A UNIVERSITY GETS IT RIGHT – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  Purdue University is now run by Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana and a man many Republicans believed should have run for president.   Daniels gets it right in the debate over free speech on campus.  And other besieged colleges are noticing.  From College Fix: 

Indiana’s Purdue University is making a strong play for best public university in the country, based on its demonstrated commitment to free speech.

And now it’s getting interest in taking that approach to other schools, whose leaders may be tiring of giving in to student demands to censor and punish students, faculty and staff for their speech and nonthreatening behaviors.

The university has been approached by NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) to present the “methodology” for its “free speech orientation program” – the first of its kind in the nation – at an upcoming conference, Director of Student Success Programs Dan Carpenter told the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

FIRE has a big glowing profile on Purdue’s first such orientation, which was created at the direction of President Mitch Daniels, the former Republican governor and longed-for presidential candidate:

Carpenter said NASPA was interested in a presentation featuring model methodologies for how universities can navigate the tricky process of teaching students to honor all of those values.

How did Purdue do it? By presenting scenarios that students are likely to encounter on campus so they are prepared to encounter diverse and conflicting ideas without freaking out, FIRE says.

More than 6,000 incoming students “voluntarily” attended the program, which included “a combination of skits inspired by real-life events at Purdue, a faculty panel discussion, and video clips.”

Those student-performed skits included “encountering an inflammatory campus preacher, dealing with objectionable symbols displayed in residence halls, handling an in-class disruption, and protesting an invited speaker.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  This is a well-thought-out program guided by the wise hand of Mitch Daniels.  But stand by for the usual suspects to come forward and call Daniels a racist, or a misogynist, or a generalized pig who probably wanted to be a cop.

December 8, 2016