over, and that all of us political activists can finally get some rest. My personal prediction is that Bush wins Pennsylvania in a squeaker and the election overall by a solid margin, but we?ll see. I also must say the last couple of months have been really exciting, especially around here. Statewide, Pennsylvania has a politically diverse group of individuals eager to discuss the issues with college students on both sides.
I wish I could say the same about campus, but in the last two and a half months, I was discriminated against more on this campus for being a College Republican than I ever have in my whole life for being an Arab, which is not a lot to say, but I still find it ironic. Discrimination is defined by Princeton University as "unfair treatment" of a person or group on the basis of prejudice.
What adds to this irony is that most of this discrimination came from the faculty and not the students.
Remember, I?m not talking about heated debate, or even yelling at each other on the issues -- just downright spitefulness.
A few professors have left me with bad memories. A history professor badgered me because I didn?t know my recruitment table?s permit number, and eventually left echoing "I know who you are," as if to suggest bad consequences for us. Someone actually did call the police, but they never came.
This is probably because the police, unlike this professor, know that a College Republican recruitment table is not a threat to public safety.
Then there was a biology professor who passed the College Republican table three times only to say loudly, "Shame on you" or just, "Shame." It is ironic how he probably doesn?t even know who we are, but all he needs to do is see the Republican label and pass judgment. Don?t stop, it gets "better."
There are even other professors who I don?t even know coming up to me to say, "You?re wrong" and walk away. However, among the many incidents to choose, my personal favorite is the philosophy professor who chose to tell his class that my writing is garbage. But hey, any publicity is good publicity, right?
I wish I could say the same about campus, but in the last two and a half months, I was discriminated against more on this campus for being a College Republican than I ever have in my whole life for being an Arab, which is not a lot to say, but I still find it ironic. Discrimination is defined by Princeton University as "unfair treatment" of a person or group on the basis of prejudice.
What adds to this irony is that most of this discrimination came from the faculty and not the students.
Remember, I?m not talking about heated debate, or even yelling at each other on the issues -- just downright spitefulness.
A few professors have left me with bad memories. A history professor badgered me because I didn?t know my recruitment table?s permit number, and eventually left echoing "I know who you are," as if to suggest bad consequences for us. Someone actually did call the police, but they never came.
This is probably because the police, unlike this professor, know that a College Republican recruitment table is not a threat to public safety.
Then there was a biology professor who passed the College Republican table three times only to say loudly, "Shame on you" or just, "Shame." It is ironic how he probably doesn?t even know who we are, but all he needs to do is see the Republican label and pass judgment. Don?t stop, it gets "better."
There are even other professors who I don?t even know coming up to me to say, "You?re wrong" and walk away. However, among the many incidents to choose, my personal favorite is the philosophy professor who chose to tell his class that my writing is garbage. But hey, any publicity is good publicity, right?
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