The University of Delaware Board of Trustees has just given its imprimatur to the latest iteration of an Orwellian Residence Life program, which caused great controversy regarding its assaults upon freedom of conscience. PBC contributor Anne Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, calls the decision “deeply disappointing,” noting that parents expect their children on campuses “to be educated, not indoctrinated,” and that public university trustees “are obligated to protect students’ First Amendment rights and to spend taxpayer money well.”
The new program asks students, inter alia, to post answers to personal questions on public sites, e.g.:
- for whom they are voting
- how they define love
- to participate in a “simulated ‘shopping’ exercise” on environmental sustainability
- to bring their “favorite material possessions” to a floor meeting
- and to take part in a “discovery wheel” activity.
Trustees of this caliber do not merely “disappoint.” They fail abjectly in their sworn duty. It is time to consider measures by which to penalize them for their derelection of duty.