The Nick Sandmann at Transy furor shows we need to spend a lot less time on social media
In the annals of Why We Should Spend Less Time On Social Media Part Infinity:
Last week, Transylvania University got just the kind of headlines no one wants when a former student questioned why it had accepted Nick Sandmann to its freshman class this fall. Nick Sandmann, as you remember, is the Rorschach Test of our time, the Covington Catholic high school student wearing a MAGA hat caught on video, either jeering or smiling at a Native American protester, depending on your point of view. During his 15 minutes of fame, he became a kind of social media flashpoint of assumption, derision or heroism.
Then armed with settlements from the Washington Post and CNN, Sandmann gave a speech at the Republican National Convention and moved into his dorm at Transy.
Samuel Crankshaw, a recent Transy graduate who works for the state ACLU, however, had one set of assumptions, and that was that Sandmann should not have been admitted to Transy. On his personal page, he questioned if it was “a bit of a stain” on Transy to accept Sandmann because it was “counter to their mission.”
Then a professor, Avery Tompkins commented, pointing out correctly that “we can’t not admit academically qualified students due to their political and personal views.” He went on to say that Sandmann would be treated like any other student, and ended with “I’m interested to know why he chose Transy, whose mission is the antithesis of what he believes and promotes.”
Crankshaw’s post has since been deleted, but as we all know, it will live forever in the ether of Internet fumes, wafted slowly out ever so often by the New York Post, the Daily Mail and Fox News, which gleefully covered the conversation, along with Tompkins’ subsequent apology and Sandmann’s op ed on Fox News.
Gleeful because Crankshaw’s post played right into the hands of conservatives who believe that higher education is consumed with nothing more than silencing conservatives or brainwashing them. “I will not be canceled,” Sandmann declared in his piece, in which he also announced he’s working for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign and that he’s been fairly treated at Transy.
Of course he has. Small liberal arts colleges like Transy have a lot bigger problems to worry about than political yammering; COVID-19 has squeezed their already tight margins to slivers, and they need every single student they can get. Tuition dollars are the point, ideological litmus tests are not, and frankly never have been. The point of a university education is to be willing to listen and learn about ideas that are outside of your political spectrum. (Plus, Transy is very, very sensitive to these topics after a student who thought conservatives were being silenced decided to start attacking other students with a machete.)
As Transy officials said in a statement on the matter: “The goal of a liberal arts education is to give students the skills and ability to engage in encounters that may cause them to reflect and think differently or to understand and validate their original belief or viewpoint. In either case, the exposure to the ideas, individuals and diverse viewpoints and the subsequent reflection is the critical aspect.”
Higher education will always be a target for right-wingers because they correctly perceive that it’s where students learn about inconvenient truths like climate change or the myths of trickle-down economics. However, campuses are also where conservative donors like the Koch Brothers or ‘Papa John’ Schnatter can give millions of dollars to support free enterprise institutes and Young Republicans can meet every day of the week, if they choose.
What we all really need is a bipartisan course on when not to hit send. In the meantime, let’s stop oxygenating terms like ‘cancel culture’ or worrying about the NYT editorial page or who is the most woke. Let’s step away from fruitless arguments on Twitter and Facebook. What if for every hour we spent on social media yammering on about who’s the most pure or sullied, we volunteered at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen instead? Crankshaw, Tompkins, Sandmann, and all of us, frankly, could learn a lot more and do a lot more good.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 10:49 AM.
