Tips for College Students, New Professors

Are you (or do you have) a college-aged teen or young person heading off to college or are you maybe heading off yourself to teach at a college? If you thought all you needed was smarts and enthusiasm--think again.

Following is an implicit mainstream campus credo you may need to know, particularly if you are heading off to an elite school. In an interesting article a reader pointed out to me from The Washington Post entitled, "The Echo Chamber on Liberal Campuses," I found the following principal tenets that you'd best memorize unless you have tenure:

· Diversity, particularly linguistic and theological diversity, binds and unites a culture.

· Proportionate representation of races within a student body justifies corrective discrimination by race.

· All cultures are morally equivalent.

· Social justice may require unequal application of equal protection laws.

· The dearth of women in science screams gender bias; the dearth of men in nursing does not.

· Diversity promotes classroom learning -- except in English composition, for which foreign-born students must have their own section.

· Hate speech (racial, sexual and religious slurs) has no place on college campuses. Some words should never be spoken.

· No one should ever have to pay for health care -- or condoms.

I assume there are more but the above should be a start towards mastering the campus atmosphere at a majority of schools, especially the elite ones.