I’m seeing a lot of discussion about this on the web, but I don’t really know any of those people very well so I’m wondering what Dopers think about it all.
I will provide very basic context, but refrain from going into much detail so as not to skew anyone’s opinion on the matter, or poison the well - what have you.
Part 1 :
An email sent to the student body regarding appropriate halloween attire.
Part 2:
This response to that email sent by a professor to the student body.
Part 3:
Resulting discussion between professor’s husband, who is in a position of authority at he school and some other students regarding the email in part 2.
Usually I would write more of a synopsis instead of just using links to tell the story; so I apologize in advance if you find them boring/not entertaining, and watched them on good faith in the judgement of yours truly to provide nothing but the highest content to the Straight Dope.
This story does, however, touch upon many issues of our day - so enjoy!
I would not dignify that exchange with the description of “discussion”. As soon as that administrator says calmly and quietly, “I don’t agree with that,” the student starts screaming at him, so that I find it hard to hear what the student is arguing.
I have not seen the first e-mail yet; AFAICT there is little dispute about what it was. Basically it was just an email sent out to the student body encouraging them to think and be ware of what would be considered offensive or inappropriate.
From what I can gather, it amounted to a “don’t dress in black face” type of comment, and not really suggesting that they limit themselves otherwise.
If anyone else can dig up the original e-mail; please do!
Yeah, therein lies the problem with starting a thread about this kind of subject and using the most neutral language possible. Probably “exchange” would have been a more appropriate term to use.
Honestly? I thought that girl was awful and obnoxious, and then I thought “I remember when I was young and had time to care about meaningless bullshit.”
I don’t think the original e-mail is really problematic – Yale is within its rights to ask students to think about the impact their costume choices may have – but I think Christakis has a valid point that it’s in the nature of college students to push boundaries and engage in transgressive and offensive humor, and that it’s a mistake for college authorities to try to sanitize and control this experience too much. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the original e-mail ended up having the opposite of its intended effect, encouraging students to see how culturally offensive they could get and still get away with it, rather than going for the bog-standard pregnant nun costume.
I have absolutely no idea what is being discussed in the video clip, other than “somebody yelling at somebody about something.”
The girl is telling Christakis to shut up, she calls him disgusting, she says it is his responsibility to create a safe space. This is in response to his comment that other students have rights too.
Currently a number of students have signed a petition calling for the Christakis and his wife to be fired.
If that’s all that’s going on, of course the confrontational student is in the wrong. Erika Christakis’s e-mail was well within the bounds of civil and reasoned discourse, and there’s no earthly reason why she should be fired for it, let alone why her husband should be.
That said, it doesn’t look like we’ve got the full story here; what we have is a one-and-a-half-minute clip of a situation that has obviously been escalating for some time, and it’s possible that the husband did say something prior to the exchange caught on video that would have been reasonable grounds for firing him.
Regardless of whether this is the case, the student is being disruptive and verbally abusive in ways that almost certainly hurt her cause. (Yale probably has grounds for disciplining her, but whether it would be wise to do so is another question. Student activists get confrontational, rowdy, and overly emotional; this, also, is in the nature of students, and it’s often an expression of passions that should be nurtured and channeled rather than suppressed.)
I never quite understood what the residential college masters did; I only dealt with deans. But I’m not sure they can ban costumes. We don’t see much from Nicholas, unless I’m missing some content in the video, which I have trouble understanding on my phone. The email to Silliman from Erika doesn’t strike me as having any outrageous content.
I’m assuming the students are angry that the pair aren’t pushing costume restrictions? It seems like she acknowledges that some costumes are likely inappropriate, but she isn’t going to be the one to decide that.
On preview, I’m of similar mind to the above post by Fretful Porpentine
It’s such a capsule of modern hyper sensitivity it’s on the border of being an Onion article … but it’s real.
I haven’t seen the video just read the text of the exchange, but based on that I’m of two minds. While you’d like to see the screaming student slapped down for being an over the top raging asshole if you start pulling the camera back to the 20,000 foot view modern academia has kinda, sorta brought this on themselves by being exquisitely and aggressively sensitive to potential micro aggressions of all sorts. If you grow a hothouse flower don’t be surprised if it acts like one.
