Is The College You're Desperate To Get Into Really The Right One For You? Aug 4th 2013, 16:19
(Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)
The irrationalists are on the march again. One of their latest causes celebres is a "fossil fuels divestment" movement that demonizes oil, gas, and coal companies, and urges everyone to sell any and all investments they have in those companies.
The ringleaders of the divestment movement have shrewdly directed their recruitment efforts toward that segment of our society least capable of discerning the obvious absurdities of the campaign—colleges and universities. In those ivory tower "bubble" communities, young, impressionable students—under the sway of utopian, romantic, anti-capitalistic, and other strands of liberalism—remain sadly oblivious to the simple fact that abundant, reliable, affordable energy—i.e., fossil fuels—were essential to developing and remain essential to sustaining our affluent standard of living.
So far, there have been at least two noteworthy developments in the fossil fuel campaign. First, the boards of trustees at five colleges have complied with student demands to shed their fossil fuel-related investments. Second, the oil divestment pied pipers have so mesmerized susceptible students into believing that oil companies are truly "the bad guys," and that only the students can save the world from those allegedly evil forces that, on some campuses, zealous students are behaving like fascists, striving to censor defenders of fossil fuels. The politically correct thought police are on the march. That such thuggish suppression of ideas is allowed in institutions putatively dedicated to the unfettered search for truth is more than appalling; it is evil.
Would you or your child be well served at a college that suppresses open discussion of vital issues? Is a college that goes along with the fossil fuel divestment campaign right for you? Do you really want to patronize a college that rejects, on moral grounds, the companies that have supplied the energy upon which our current affluence is built? In effect, these colleges are questioning the moral foundation of our prosperity and the legitimacy of modernity itself.
Surely if cleaner, cheaper abundant energy had been available, it would have been used. In the real world, though, the choice wasn't between "good" energy and "bad" energy, but between newfound wealth or continued mass poverty. For any college on the divestment bandwagon to be morally consistent and not hypocritical, it should, on principle, decline to use energy derived from fossil fuels. Don't expect that to happen.
Another consideration is whether a board of trustees that divests itself of fossil fuel investments is upholding its fiduciary responsibility. Jettisoning relatively safe investments to placate student activists may, in fact, constitute a violation of the board's responsibilities. It isn't easy to find safe, income-generating investments, such as large multinational oil corporations. Certainly, if any board decided to invest in money-losing green boondoggles on the facile and flimsy premise that "carbon-based energy is bad, renewables are good," then one really has to question the judgment of that board.
Another point to ponder is: How far will a board go to accommodate the whims and desires of their students? If they alter their college's investments to appease students, then what else would they concede? If boards bow to students' demands in regard to investment, then why not let students make key decisions about instruction and administration and run the school? Do you really want a college where the board yields key decisions to students?
If you are conservative, moderate, or open-minded, then you probably wouldn't be compatible with a college that embraces the latest liberal fad—especially if it allows students to act like brown shirts, censoring and intimidating those with whom they disagree.
On the other hand, though, such a college might be just what parents are looking for if they are true-blue leftist Americans who want their children to be indoctrinated into the same anti-capitalist, anti-growth, cut-America-down-to-size ideology that they have. If you hate conservatives and their ideas so much that you believe that conservatives should be harassed and their views suppressed, then colleges that join the fossil fuel divestment campaign could be just what you're looking for.
In fact, while those of us on the conservative end of the spectrum think such a college would be a terrible choice, from a liberal perspective, aligning themselves with the fossil fuel divestment movement might have been a shrewd, effective strategy. They might have successfully strengthened their branding as bastions of liberalism. For those colleges, being "more liberal than thou" could pay off in increased enrollments from liberal families.
As always, the marketplace will work these issues out. Americans should be free to choose whatever college suits their values. One piece of advice, though: When selecting a college, look closely before you leap.
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