[BostonCard]

It's easy to blame the nameless and faceless administrators, but the truth is that we have met the enemy and it is us (not specifically us, but the general we).  Administrators are just reacting to external forces, whether it is students themselves, parents, community members, the press, local, state, and federal government officials, the legal system, etc.: everyone has an opinion these days, and it is quite easy to gin up a controversy and demand action.  I mean, how many people on this board have been dismayed, offended, or reacted badly to the Stanford Band (and I don't mean their musicianship)?  Many transgressions are real, some are not, but whereas a generation or two ago, these things could be dealt with quietly and internally, now every transgression, real or imagined, demands an investigation and that those responsible be brought to rhetorical justice.  The solution in any risk averse institution, but specifically at Stanford, is to operationalize and bureaucratize the problem (what are called "systems solutions").

Lex notes that it is not just Stanford and not just administrators.  And while I don't share his affection for Haidt, nor his implication that the problem is relegated to America's misinstructed youth, I do broadly agree that what we see is a reaction to external forces.

BC

[BostonCard]

It's easy to blame the nameless and faceless administrators, but the truth is that we have met the enemy and it is us (not specifically us, but the general we).  Administrators are just reacting to external forces, whether it is students themselves, parents, community members, the press, local, state, and federal government officials, the legal system, etc.: everyone has an opinion these days, and it is quite easy to gin up a controversy and demand action.  I mean, how many people on this board have been dismayed, offended, or reacted badly to the Stanford Band (and I don't mean their musicianship)?  Many transgressions are real, some are not, but whereas a generation or two ago, these things could be dealt with quietly and internally, now every transgression, real or imagined, demands an investigation and that those responsible be brought to rhetorical justice.  The solution in any risk averse institution, but specifically at Stanford, is to operationalize and bureaucratize the problem (what are called "systems solutions").

Lex notes that it is not just Stanford and not just administrators.  And while I don't share his affection for Haidt, nor his implication that the problem is relegated to America's misinstructed youth, I do broadly agree that what we see is a reaction to external forces.

BC