My moment of clarity came when I was sitting with my parents in my college's executive suite and a set of administrators told us that there was no need for them to explain what events they were disciplining me for and that they could simply decline to answer any questions about the subject, and my mother told them that this would never s…
My moment of clarity came when I was sitting with my parents in my college's executive suite and a set of administrators told us that there was no need for them to explain what events they were disciplining me for and that they could simply decline to answer any questions about the subject, and my mother told them that this would never stand up in a court of law.
And the administrator's response came: "We're not in a court of law".
My mother replied that we could get it there, and we did, and we won, but it just astonished me that for all the high pretenses of colleges in general and this one in particular, they weren't even interested in arguing that they were doing the right thing. Saying that they had some reason for their actions, even a flimsy reason, even a lie, would have cost them nothing. But they couldn't even be bothered. And I felt like in their eyes, it would have been demeaning to even admit that they were bound by any notions of due process or more broadly of telling the truth. They had the power, and that was all that mattered. Or so they thought.
My moment of clarity came when I was sitting with my parents in my college's executive suite and a set of administrators told us that there was no need for them to explain what events they were disciplining me for and that they could simply decline to answer any questions about the subject, and my mother told them that this would never stand up in a court of law.
And the administrator's response came: "We're not in a court of law".
My mother replied that we could get it there, and we did, and we won, but it just astonished me that for all the high pretenses of colleges in general and this one in particular, they weren't even interested in arguing that they were doing the right thing. Saying that they had some reason for their actions, even a flimsy reason, even a lie, would have cost them nothing. But they couldn't even be bothered. And I felt like in their eyes, it would have been demeaning to even admit that they were bound by any notions of due process or more broadly of telling the truth. They had the power, and that was all that mattered. Or so they thought.
So many things are like this now.