Photo by Charles Deloye
Columbia President Minouche Shafik was in front of the congressional leadership over- seeing antisemitism on university campuses. During that time Stefanik used her typical yes or no questions to tie Shafik to the train track of antisemitism.
Stefanik concluded her observations by stating, “The ongoing situation that has unfolded is a direct product of your policies and misguided decisions,” said in a letter led by Stefanik and signed by all 10 New York House Republicans.” Based on these and your testimony in front of Congress we have no confidence of your leadership of this once esteemed institution.” Stefanik went on to say, “It is time for Columbia to turn the page on this shameful time. This can only be done by the restoration of order and your prompt resignation.” John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania also called for her resignation.
I want you to consider something as we explore the problem of out-of-control protests on college campuses. I have placed Dr. Shafik’s bio at the end of this blog. When you read it, you will see what may be missing. It is missing on the bios of Penn and Harvard’s University Presidents as well which led to their firing.
It is hard to find resumes as noteworthy as the President of Columbia, Penn, and Harvard. They are remarkable people. The question is times have changed and what have these schools been looking for to match the esteem of their schools? For those three it happens to be someone who would add to the esteem of their schools. Times have changed. Drexel University hired Dr. John Fry to be President because they wanted to expand their campus. When he was at F and M, he was a builder of a new look for the campus. He learned this skill at Penn before going to F and M. That is what Drexel wanted and that is what he has done with incredible networking with the city and other schools. I have spent time with John Fry. He is not an academic powerhouse like Shafik but he is a building visionary. Some universities want a fundraiser who can build an endowment so that they can expand.
But here is what is missing. In many ways 11th and 12th grade students are just like college students. What Shafik and her other comrades don’t understand is how group dynamics and psychology work in the lives of young people. That is what is needed, and they are lost in the shuffle of a new change in university life. It is as though they have landed in Paris without understanding a word of French. (I have done that.) You don’t know which way to turn and you are constantly trying to understand what is going on around you and can’t make the basic connections.
Let’s take a lesson on this issue now, but part two will be a discussion of why Stefanik is such a failure as politician.
I gave my Ethics students a template on how group dynamics work that they can use in any historical issue. I use Hitler as an example of how he rose to power. What makes groups powerful? (1) I may be inferior, but we are magnificent; (2) the best way to build cohesion in a group is to push out an innocent victim which is the basis for Islamophobia, antisemitism, and the other isms. It is the common enemy concept. (3) every group is a resistance movement. Once you say we, you have to say them to describe the other. (4) every group has a moral or immoral center or code. Hamas has one and Israel has one. (5) every group has a shared experience or purpose. You have to have been through something together. ( 6) In groups bad intended people and good intentioned people make for great power for what one won’t do alone, two or three will find it easy to do. Understanding this template is the basis for conflict resolution.
Apply all of this to what is happening on campuses today. It is what makes people in groups tick.
A simple word about what is motivating these students who are protesting. The ultimate dimension in positive psychology regarding happiness is when we move from pleasure to interaction with others, to a cause that is bigger than us. That is where joy sounds in the soul. It can be on a sacrifice made for a team or a protest where Palestinians see their land and people being decimated. It is where Jews hear from the river to the sea and have the greater cause of being rendered extinct. The Holocaust is in their bones. I would remind the people on the Vestry periodically that what they were doing as the student spiritual leaders was the most important work a student could do. They came to believe it. They were changing the culture and moral fabric of the school on their own time. It wasn’t for a college application. Who would know completely what a Vestry does or even has heard of the word?
Now to Stefanik. Her answer seems to address all these college campus problems to be at the feet of the Presidents. (She has not stood up against any of the crimes of Trump, but she is an expert in all things college Presidents should do.)
I never hear her say, “Have you tried this or that?” Has she ever suggested a solution? It is easier to blame one if it is not Trump.
When anyone came to me with a problem at EA whether it be any member of the community, I would ask them to think about possible solutions. In today’s world, employers aren’t interested in people who see problems as much as they are interested in seeing a problem and a solution. I ask for solutions not to avoid the problem, but to help them to see that solutions are what is needed in the world they will enter.
True leaders see problems and solutions at the same time.
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