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This is not your father's seminar
By William R. Barth
THE GOOD FOLKS at the University of Wisconsin system are among the biggest whiners every budget cycle, never missing a chance to remind taxpayers what cheap and insensitive louts they are when it comes to the needs of higher education.
Maybe it doesn't occur to them that citizens might be in a more generous mood if the UW found fewer ways to offend traditional people's values.
Madison is not like the rest of the state. Madison is not like the rest of the world.
To which Madisonians may say, “Praise the supreme something of your choice. Or not.”
We barbarians elsewhere lack that refined sense of social justice and political probity so common among Madisonians, particularly those occupying faculty lounges at the UW.
OK, SO THAT may be just a smidgen over the top. Begging a thousand pardons for having a bit of fun at the expense of our campus friends to the north.
But maybe they are missing a fairly obvious lesson: Don't insult people while you're picking their pockets.
The latest news from Berkeley East, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, is a doozy.
Seems there was a dust-up involving the law school. A group of law students had scheduled a sex toy “seminar” to be held at law school facilities. The event was billed as “Sex Toys 101.” The seminar was to be presented by an outfit called A Woman's Touch Sexuality Resource Center. Students said the event would advance the cause of education. The newspaper said a notice advertising the seminar stated, “the lecture will provide tips and tricks as well as information about health, hygiene, satisfaction, and yes, the law, of sex toys.”
WHAT'S THE FIRST thing that comes to mind?
Here's my thought: A seminar? For a law school?
Well. College certainly has changed since my day.
The dean ordered the students to cancel the event. Ah, at last, common sense.
Um, maybe not.
The objection was to using campus (read: taxpayer-owned) facilities to sell sex toys. It's crass commercialism, not sex toys, that's unwelcome on campus.
Heaven forfend any socialist sensibilities should be offended by the peddling of ... well, use your imagination.
But a learning experience? A seminar? Bring on the toys.
YOU KNOW, I have a pretty wide streak of libertarianism coursing through my gene pool. The clan back on the farm tends to believe in staying out of other folks' business. Live and let live.
What people do in the privacy of their living rooms - or other quarters within said domicile - is none of my business, your business, or the state's business. So long, obviously, as no one is hurt and proper laws are generally observed.
In other words, toy parties (oops, seminars) people choose to hold at home should be allowed to fly under society's radar. Same for those held in privately-owned, rented halls.
But the facilities of the university are not private. They belong to us, all of us. And they should be used for learning - and not that kind of learning. The university should be the people's academic showplace, and should not be tarnished by such foolishness.
THOSE OFFICIALS who are paid to manage the place ought to know better. Not long ago, they did.
The concept was known as in loco parentis, or, in place of a parent. Today's permissive environment is a relatively recent invention. Throughout most of America's history institutions of higher education acted in a near-parental role, concerning themselves with students' behavior and moral well-being. Yes, we know, today's students didn't invent sex or boozing or, for that matter, toys. But in earlier times the people who run the place at least made an effort to create a campus environment that wouldn't shock parents or offend taxpayers. Today, not so much.
Yet those same decision-makers have the gall to whine about taxpayers placing limits on the checkbook.
Next budget cycle, maybe lawmakers could suggest campus officials supplement the university's income by selling sex toys.
William R. Barth is the Editor of the Beloit Daily News.
Maybe it doesn't occur to them that citizens might be in a more generous mood if the UW found fewer ways to offend traditional people's values.
Madison is not like the rest of the state. Madison is not like the rest of the world.
To which Madisonians may say, “Praise the supreme something of your choice. Or not.”
We barbarians elsewhere lack that refined sense of social justice and political probity so common among Madisonians, particularly those occupying faculty lounges at the UW.
OK, SO THAT may be just a smidgen over the top. Begging a thousand pardons for having a bit of fun at the expense of our campus friends to the north.
But maybe they are missing a fairly obvious lesson: Don't insult people while you're picking their pockets.
The latest news from Berkeley East, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, is a doozy.
Seems there was a dust-up involving the law school. A group of law students had scheduled a sex toy “seminar” to be held at law school facilities. The event was billed as “Sex Toys 101.” The seminar was to be presented by an outfit called A Woman's Touch Sexuality Resource Center. Students said the event would advance the cause of education. The newspaper said a notice advertising the seminar stated, “the lecture will provide tips and tricks as well as information about health, hygiene, satisfaction, and yes, the law, of sex toys.”
WHAT'S THE FIRST thing that comes to mind?
Here's my thought: A seminar? For a law school?
Well. College certainly has changed since my day.
The dean ordered the students to cancel the event. Ah, at last, common sense.
Um, maybe not.
The objection was to using campus (read: taxpayer-owned) facilities to sell sex toys. It's crass commercialism, not sex toys, that's unwelcome on campus.
Heaven forfend any socialist sensibilities should be offended by the peddling of ... well, use your imagination.
But a learning experience? A seminar? Bring on the toys.
YOU KNOW, I have a pretty wide streak of libertarianism coursing through my gene pool. The clan back on the farm tends to believe in staying out of other folks' business. Live and let live.
What people do in the privacy of their living rooms - or other quarters within said domicile - is none of my business, your business, or the state's business. So long, obviously, as no one is hurt and proper laws are generally observed.
In other words, toy parties (oops, seminars) people choose to hold at home should be allowed to fly under society's radar. Same for those held in privately-owned, rented halls.
But the facilities of the university are not private. They belong to us, all of us. And they should be used for learning - and not that kind of learning. The university should be the people's academic showplace, and should not be tarnished by such foolishness.
THOSE OFFICIALS who are paid to manage the place ought to know better. Not long ago, they did.
The concept was known as in loco parentis, or, in place of a parent. Today's permissive environment is a relatively recent invention. Throughout most of America's history institutions of higher education acted in a near-parental role, concerning themselves with students' behavior and moral well-being. Yes, we know, today's students didn't invent sex or boozing or, for that matter, toys. But in earlier times the people who run the place at least made an effort to create a campus environment that wouldn't shock parents or offend taxpayers. Today, not so much.
Yet those same decision-makers have the gall to whine about taxpayers placing limits on the checkbook.
Next budget cycle, maybe lawmakers could suggest campus officials supplement the university's income by selling sex toys.
William R. Barth is the Editor of the Beloit Daily News.
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