Let’s abolish Evergreen and return the land to the tribes

In my June column, I discussed the difficulties at The Evergreen State College (TESC). Since then, the forces unleashed on campus have resulted in two faculty members losing their jobs. The police chief is gone. Enrollment has dropped around 10 percent. There is a $2.1 million deficit requiring other losses to staff and faculty.

Those most harmed by these events are not even considered. Who? The students. They have lost two decent, interesting, dedicated, knowledgeable professors, the chief, and others not known.

Evergreen now seems fully in the control of an anti-science, anti-rational, anti-liberty, racist minority embedded in the administration and faculty which holds the rest of the staff, faculty, and students hostage. If you oppose them, or even don't actively support them, they will strip you of your livelihood if you are faculty or staff, or your education if you are a student.

I recommend the new PBS series, "The Vietnam War." I am an early boomer. At college, the policy of "in loco parentis" was the rule. The age of majority was 21. One was considered a "child" until then. The university administration took the place of your parents while you attended school. To my everlasting regret, I neither joined the military nor the anti-war, pro civil rights movement. I was totally consumed with getting an engineering education and a job.

Meanwhile, a revolution was happening. It consisted of minorities who always understood the evils done to them. It consisted of young people who finally understood that the draft was a form of slavery that put them at risk of their lives for nothing more than politics. Many young men were beset by both evils. This is to say nothing of the revolution in social mores and customs with which we are still struggling.

Some results of that revolution were expansion of free speech, effective abolition of the draft, distrust of government, and adulthood at 18. Oddly, many young soldiers found that the color of one's skin, or one's class, cultural, and religious differences were meaningless in a foxhole. One didn't fight and die for one's country. One fought and died for the soldier next to you. Shamefully, when they returned home, they quickly learned not to wear the uniform or acknowledge their service. Now these gains are threatened.

The bulk of the Evergreen faculty and staff know what is going on. They know that a small portion of them are manipulating the institution for their own purposes and positions. This group controls the campus through humiliation, insult, tantrums, intimidation, threat of job loss, and violence. There is no support by the administration. They are cowed into submission and silence. They will be “encouraged” to resign or retire to be replaced by right thinking individuals and I don't mean politically. TESC is unique only in its proximity and extremism.

The students at Evergreen are under attack. Under the new student code, they will be subjects of the administration. There will be punishment without a proper trial, no jury of their peers, no representation by an attorney. They will not be able to question their accusers who will be assumed truthful. They may be expelled, have their educational records expunged or stained, and even their degrees revoked after graduation. On top of this, they will still be subject to criminal punishment by the state, or to civil action, amounting to double jeopardy. The majority needs to speak up and stand firm for themselves and each other. I hope this happens but, frankly, I doubt it.

There has been a call to "defund" Evergreen which I decried before. There is another solution. It is tradition at TESC is to acknowledge that it was stolen from the tribes by the Medicine Creek treaty. Activists are willing to allow the tribes to gather mushrooms on campus. That is shameful. I propose that TESC be abolished and returned to the tribes for their use. It would make a great research and education facility specializing in First People areas of concern. It could even become a premier First People's institution in the Northwest. That would be up to the tribes, though. Far be it from me to tell other people what to do with their property.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Let’s abolish Evergreen and return the land to the tribes."