Thanks, Josh!

My thanks to Joshua Mercer of Campus Nonsense for driving a lot of traffic our way in the discussion of the anti-Semitism settlement (scroll down for all that coverage -- I decided we need a breather.) Josh's site is designed for students to provide reports on PC idiocy on their campuses. Along with all the recent coverage of NoIndoctrination.Org, the people who matter most to us -- students -- are getting the word on what the self-anointed in our faculty have in store for them.

Indeed, professors are now beginning to yearn for the days of in loco parentis. In an AP article today (which circulated over the university's discuss list), professors are concerned of too much interference from parents.

Sociology professor Gary Stokley recalls when meeting the parents of his students at Louisiana Tech University was limited to a few handshakes at graduation.

Now, to the dismay of Stokley and other academics, angry parents are introducing themselves much sooner to professors and departments heads as they complain about their children's grades.

Faculty members also say moms and dads sometimes pressure officials to register students in mandatory courses that are filled to capacity and question the intent of classroom assignments. ...

Former high school science teacher Luann Wright said she wouldn't think of complaining to officials at the University of California at San Diego about her son's grades.

But when his writing course placed what she believed was undue emphasis on racial issues, Wright created a Web site � www.noindoctrination.org � that invites parents and students to report instances of political bias in the classroom.

Now back to SCSU ... The campus newspaper (requires free registration) runs an article (showing) and an editorial (lamenting) student ignorance of the anti-Semitism settlement. In the local community, a letter to the editor of the paper demands accountability, and if you read the comments there you will see how that might happen. (Warning: The links to the St. Cloud Times seem to go dead in about four days, so if you are reading this in archive you may need to use Google to find a cached copy.)

All of this makes me wonder: If it's going to take an outside force to make the truth come out, what will be the outside force? Parents? They're busy and being discouraged by universities who wish they'd just shut up and pay their money. Students? Not even watching the paper. Alumni? Trustees? I think they're our best hope. And they are watching -- beond the letters already mentioned, the shaking heads I get at the local bagel shop are indicative of people fed up with the nonsense coming out of this campus and a desire to see it end. There's recognition that it may be time for their help.