Finally, Kansas conservatives fight back after Wichita State slight against Ivanka Trump
They happen to teach human anatomy at WSU Tech. But it’s just a coincidence that it’s there conservatives may have finally found their backbone.
Wichita State University affiliate WSU Tech’s deplorable decision last week to cancel a virtual commencement address by first daughter Ivanka Trump made embarrassing national news. But more importantly, it blew a huge hole in the trade and technical school’s reputation — an image that is under the public’s radar, to be sure, but which WSU Tech President Sheree Utash has worked hard and well to burnish from Wichita to Washington.
Worse yet, the school’s scathing insult to a lovely person and eminent role model has opened a campus-sized crevasse between Wichita State and its conservative supporters — so much so that the Kansas Board of Regents convened an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss calls for Wichita State University President Jay Golden’s ouster.
After a four-hour closed-door virtual executive session ending after 7 p.m. Wednesday — and offering no public comment other than watch for the exciting results online — the board issued a statement that says nothing and will please no one. Rather than excusing Golden, the board appears to make excuses for him, saying it supports free speech but that universities have been forced to make quick decisions without “the normal process of including all our stakeholders.” The board asked for patience as it works “to improve communications during times of crisis.”
Wow. They think this was just a communications problem — during a crisis of WSU’s own making? How is putting out that kind of statement going to put out this kind of blaze?
“It’s a fire. It’s a fire. It’s a five-alarm fire,” David Mitchell, a Wichita State alum, member of the university’s presidential search committee and a leading voice for Golden’s ouster, said in the run-up to the meeting.
Some on the left will no doubt convince themselves that this indignant rage is all about the evil Koch empire. If so, they’re fooling themselves. This inferno is much too broad and fierce, and includes advertising magnate Al Higdon and other Wichita leaders and WSU alumni who could hardly be called alarmists.
This is about free speech, certainly, and the odd and chronic penchant of colleges and universities to pick winners (liberals) and losers (conservatives) in the public dialogue sweepstakes. But it’s even bigger than that. It’s about whether our institutions of higher learning will expose students to ideas and people they disagree with or may even find offensive — or whether WSU is content to send a message that students can be expected to sail through life being exposed only to thinking that doesn’t challenge them.
It’s also about whether conservatives will take a knee or engage the contest of ideas on the public stage, particularly on college campuses. It’s time they stood up to the politically correct bullying of conservative thought, so ominously chronicled in the documentary “No Safe Spaces.”
The case of WSU Tech may also involve personal dynamics: Conservatives question Golden’s commitment to diversity of thought. And Al Higdon — a WSU alum, past chairman of a prominent alumni group and member of search committees for Golden’s two immediate predecessors — said several members of the presidential search committee that recommended hiring Golden only last October said he talked up viewpoint diversity in his job interview, but “acted quite differently last week.”
“They are much more incensed than I am, because they feel they were lied to as a part of the search process,” Higdon told me.
One of those search committee members — alumnus and booster Mitchell — said he had resigned from the nonprofit Wichita State Innovation Alliance and would have nothing to do with the university until there was a reckoning. Wednesday apparently was not the day for it.
Higdon said he would’ve been satisfied with Golden merely being reined in by the Regents, but said his first preference would have been ouster because he’s dubious that real and lasting change will result from a mere rebuke.
“People are upset enough that they’re going to withhold their support until they see some changes made at the president level,” Higdon said.
Whether Golden survives or not — and it sure looks as if he will — was of little consequence to me. What truly matters in this imbroglio is that conservatives were stepped all over — and for once got up and demanded action. And with any luck, they’ve actually changed the campus culture. Though don’t hold your breath.
So this is what a spine looks like.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 9:01 PM.
