Fern: I’m reflecting back on our time at the university. I know you don’t miss teaching . . .
Joe: Well, I certainly don’t miss grading papers.
Fern: But teaching was fun. Rewarding. Influencing young minds and all that.
Joe: As far as jobs go, teaching creative writing was a cushy gig. But when I think about being at a university now?
Fern: I know where you’re going with this. I can’t get the visual out of my head. Three women, each a college president of a prestigious university, taken down by Elise Stefanik, to my mind one of the most odious of Trump enablers. Who herself (Harvard, 2006) is a smarty-pants and someone who knows better.
Joe: But what did we expect? In academia, freedom of speech doesn’t always include the freedom to speak plainly. In fact, plain speech is often discouraged. If one of those three college presidents had the nerve to speak from the heart she might have said: What do you think I am, nuts? Of course, I condemn threatening Jews with genocide. My school condemns it, too. And you know what, Ms. Stefanik? I think there’s something fishy about you even asking me that.
Fern: That’s it! I just wish those three college presidents – all women! -- had shown some moxie. Or a little personality. Their formulaic, careful answers were cringe-worthy. Three powerful women who appeared as if they were created by lawyers from an AI site. Then apologies and a resignation.
Joe: Plain speaking is power speaking. Ask Trump, the master of plain speech. Back when he was doing debates. Especially debating Hillary. I think she might have made it to President if she had simply spoken plainly what she was really thinking.
Fern: Like: Back off, you’re crowding me. Stop wandering the stage around like a lost baboon.
Joe: Yes, but what is the role of a college president today? Not as an academic exemplar. But someone to establish the brand. To fund-raise. And when people give you money – a lot of money – you are beholding.
Fern: One thing for sure, you saw where the real power resides in the modern university structure: Can you imagine talking to a head football coach that way?
Joe: It’s a strange time to be a liberal thinker in a university. I know that sounds like a contradiction because it’s usually a right wing complaint: the university is so full of liberals.
Fern: But to be educated is to be liberal, isn’t it? To try and see both sides of most issues. To be open-minded. But not so open-minded that your brains fall out.
Joe: Universities today might be places with lots of spillage.
Fern: Universities need money. Presidents of universities are careful because they don’t want to piss off donors. And Jewish alumni must make up a substantial number of donors.
A question: should people unequivocally blame Israel – with protest, vitriol and boycotts – and then be able to avoid an underlying connection to anti-semitism? I’ve been thinking about this – well, for years – and before October 7th. Especially looking back on the time when I served on the Iowa State Lectures Committee.
Joe: You were on the University Lectures committee for how long?
Fern: A few years. And then maybe three more years as committee chair. If a university committee could be described as “fun,” Lectures certainly was. We brought in so many engaging and challenging speakers.
I remember going out to dinner with Christopher Hitchens and arguing with him in front of the students about the war in Iran. (He was actually in favor.) He drank more than I thought humanly possible – two Johnny Walkers and two glasses of merlot -- and still gave a coherent lecture.
The Lectures Committee was run by the indefatigable Pat Miller, who died a few years ago of ALS. She was brave and relentless in her pursuit of free speech. In large part thanks to Pat, ISU had one of the best Lecture Series in the country.
Pat Miller and I had many conversations about speakers who criticized Israeli, but still I approved their right to speak freely. A right, by the way, that would not be supported in much of the world.
I was always – always – a free speech advocate. Even when we sometimes sponsored a speaker who made me, as a Jewish person – shall we say –“uncomfortable.”
But ripping up photos of Israeli hostages? Chants from the River to the Sea? Do the kids know what river? What sea? Where is Israel, a sovereign nation, in this equation? Glory to the Martyrs? Martyrs as in -- suicide bombers?
Universities, currently so guarded and protective of hurting anyone’s feelings that it supports a whole industry devoted to diversity and inclusion, can’t seem to acknowledge that there is a virulent and poisonous anti-semitism growing among the ivy?
Joe: Well, Harvard is going to take action. They are going to “create a task force.”
Fern: A task force. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Ah yes, the task force begins and leaves everyone wondering what year they are in with their "5-year plan". Sometimes I think what we have lost in universities with all of the "free speech", "safe place" stuff is the opportunity to discuss - to sit and have a civil conversation. Is civil conversation still possible with so many people in their silos, otherwise known as "safe places"?
Brilliant as usual! This part was especially fun: “Fern: …To be open-minded. But not so open-minded that your brains fall out.
Joe: Universities today might be places with lots of spillage.” ❤️