Prestige Lost

The NR editors, in their editorial advising students to boycott Ahmadinejad’s speech, referred to Columbia University as a “prestigious university.”

We believe that prestige is an attribute that can be gained and lost. Examples abound. Exhibit “A” being the person of O.J. Simpson.

Regarding academia, the last decades have been so filled with instances ranging from pratfalls to genuine evil that the academic community is now held in the same regard as shyster lawyers and the lower kind of politicians. This will undoubtedly pain those members of the academic community who feel theirs is unfairly maligned by the actions of the “few.” Unfortunately, the “few” are often the academic leaders, the Deans and their acolytes, who dominate the voices coming out of the academy.

It is no use denying the anti-intellectualism and stifling conformity, sometimes combined with pure evil that has grown like a noxious weed in academia. Exhibit “A” are the Duke 88 who to this day maintain their positions and proclaim their righteousness despite what has been revealed. Larry Summers experiences at Harvard are also instructive as is the University of Colorado’s Ward Churchill. Columbia’s invitation to Ahmadinejad is simply piling on. No one, really, expects more of Columbia.

So, the concept of the “prestigious university” is something of an oxymoron. Prestige in whose eyes? Not in mine, and I believe that the folks in “flyover country” certainly don’t entertain that view any longer.

The fact is that the Columbias and Harvards have been restructuring and, in the process, self-destructing their former prestige which, like virginity, is not capable of being reclaimed.