Students screaming at admins is nothing new. Remember the 60’s and 70’s? But screaming at them for telling you not to be such a delicate snowflake re your feelings when that is exactly the kind of the behavior they have encouraged in many ways is the snake swallowing it’s tail.
IMO at the core of all this is different issue which is that at higher end colleges the tuition and costs are so fierce now the students (and their parents) who pay that toll can be just that obnoxious and demanding. If you take your service costs to a point that only the barest sliver of people can afford them you are going to have to hop to that client’s tune. In the end you reap what you sow.
If someone is paying around $70,000 a year to go to school there is level of entitled expectation that goes with that.
There was a long conversation with students leading up to the one minute video clip. I have not read anywhere that Christakis did anything other that engage in polite polite communication with the crowd.
This is an open letter in response articling the grievances of some of the Yale students. Here is an article that covers the matter in a little more depth.
Last I heard, a formal letter is being drafted calling for Christakis resignation.
This is Yale - it is very unlikely that this student paid any tuition. The elite colleges have very large endowments and for a student from a middle class background they often do not have to pay anything to attend. This should be a well known fact by now.
It’s also well known that there are many parents who are willing to pay the full ride to get their kid into Yale and colleges scramble to get those parents. Yes there are subsidized kids but there are also many whose parents are cutting big checks.
Thais is Yale - it is very unlikely that this student paid any tuition. The elite colleges have very large endowments and for a student from a middle class background they often do not have to pay anything to attend. This should be a well known fact by now.
The majority of students pay absolutely nothing to attend Yale. Also, there is a sliding scale for required family contribution; only a small minority of students pay a higher price than if they went to a state school. Here are some anther facts. :
Yale is committed to a need-blind admissions policy and meets 100% of demonstrated need for all students regardless of citizenship.
Yale does not require students to take out loans for their education. Instead, Yale meets 100% of demonstrated need for all admitted students with a financial aid package consisting of need-based scholarships, term-time employment, and a student income contribution.
The average Yale Scholarship grant was $43,230 for the 2014-2015 school year.
The median net cost for students receiving financial aid was $11,950 for the 2014-2015 school year.
The total cost of attendance at Yale for 2015-2016 is $65,725, which includes tuition ($47,600), room ($8,200), board ($6,400), and books and personal expenses ($3,525). Total cost of attendance (not just tuition) is used to calculate a student’s need-based financial aid award.
Roughly 52% of Yale students receive need-based financial aid.
Families whose total gross income is less than $65,000 (with typical assets) are not expected to make any financial contribution towards their child’s Yale education. 100% of the student’s total cost of attendance will be financed with a Yale Financial Aid Award.
Families earning between $65,000 and $200,000 (with typical assets) annually contribute a percentage of their yearly income towards their child’s Yale education, on a sliding scale that begins at 1% just above $65,000 and moves toward 20% at the $200,000 level.
There is no strict income cutoff for financial aid awards. Many families with over $200,000 in annual income receive need-based aid from Yale.
I think Ms. Christakis is astute in her affirmation of free expression on Halloween.
I think that emotive time-bomb witnessed on that video represents the logical end of the pampered, politically-correct monstrosity that is higher education.
I also don’t think that piece of garbage excuse for a human being represents anything more than a small sliver of the student population who share a Napoleonic “look-at-what-I-overcame” complex that clearly manifests itself as a complete loss of reason and emotional control.
In a just world, her peers would exercise their right to free speech and censure her publicly for destroying the credibility of the student body. She claims, in the video, that the affirmation of free expression on Halloween will tarnish Yale’s reputation. The sad fact is that Yale looks like a mess precisely and only because of her. She did her cause a disservice and I’d be glad to see her relegated to the menial work of a janitor for the rest of her life as someone of her character does not deserve the opportunity to attend a premier university nor ever be put in a position requiring sound judgement or civil discourse with others. She disgusts me in every way.