What College Is About

As a high profile alumnus of Kennesaw State University (Motto: It's Great At Kennesaw State) I feel compelled to comment on the recent kerfuffle with 70's radical Angela Davis.

Okay, maybe I'm not the most high profile graduate of Kennesaw State. According to Wikipedia, that title would probably go to Ty Pennington (of ABC's Home Makeover) or Mac Powell the lead singer for the Christian Rock band Third Day who used to watch my son at daycare. Really. I'm one of the few people in America who can say somebody that watch their kid at daycare has won a Grammy. That is so cool.

Where was I? Oh yeah, I may not be the most high profile KSU Owl, but I'm the only one with an award winning humor blog.

A couple of weeks ago, Angela Davis, a self proclaimed communist radical from the early 70's when being a self proclaimed communist radical meant you had a killer Afro, gave a speech at Kennesaw State in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday.  The Communist made $20K for giving an "admiring audience of  more than 700" a speech full of such wisdom like:  "We think of gender as being male and female, and so precisely, trans prisoners and trans activists have opened our eyes, not only to the importance of addressing trans issues in the context of that work, but also the fact that there’s a way in which an understanding of the gender binary in relation to prisons, it affects all of us." [Note: this is a direct quote from the speech]

Silly me, here I was thinking "gender" meant male and female, but that's what college is for-to hire has been speakers at 20K a pop to "open our eyes".

There was a lot of controversy about Davis coming to campus. It fell along predictable lines.There were the conservative fuddy-duddies who don't understand anything except what our leaders (Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly) tell us we understand. I can assure you none of it has to do with gender binary in relation to prisons.

Then there were those like a local banker who said "You can’t be ignorant to things going on because our points of view won’t matter if we’re not enlightened or if we didn’t have knowledge of what’s going on.”  I have no idea what this means except I won't be putting any money in his bank.

And what college controversy would be complete without the lecture of what college is all about? My first inclination was to say college is about $25, 773.00 a year, give or take $10,000, at least according to the Kennesaw State website. This also includes $1834.00 in fees, which means every student helped pay for Angela Davis. However, a student explains what college is all about. 

"The purpose of attending any University is not just to study toward the goal of attaining a job after graduation. A student's time at university should be used to explore themselves as individuals as well as the fast paced world they live in. The faculty and staff at Kennesaw State University strive each day to open the eyes of their students to not just one opinion, but to all. They encourage each student to not just think for themselves but to practice seeing the world through the eyes of the student sitting next to them. In some cases, this means eating sushi at the commons or wearing a hijab for a day and in other cases hearing from a speaker with unique life experience. None of these opportunities are mandatory, but each one offers those that take part the chance to make an informed decision about why they, as a person, should choose to hate or love an item, topic, or religion."

Wow, college is a time to "explore". At $25K a year, that's some pretty expensive exploration. Boy, when I read things like this it makes me want to sell my bonds.

Anyway, here's a little more broader perspective. Davis was a kook and nut in the 70's and she is a kook and nut now.  For some reason, kooks and nuts are popular at colleges. However, I can guarantee you that for every student that was there, there were thousands who were not there and could care less.

Do you know what?  Their lives will be just as happy as those that listened to Davis' enlightenment, maybe more so because they are not reflecting on the gender binary in relation to prisons.

I don't blame Davis for taking $20K and giving a speech. That's a pretty good gig. I hope Kennesaw State has some money set aside for Ann Coulter. Just in case if the university is really striving to open the eyes of their students to all opinions.