The student takeover at Evergreen State College has gotten so out of control that lawmakers in Washington State are now talking about defunding the school.The New York Times has finally taken notice of the story as well. Bari Weiss writes:
When the Left Turns on Its OwnBret Weinstein is a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., who supported Bernie Sanders, admiringly retweets Glenn Greenwald and was an outspoken supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement.You could be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Weinstein, who identifies himself as “deeply progressive,” is just the kind of teacher that students at one of the most left-wing colleges in the country would admire. Instead, he has become a victim of an increasingly widespread campaign by leftist students against anyone who dares challenge ideological orthodoxy on campus.This professor’s crime? He had the gall to challenge a day of racial segregation…Reasonable people can debate whether or not social experiments like a Day of Absence are enlightening. Perhaps there’s a case to be made that a white-free day could be a useful way to highlight the lack of racial diversity, particularly at a proudly progressive school like Evergreen. Yet reasonable debate has made itself absent at Evergreen.
Additionally, Campus Reform has published a video of student protesters holding Evergreen staff and administrators hostage while they were making demands.
Here’s some background from Anthony Gockowski:
VIDEO: Evergreen protesters hold admins hostage over demandsVideo from inside Evergreen State College continues to leak, showing that protesters had at one point held administrators hostage until they agreed to comply with their demands.The incident took place during the second day of demonstrations demanding the resignation of Professor Bret Weinstein, who angered many students when he challenged the school’s decision to ask white people to leave campus for a day of diversity programming in an all-staff email.Having already accosted Weinstein with such vitriol that campus police suggested he leave campus because officers could not guarantee his safety, the students set their sights on the administration, confining school officials in an office until they capitulated to an ultimatum demanding various diversity-related initiatives.“The priority is that they stay in that room. If they aren’t in that room, then we did something wrong, so you all need to watch that door, watch all the doors, the windows, you need to keep eyes on them,” one protester commands, referencing all of the potential exit points that administrators could use to make an escape. “Somebody needs to go in that room real quick to make sure there’s no way for them to leave.”The video pans to a closed conference room leading to College President George Bridges’ office, which is surrounded on the outside by dozens of student protesters who made it their stated mission to establish a “physical presence” outside the office to ensure that Bridges and his staff “aren’t leaving.”Shortly thereafter, one demonstrator emerges from Bridges’ office and triumphantly informs her companions that Bridges “talked to the chief of police and he said police will not show up.”
Here’s the video:
Finally, John Sexton of Hot Air reported yesterday that the campus was shut down due to a threat:
Evergreen State College closes for the day after ‘violent threat’The campus of Evergreen State College has been closed after a threat was made to campus safety. From the Seattle Times:
Evergreen State College has closed for the day because of a “direct threat to campus safety.”Everyone is asked to leave the Olympia campus or return to residence halls for instructions, the college announced shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday.
The Olympian has a bit more detail on what prompted the closure:
College spokesman Zach Powers told The Olympian that the closure was “out of an abundance of caution… due to a violent threat against the college received by local law enforcement.”Powers said the threat was called in late Thursday morning to the the business line for Thurston 911 Communications, which dispatches emergency calls in Thurston County. Officials at that agency informed Evergreen Police Services about the threat, and they passed it on to college president George Bridges.
Eric Weinstein, the brother of Professor Bret Wenstein who was at the center of the triggering event, tweeted this:
He also said this:
When do the adults show up and take control away from the children?
This school is becoming a laughingstock, their donors and supporters should be outraged.
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